I was lucky enough to get to photograph and review Mother Mother’s first of two sold out shows in the 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, on Thursday 22nd Feb.
They are currently touring their ninth studio album, ‘Grief Chapter’ which will take in dates across the UK and Europe before they return to North America, completing their 6 month journey to bring their distinctive indie-rock sound to as many people as possible. After Thursday nights’ gig, I would highly recommend you be one of those people.
The Canadian 5 piece have always been on rotation in my Spotify playlists due to their distinctive vocal harmonies that are split between singer/guitarist Ryan Guldemond and singers/keyboard players Molly Guldemond and Jasmin Parkin. The rest of the sound is completed by Mike Young on bass and Ali Siadat on drums.
It is this ever changing dynamic that gives the band their distinct sound, which plays out fantastically during live sets as every member takes turns in having their moment to shine from song to song. You can tell that they have been playing and recording together for years, as everyone is constantly putting the music first and switching between instruments and lead vocals whenever the song calls for it.
While performing live, along with the fantastic light show, this makes for quite the engaging viewing experience, and worth going to see even if you are not as familiar with their music as perhaps your teenage kids are…which leads me to the audience. It is very rare that you walk into a venue before a gig even starts and you can feel such a strong and positive energy from the fans. While waiting for the gig to start, I noticed how everyone was interacting with each other and it was a scene of such positive and high energy. I saw some girls approach another girl who was standing on her own and asked her if she wanted to join them while she waited for her friends, people giving each other space and respecting their boundaries and generally pretty much the whole front few rows became friends over the music and what their favourite songs were or what they were hoping the band would play. It was genuinely quite refreshing to see.
The support came from local Dublin band Gurriers, whose high energy and relentless crowd interaction revealed that the noise they have been making recently, both on and off the stage, is definitely warranted. They had a large contingent of their own fans throughout the crowd who were singing back to them almost as loudly as the band themselves, and after two sold out nights I would imagine they will pick up a hell of a lot more.
Gurries photos:
After Gurriers warmed up the crowd nicely and had everyone on high alert, Mother Mother walked on stage to a deafening roar and started into their first song, ’Nobody Escapes’, (which was quite fitting) and took the crowd on a journey across their whole back catalogue as well as some stand out tracks from the new album, including some cover songs thrown in for good measure. A personal favourite of mine was a seamless incorporation of ‘Where is My Mind?’ By The Pixies into the middle of their new super infectious and positively non-conforming song ’The Matrix’.
This is a band who was clearly not taking being there for granted, constantly mentioning how they were grateful to be in ’such a beautiful palace’ and how they encouraged everyone to ‘look after each other and make sure everyone had a great night’, which was reflected by both their performance, set list, and crowd reaction.
They even took a brief break halfway through the set to all come to the front of the stage for an acoustic set and to thank everyone once more, going so far as to say they are ‘here because of the fans and are there to serve them and give them what they want’. It is this kind of awareness for fans you don’t always see, especially when some bands are touring such a brand new album so just focus on playing that because it’s new for them, but it goes to show how they have such a loyal following and why they had to add an extra night due to demand.
The bands energy did not wane for one second throughout the gig, and between their performance and the excellent light show, neither did the crowds. I walked around the venue to get the full experience, and saw pretty much every emotion displayed at one stage or another. People were joyfully singing along to their favourite songs, getting emotional and hugging to others, and literally everything in between.
They played a lot of songs from their new album, (which I would highly recommend checking out due to the amount of ear worms that will immediately burrow their way into your brain and make themselves very cosy), surrounded by some of the more standout tracks from their extensive back catalogue, including personal favourites such as ‘Hayloft/Hayloft II’, ‘Verbatim’ and some new instant favourites ’The Matrix’, ‘Explode!’ and ’Nobody Escapes’.
This is a band that is at the top of their game and well worth checking out if you can find a show close to you. If not, I would still recommend you add them to your music rotation for their indie-rock, pop adjacent sound. If you are not sure where to start, ‘Grief Chapter’ would be a good place. Otherwise, just ask your kids…
Mother Mother photos & set-list:
Set-list:
Nobody Escapes
Arms Tonite
Hayloft II
The Matrix (with interlude from “Where is my mind?” Pixies cover )
Problems
Oleander
Explode
Back to Life
Bit by Bit
Body
Burning Pile
Dirty Town
Neighbour
Wisdom
Ghosting
Little Pistol
It’s Alright
Wrecking Ball
The Stand
Video Games (Lana Del Rey cover)
Verbatim
Hayloft
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Grief Chapter
Oh Ana
Photos & words David McEneanery.