Enemies album launch at Whelan's
Enemies bring their instrumental post-rock and debut album We've Been Talking to Dublin
Craig Fitzpatrick, 15 Jun 2010
The upstairs of Whelan’s is packed by the time Enemies take to the stage and it is not long before the entire place feels like a rather large furnace. To get us all suitably warmed up, Super Extra Bonus Party have put on a super show, playing their patented blend of indie-electronica – guitar music based around hip hop samples, a flourish of digital added to the analogue. They bounce around like Busted, the stage too small to contain them.
And then the main event, as Enemies arrive to launch their new album We’ve Been Talking. They open with ‘Piano’, a wall of noise and far away voices. Vaguely apocalyptic, it soon transforms into something altogether more melodic and sets the tone for the rest of the evening. This is instrumental post-rock delivered by an incredibly tight band – together, constantly looking at each other and enjoying their music.
‘Feed Me Seedless’ is an older song from an unreleased double A-side and serves as a perfect example of the American-influenced soundscapes Enemies conjure up. At times sounding like a cheerier Mars Volta on a Californian beach, mostly these sound like instrumental takes on long-lost Smashing Pumpkins songs, and that’s no bad thing.
Highlight of the night may be album opener ‘Backaches and Cardigans’. Introduced as “a song about [guitarist] Lewis becoming an old man”, it is gorgeous, occasionally floating into downright dreamy territory.
Enemies are yet another great band from the Richter Collective roster, an independent label that is fast becoming the Irish Motown of post-rock. Hailing from Kilcoole, County Wicklow, the group thank the crowd for a great reception - the best, they say, they’ve ever received in Dublin. It won’t be the last.
They finish with a jam through Smashing Pumpkin’s ‘Tonight, Tonight’ which serves as a fitting ending to proceedings and sees the band wear their influences proudly on their sleeves. Tonight Enemies have given us a fun, looser airing of their new album and proved themselves to be a band we should all be talking about.
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