View from the Green Room: I can’t think of a better way of spending a Saturday night
Omega Three Orchestra at Garter Lane
Garter Lane is packed, yet again, for the Omega Three Orchestra and most of the audience seem to know each other. It’s a night of fun, banter, song and anecdote, and the connection between these musically gifted performers and their audience is infectious.
The fun spreads out from the name of the group because, despite their ‘Omega Three’ title, there’s actually four of them. Singer Francie White is the ringmaster of the Omega circus. He’s got that gift that every singer dreams of – uniqueness, individuality with a touch of madness about it. If you close your eyes and hear Francie’s voice, you know it’s him.
Dunmore’s Gerry Power is here on guitar and vocals and suffers at the barbs of his mandolin butty Gerry Madden in banter that keeps the set hoppin’.
Bass guitarist Mickey Dower is the rock that keeps everyone together for the two hours plus session that has the audience buzzin’.
Despite the fact that they slag each other off and self-deprecate their performance… "we’ll try not to murder this song"… there are some seriously talented musicians at play here. The Trio brings four top-class musicians with them.
Mick Kinsella on percussion has travelled up from the Banner County and is the very devil with the harmonica; casting spells of magic over the house as the mouth organ’s sweet melancholy hangs in the silence of the theatre.
Dylan Bible’s guitar-playing dazzles as he moves between folk and blues and Spanish like a master of the fretboard. Mooncoin’s Suzanne Rowe gives that extra ethnic feel to the group with her superb work on the piano accordion, while Alan Coonagh could blow any reed instrument known to man as he moves through saxophones and on to the tin whistle.
I love the fact that their set list is completely different to the last time I saw them and that they give an opportunity to Waterford singer/ songwriters to impress. Shane did exactly that with four tuneful songs that reflect the time we live in. I loved his set. Catchy titles, like ‘I’m going to paint the town white’ inspired by a racist that Shane encountered, and I loved his ‘Jealous of my self’ that reflects our dismay when we look at younger versions of ourselves. Yep!...been there…regularly…where did all those years go.
Shane Barry’s work is available online at Shane Barry Music. Check it out.
Omega Three wanders through a set list that appears casual but is well thought out. Bobby Gentry’s ‘Ode to Billy Joe’, with its insistent rhythm, is a great opener and ‘Ain’t misbehavin’ sees me sippin’ cider on a porch listening to a reassuring voice telling me that someone is ‘Savin’ my love for you’. Susanne Rowe’s ‘Tico Tico’ and ‘Marcel et Marius’ brings me to musty Parisian cafés with oyster shell ashtrays, wine flavoured cigarette smoke and straw floors. Special.
Up tempo swing-jazz numbers like ‘It don’t mean a thing’ and ‘Deep river blues’ has the house buzzin’, while Beatles hits like ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘In my Life’ has the audience singing and swaying along.
Omega Three bring us to spaces in our imagination that makes the trip worthwhile. When the band blows John McGann’s ‘Canyon Moonrise’, I’m on a vast prairie when the sun splits the horizon and I’m waiting for that magical moonrise.
Emmylou Harris’s ‘The Wayfaring Stranger’ leaves me at Heaven’s Gate… 'I'm only goin' over Jordan…I'm only goin' over home’ and when Francie does Cohen’s ‘Dance me to the end of love... Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon', we’re all in a different space.
Huge applause…standing ovation…handshakes with the performers…hugs and greetings in the vestibule for friends that got lost somewhere along roads we never shared.
When Jackie, a lifelong friend and performer, says, "I can’t think of a better way of spending a Saturday night, Pat", I know just what she means.
