Lyra sparkles in front of sell-out show

REVIEW

We know Lyra’s a class act when strutting her stuff on TV or the likes of the Electric Picnic, or when selling out Dublin’s 3Olympia - as she had the Saturday before - but, to coin a Messi-ism, could Lyra light up a crowd on a cold, wet Tuesday night in Cavan?

Sporting a bejazzled leotard, knee length boots, and hair extensions down past her derrière she wasn’t exactly dressed for a cold wet Tuesday in Cavan. No she was kitted out to perform a stadium show, or, if she kicked off the heels, maybe hit the parallel bars in Paris this summer.

Anyhow here was a singing chandelier in the modest, homely stage of the Townhall Theatre - at first sight it jarred. But Lyra performs with such confidence and energy that within a few songs you are transported into Lyra’s wonderfully bonkers realm.

Such is her appeal that only Paul Heaton sold out the venue quicker. The Beautiful South frontman has a 40 year career and LPs galore to spark ticket sales - Lyra has yet to release her debut album. And the capacity crowd was made up by middle aged women and men as much as a younger cohort.

The set-list, dominated by songs from that eagerly anticipated first album - due out April 26 - is littered with dancefloor gold. Seemingly every song is loaded with catchy melodies, sing along choruses, and epic climaxes. That epic quality is achieved with only a talented drummer and a synth guy (presumably in charge of the backing tracks and vocals) in tow. Amongst the highlights for this reviewer were ‘Lose My Mind’, ‘Falling’ and the closing cover of Stevie Nicks’ Edge of Seventeen.

While Lyra’s setlist categorically has quality, it’s sparse on quantity. Still an emerging talent, she struggled to fill out an hour and half concert which could explain the lengthy chat between songs. And girlfriend, can she talk!

While her appearance and performance is other worldly, the Bandon woman’s personality is very much down to earth. She’s self deprecating, funny and charming. She’d carefully spell out B-I-T-C-H to avoid offence, but casually drop multiple f*cks in the next breath.

So in a wonderful Cork accent she regaled us with how she hooked up a lad who looked like Khal Drogo of Game of Thrones (to her Khaleesi), how she wrote a song for Disney film (that doesn’t exist), how she can’t dance (she can), her front and back cellulite (she must be joking), and how she hates photo shoots (aw come here to me).

Introducing one song she says she needed to write a middle eight and used some poetic licence to name check a litany of luxury brands like Gucci and Prada.

“I don’t have any of them. I just have to juice up the song right? But I don’t think Penneys and Zara are going to cut it! Just letting you know, if you see me with Prada, it’s from Spain off the beach!”

All this natter was good fun but it killed any momentum from one song to the next and suppressed much of the crowd’s instinct to get lost in the moment and dance along. Maybe a few more covers wouldn’t have gone amiss.

But she’s had enough of advice and is being true to herself. In one interlude she revealed her grim experience trying to conform with music industry’s demands in England. Disliking her accent the execs criticised altered tracks which she found “really soul destroying”.

“They said I didn’t look like a typical pop star so I had to lose loads of weight. I was like, come here to me: Are we still doing this? Are we actually still doing this? I didn’t have the confidence to not do it, so I did it. I was miserable...

“I suppose the final thing for me was they said to me: ‘And when you go to sing your songs, don’t talk between your songs. I was like, ‘Come here to me. Have you met me?’”

Rebelling against the advice she adds: “I would have been a shell of a woman, my arse would not be this juicy and I would have been miserable. So I decided to leave that, go my own way, take a bit longer, find myself, fill myself with bacon rolls, and I’m here and I’m so much happier.”

As she left the stage to the closing chords of that Nicks’ cover and rousing cheers, she vowed to return to Cavan. And she’ll be welcome back any day of the week.