Walking On Cars at Electrowerkz

On a seemingly uneventful side street in Angel is Electrowerkz, a fairly small den and the venue for the indie-rock band Walking On Cars’ sold-out performance. The Irish band formed in 2010, and recently supported The Script in Amsterdam. Continuing on their, which ends in November, they play in New York, California and Australia before returning to the UK for a final performance in Cardiff. Their debut single Catch Me If You Can was in the Irish charts for over 20 weeks. Since then, the band have become more and more popular.

All very talented musicians, the five members of the band clearly enjoy themselves performing for this largely Irish audience. Though at times it appears the crowd are not fully engaged with the performance, lead singer Patrick Sheehy initiates overhead claps that quickly have the audience focusing again. With a venue this intimate it’s a lot easier to notice clusters of people talking. The pre-determined setlist helps combat the clusters of chatter: every other song has everyone belting the words, clapping along and moving their feet.

The band engage with the audience asking where everyone is from. With so many Irish in the audience, the performance is almost like a home show. We find out from the band that family members are in the audience – the only ones recording the performance, which is a very refreshing sight to see, a concert without a sea of mobile devices obscuring the view of the band. The only downfall of the performance was the short set: barely an hour long, including the encore, perhaps because of their fairly small library of songs. Regardless of their limited repertoire the band do not fail to have fun, and appear truly grateful to be performing for this audience, who usher the band off after their encore with lengthy and appreciative applause.

Hannah St Jean

For further information about Walking on Cars and future events visit here.

Watch the video for Catch Me If You Can here: