Traces Of The Real

This is Villagers playing in Vicar Street just before Christmas. This was a bastard of a gig to photograph. I should have known when I saw those six dishes on poles at the back of the stage. Each one contained a powerful light that was pointed right out at the crowd and at my camera. They weren’t always on, but when they were, they completely ruined things. Still, I did manage to salvage this shot. It’s far from perfect but I like the way Conor O’Brien, in the centre of the stage, is sharply rendered. Even though it’s an exposure of more than four minutes, because he stands so still, and is so intent on what he’s doing, he looks like he’s been captured in a conventional photograph. In contrast, the two guys to his left are just blurs. This seems kind of apt, given that Villagers basically is Conor O’Brien.

The gig took place in the middle of December’s awful weather, when we got hammered with freezing temperatures for what seemed like weeks on end. It was a real pain, but all the same there was something slightly thrilling about venturing out into town on those nights when the snow was piling up on the pavements, public transport had given up the ghost, and the cars were slipping and sliding all over the roads. The ongoing political and economic farce that we were, and still are, being subjected to, only added to an almost apocalyptic mood. This was the second of a two night stand in Vicar Street for Villagers. I tried to go the first night but the weather was so bad I didn’t want to drive and couldn’t find a taxi driver to bring me. I found one the second night and he regaled me with lurid stories on the way over: kids on Dominick street pelting cars with blocks of ice; others grabbing hold of taxis entering the flats and spinning them round and round on the frozen tarmac. Inside Vicar Street was all sweetness and light though – a collective braving of the elements. The show goes on, regardless of what happens outside.

Villagers’ mega-lauded debut album is up for the Choice Music prize next month. You’d be a crazy man to bet against them winning it. The excellent video below was shot by Myles O’Reilly and shows Villagers performing two songs from the gig, as well as lots and lots of snow …