Singer’s dazzling voice – not to mention banter – helps overcome technical glitches to give outstanding performance at Vicar Street
One or two non-cartoon smartphones twinkle in the crowd at Vicar Street as Mering twinkles too. She wears a white dress that looks like the sort of thing Liv Tyler might have sported when playing an elf warrior in The Lord of the Rings.
Later the frock goes feral as a red “heart” lights up so that Mering suggests a cross between Lady Galadriel and a depressed traffic light. That ethereal fashion speaks to another of the foundational influences on Mering: Celtic pop’s faerie queen, Enya. “Bob Seeger meets Enya” is how Uncut magazine once described Mering. “Enya is up there with The Beatles,” she herselfAlong with the Enya-isms, it turns out that Weyes Blood also speaks the ancient language of playful banter Because the music is so lovely, the darkness that comes dripping through feels particularly ominous. She plugs again into modern anxieties with God Turn Me into a Flower, a melodramatic cyclone from the new record that contends that the internet is making narcissists of us all. The song is supposed to be accompanied by a backing video from the documentarian Adam Curtis, a film-maker who some might say never saw black-and-white footage of ballerinas that he didn’t want to turn into a metaphor for Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Alas, the tech has gone on the blink, so the audience is left staring into a howling void. Vicar Street has out-Curtised Adam Curtis. Technological disquiet and malfunctioning videos ask a lot of the concertgoers, even when framed by Mering’s rich vocals and tranquil arrangements. She offsets the claustrophobia with a flinty stage presence. Along with the Enya-isms, it turns out that she also speaks the ancient language of playful banter. “Can I find my own bog person?” she asks, presumably referring to the preserved bodies in the National Museum rather than last orders at the Dáil bar. Later, she asks about the most haunted place in Ireland. Someone suggests Limerick, which Mering takes at face value. She summons some ghosts of her own on Movies, from Titanic Rising, her 2019 album. It’s perhaps her most studiously unlovely track, waves of noise doing battle with her earnest croon. The distortion builds and builds, conjuring a feeling of looming tragedy. But Mering keeps smiling, her dazzling voice fighting through the onslaught. The message is that, even when shadows close in, we should never give up hope.
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