Dead Cat Bounce

First published on 26 Mar 2010. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

Review: Dead Cat Bounce are an honest-to-god band. Walking into the Fusebox there’s an entire set-up on stage: keys, guitar, bass and a syn-drum kit (well, a proper kit would be deafening in the space) and before long the Irish quartet are working their way through a passionate piano ballad: “Such was the expression of the child, as he bounced off my windscreen and off the other side…”. And the audience are already gasping for breath.

While Dead Cat Bounce's songs are funny as hell, the thing that makes this show so good is the interaction of the performers in their rock-cliché personas: the preening frontman/guitarist (James Walmsley), the rock’n’roll bassist (Shane O’Brien), the nebbish keyboardist (Mick Cullinan) and the somewhat dim drummer (Demian Fox), which gives the group plenty of scope for comedic interplay in between their numbers. That said, the songs are the thrust of the show and they’re all excellent, from the r’n’b slow jam of ‘In Da Club’, to the epic rock of ‘Midget’, or the audience-interaction dancefloor sensation that is ‘The Kick’. Laughs aside, I defy anyone to leave the show after the rock explosion of ‘Four Lads’ (“Four lads! No women! Stood around the dancefloor drinkin’!”) without the chorus endlessly circling their head. Andrew P Street