The Mary Wallopers brought their rowdy folk ragers to Edinburgh's Corn Exchange, kicking off their biggest tour yet with crowd surfing, flying pints, and politically charged songs. The Irish six-piece, known for their passionate following, turned grisly old stories into a knees-up with spit-and-sawdust energy.
New track Seán na Sagart gets the room bouncing
Legs and pints went flying as the band, playing banjo and tin whistle, set about Seán na Sagart, a new track that turns a grisly old story into a celebration. By its breathless conclusion, the hitman is dead and his victims and clients alike get it in the neck from the band. Singer Charles Hendy grinned, savouring the punchline: “You can’t trust the clergy with their holy little bits / And ya won’t be thanked by any god for workin’ with the Brits.”
Paddywhackery finds the band in rude health
The Dundalk band are touring in honour of their third album Paddywhackery, a record that finds the group in rude health and confronting criticism that they are “too Irish, or whatever”, according to founding members Charles and Andrew Hendy. The new material is often furiously fast, with politics and humour both sharply deployed. Frenzied single The Big Mixer had the room bouncing to cutting lyrics about greasing the machinery of capitalism, while the hedonistic Kit Kat Club sounded like a hangover before the night's even over, with sour vocal harmonies and Catriona Gribben's wonderful, wheezing accordion.
Silence and transfixing moments
But the band can also hold the room in silence. “Someone put a border in Ireland. It’s a pain in the hole,” Andrew deadpanned, before a sparse, serious version of folk tune Smuggling the Tin, sung over a buzzing drone from Finnian O’Connor’s uilleann pipes. Original song Landlord’s Demise was just as transfixing; a slow, strange march performed by Andrew while drumming the bodhrán, as the crowd clapped and stamped. “Any landlords here tonight?” Charles shouted, scanning the room. “Fuckin’… good!”
Closing on a 300-year-old jig
Closing on Frost Is All Over, a roughly 300-year-old jig, they lent the skipping tune an almost clubby feel: strobes firing, hands in the air. The Wallopers make an urgent case for folk’s continued relevance with their spiky takes on tradition – whether that tradition likes it or not. The Mary Wallopers play O2 City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne, on 14 October; then touring UK and Ireland to 30 October.
