Mad Dog McRea / Hobo Jones And The Junkyard Dogs / Rosie Vanier

What more can you want on St Patrick's Day than some frenetic infectious music to dance and sing along to and a warm, welcoming party atmosphere?

Tonight Exeter's Phoenix was full to it's high ceilinged rafters as 450 celebrated the patron of "Guinness and Potatoes", adding to the festive atmosphere was entertaining support act Hobo Jones And The Junkyard Dogs, a DJ in the bar spinning classic Irish punk and rock tunes, and gig goers with Irish tricolours, wigs, beards, Guinness hats, shamrock face paint, and even a bunch Adam Ant influenced pirates, some in fetching cross dressing costumes.



The evening started fairly sedately with well spoken Cornish singer Rosie Vanier (once of the Goldbug) taking to the stage behind her keyboard and a stage draped in beads of glowing lights. Wearing a theatrical skull motif headpiece, her soaring voice draws comparison with both Kate Bush, and Lady GaGa. In her short half hour long slot she airs songs from her 'Neon Nightmare' EP opening with 'Coco Rosie', and exploiting her vocal range the songs are dark, and the delivery captivating. Her black Gothic humour is exemplified by an upbeat song about Charlotte Dymond who was murdered on Roughtor in the 1840s.

The fact she's able to drown out and eventually silence some rowdy drunks in the crowd shows just how well she's able to hold a crowd now that she's solo.

Following her are the well liked Hobo Jones and his pair of sidekicks. Showing that with talent you can deliver rawkus crowd participating sing along crowd pleasers with just a tea chest bass, washboard, guitar, and kazoo. Their jokes are deliberately cheesy and mature now, with the audience delivering the punchlines.

The highlights are 'American Idiot' with their now legendary take on a guitar solo, and being Beautiful Days Festival regulars (the local one run by the Levellers) their covers of 'One Way Of Life' and 'River Flow' and with it being St Patrick's Day, they're joined by flautist Dan from tonight's headliners for a rousing version of 'Whiskey In The Jar'.



They finish their set by explaining they were once residents of an Irish themed Greek Bar, and sing a killer version of the traditional Irish tune, and alternative anthem 'The Fields Of Athenry'. The band win over more fans tonight, and there are even a few people who have never heard them before who tell me they thought the tramp busking trio were excellent.

A chance to refuel on cider amongst the hordes drinking pints of the black stuff, and it's back into the now humid packed auditorium for another band that's a huge hit on the festival circuit. The six piece Mad Dog Mcrea deliver their heady mix of Celtic folk rock, pop, gypsy jazz, and blues. Right from the off there are tunes to make even the most stoic in the audience dance with 'Am I Drinking Enough' as a bottle of Jamesons gets passed around on stage to fuel the fire. Traditional tune 'Raggle Taggle Gypsy' sparks the jigging, and the tempo rises with 'Black Fly'. Banjo, double bass, fiddle, flute, drums, and guitar and vocals deliver a hypnotic driving rhythm. The band play quite a few tunes from their second album 'Sophisticated Hat Manoeuvres' including the atmospheric 'Butterfly' which weaves fiddle and flute with a captivating waltzy rhythm.

As we start to bake in the summer like heat, it's amazing to see just how much of the audience are moving, the whole place is a knot of dancers. The cover of 'Bear Necessities', an electrifying 'Devil Went To Georgia', and 'Devon (Galway) Girl' are personal highlights of a terrific night's performance. The band even have a painted cardboard 'Happy Bus' that they send out amongst the crowd - genius!

There's more to Ireland, apparently, than drinking and fiddle music, but tonight it creates a fantastic craic, and has us all looking forward to the summer and festivals, as we leave the glow of stage lights, and dissipate into a dank night.

FUTURE GIGS