Inside Kodaline’s St Patrick’s Eve Dublin Gig

St Patrick’s Day, claims Kodaline bassist Jason Boland, is “like Christmas Day for Irish people”, and this year Dublin is gearing up for a classy Paddy’s. In bartender-only speakeasies below fake butcher’s shops, booze scientists set about concocting the perfect Irish coffee (it’s all about the Columbian beans, apparently). At L Mulligans Grocer they’re matching whiskey varieties to rare cheeses. And over at The Old Jameson Distillery, Kodaline are preparing for a web-streamed acoustic gig ahead of their Bow Street Session show at the Dublin Academy on Patrick Eve.

“We get up for the parade,” Jason says of the band’s usual Patrick’s Day routine. “It’s like the Macy’s parade in New York, it’s on that scale. It shuts everything down, the whole city comes to a standstill and there’s a lovely vibe in the city.”

“One of the craziest days he had was with NME,” adds drummer Vinny May, “we busked all around Dublin on St Patrick’s Day. That was one of the St Patrick’s Days where, in typical Irish fashion, it absolutely lashed with rain.”

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“We did nine shows in the whole day and ended up at 2am playing our last show,” says singer Steve Garrigan. “It was a great craic. But we’ve always wanted to do a live stream of an acoustic gig. It’s how we started, we started off playing in bars. It’s more of a challenge. When you’re playing acoustic you can’t hide behind a big wall of sound.”

“It’s great to play a smaller show in front of a couple of people,” says Vinny. “Tonight’s gig is in front of seventy people and in a cool spot in the Jameson distillery. It’s a cool thing to christen our first time being here.”

“Tomorrow in the Academy is our first time playing a headline show there,” Jason says. “It’s stuff we still have to tick off in Dublin because we didn’t get to spend that much time at the start here. We went around Europe pretty much from the start.”

The Jameson Bow Street Session gig cues up a July show at Dublin’s Marlay Park for 37,000 people, the climax of the relentless touring for last year’s second album ‘Coming Up For Air’. “For us it’s terrifying, it’s overwhelming,” Jason shudders. “We supported Kings Of Leon there two years ago and we saw that field full of people.” “But this is our own show,” Steve continues, “it’s quite bizarre, we have to pinch ourselves.”

These shows cap a campaign that has seen the band chased down the street by fans as far-flung as Portugal and Singapore and sell out venues in New York. “In America we’ve done five tours, starting off in little dive bars then going into theatres,” Steve explains. “It’s the best feeling ever coming back to a city and it’s a bigger venue and it’s sold out.”

Surely not as good as playing a tiny hometown show on Irish Christmas Eve, though? “Playing in Dublin is fucking mental anyway,” nods guitarist Mark Prendergrast. “The crowds are ballistic and it’s the day before Paddy’s Day, it should be a good singalong.”

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Sure enough, twenty-four hours later, the 900 VIPs and Jameson competition winners crammed into the Dublin Academy soon take on Steve’s vocal duties. Barely have Kodaline wished them a “happy nearly St Patrick’s Day’ and craiced through the slick freeway rock of ‘Ready’ – imagine Coldplay covering Kings Of Leon’s ‘The Bucket’ – and nostalgic jig ‘Way Back When’ when the crowd claim the chorus of spirited pop ballads ‘One Day’ and ‘High Hopes’ and Serengeti rocker ‘Autopilot’. The homecoming goodwill and event buzz carries the show; runaway anthem ‘Brand New Day’ flounces by like a glimpse of summer and Steve’s solo acoustic ‘The One’, originally written as a wedding present for a friend who’s here tonight, is as intimate as a campfire singalong.

‘Love Like This’ sees the set reanimate with a full-on Mumford stomp, ‘Coming Alive’ adopts Bryan Adams’ polished rock bravado and the set reaches a climax with a rattling ‘Honest’, an epic ‘Love Will Set You Free’ and a rousing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Mark’s dad Paddy. They sign off with the haunting ‘All I Want’, its simple plea of “If you loved me, why’d you leave me?” growing into a roaring desperation. Who needs a parade?

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