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We saw them again in Manchester a couple of weeks ago - they were the headliners to Mcr Folk Festival. My birthday weekend treat. What a gig - as amazing as these albums are, none of them capture the reality of her voice. It's otherworldly in person, I can't really explain it. She's a powerful presence, you just know you've been invited into a cultural phenomena that goes back centuries.
The gig was at the New Century Hall - a new old venue (1963) that got refurbished recently after falling out of use. We've been to a few gigs there now - it's a lovely space with sweet acoustics. The likes of Hendrix, Floyd and the Stones played there back in the day. I told my mum that's where we were going, and she said "oooh! That used to be the place to be when we were young!"
The sound system people (D&B Audiotechnik) set up an experimental rig with Ríoghnach and Stuart in the middle of the room, audience around, main rig centrally above them pointing outward. They added a ring of 40 suspended satellite speakers around the audience near the walls which they used for electrickery like ambient atmospherics, field recordings, delicately applied reverbs and at times making her voice absolutely enormous. I'm tearing up just remembering it. The relationship between the two of them is hilarious - she's clearly a handful to work with - but when they're playing the music it's serious business. She's candid about her own mental health struggles, and a couple of times it felt like Stuart had to keep the wheels on the bus, keep the show moving not to shut her up, but as an expression of care towards her, letting the songs do their healing thing.
I messaged you in the interval between the support and the gig to tell you about their support - the Geordie woman. But yeah, if there's a chance to see 'em live, get on it.
We first saw them a few years ago at a fund raiser in Sheffield for some community action venture. There was a lot of chatting going on at the bar while she was singing, at one point she stopped mid song and dished out the most furious bollocking for being so rude
The room certainly hopped to attention after that. You would definitely want her on your team in a battle. Enough gushing. Stick that album on again.
