ROB Gallagher's slaphead shines brightly at centre stage, a bald beacon for all the movers and shakers of the world to follow. It's Saturday midnight at Dublin's Olympia Theatre, and the In The City music industry contingent is heavily outnumbered by funk fans and dance demons who keep it shaking all the way up to the gods.
Live, Rob Gallagher leads his line up through a myriad of styles, from funk bass to phat beats to freaked out keyboards, welding everything together into a solid, urban dance construction, with its foundations set firmly in jazz, rock and reggae. Gallagher's partner in tune is Valerie Etienne, a tall, black singer who exudes street cool and club chic. The band's current line up includes core member Spry on percussion, plus new members Nemo Jones on guitar and Ski on keyboards, both of whom bring a hip hop and house sensibility to the mix.
The songs vary from the rough n tumble rhythms of Freefall to the weird, corrugated jazz of Roofing Tiles, with tripped out protest tunes like Twyford Down occupying the wide open spaces in between. The songs are subtle, unhurried, the band letting the sound soak in rather than splashing out. At times it all seems a bit too laid back, but then Galliano don't see the need hit you over the head with a handbag, not when they can smother you in a mad storm of sound and rhythm. Every now and then, though, a song like Thunderhead will break out, raising the rhythmic stakes even higher, and giving the crowd something to really get their hips around.
