WHETHER you wanted to dig in the dirt or soar up to the heavens, Scheer had the best of both extremes. Coming on like Metallica on Fairy Liquid, Northern Ireland's newest breed thundered on to the stage at Whelan's of Wexford. Street last night and proceeded to float like a lead bubble into the assembled heads.
The backing is crunchy, a crushing tank rolling over your skull, but the vocals of Audrey Gallagher are light and airy, letting plenty of sunlight pass through the darkened shutters. Somehow the band strikes a perfect balance between the rough and the smooth, and the result is a solid, satisfying rock n roll experience.
Not that Audrey is some kind of Liz Frazier clone; she can hold her own against the manic guitar riffing of Neal Calderwood and Paddy Leyden and the bone crushing backbeat of Peter Fleming and Joe Bates. Demon is a typical Scheer exorcism, the breathy vocals being squeezed out from between the brick wall sound. Screaming is a sustained, focused assault which never descends into impotent rage, while Babysize is a plaintive, pressure cooked epic which neatly distills guitar and vocals into a passionate cocktail.
As the band grows in strength and Audrey finds her voice, the moshpit at Whelan's becomes more animated, and Shea sends a sea of bodies tumbling in the direction of the stage. A Gothic rendition of Blondie's Hanging On The Telephone shows a bit of gallows humour, but Wish You Were Dead is as direct a voodoo curse as you could expect. Scheer heart attack.
