The Cranberries

Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore
Date: 1st August 2011
Promoter: Hype Records
Review by: Joanne L. & Nigel H.
Special Thanks: Min & the Hype Records team

Picture this: A 7000 odd – strong crowd gathered at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on a weekday evening (Monday, to be exact). This is not a cult gathering, as it might easily be mistaken for, but a concert by The Cranberries. Returning from a six-year hiatus, the Irish rock band performed in Singapore as part of the group’s Asian tour circuit, after having played equally successful shows in Jakarta, Shanghai and Taipei. An electrifying energy hung in the air as we waited with bated breath for the group to turn up on stage.

Fans, left high and dry from the six year drought, deservedly slaked their thirst for the group’s unique brand of music. The Cranberries teased and thrilled the crowd with a blend of about 18 songs from their existing five albums and two songs from the upcoming album, Roses. Crowd favourites Animal Instinct, Zombie, Linger and Ode to My Family were received rousingly, with the mostly yuppie crowd singing along – at times almost drowning out vocalist’s, Dolores O’Riordan’s voice. She reveled in the adoration, egging them on to seemingly deafening volumes. Whenever the microphone was tilted in their direction, the crowd unhesitatingly picked the song up and ran with it.

Dolores’ voice has hardly changed, but one could almost detect a tinge of maturity that comes with being a band that has lasted the time and changes. In Ode to My Family, Dolores seemed to put far too much of herself into it, coming across with a palpable, visceral urgency that unmistakably bewitched the crowd. Never one to bore, she donned a Native American headdress adorned with feathers while performing Salvation, much to the delight of the crowd. The upbeat vibe of the song, together with the clearly keyed up crowd, was perhaps the height of the concert. Dolores’ haunting and emotive voice carried the rest of the Cranberries’ set list to different parts of the crowd’s psyche.

One must not forget to mention Noel and Mike Hogan’s mastery of the guitar and bass respectively. Notably, Noel worked the strings on the intro to Just My Imagination and displayed some serious vibrato action on the whammy bar in Waltzing Back. Mike, and drummer, Fergal Lawler, jammed adeptly for a seemingly incessant ground-shaking length for the outro of I Can’t Be with You. Dolores was not far from the action herself, exhibiting her versatility with both classical and acoustic guitars and keyboard, particularly during the encore performance of Dying in the Sun.

The concert culminated in one of the group’s more popular songs, Dreams. Savouring every single beat, the crowd dispersed on the last note of Dreams, positively swooned with the band’s heady performance. And so, to call any Cranberries concert a cult gathering is not very far from the truth.

SETLIST

  1. Analyse
  2. Animal Instinct
  3. Tomorrow
  4. Dreaming My Dreams
  5. Linger
  6. Never Grow Old
  7. Ode to My Family
  8. Just My Imagination
  9. Wanted
  10. When You’re Gone
  11. I Can’t Be With You
  12. Waltzing Back
  13. Schizophrenic Playboy
  14. Free to Decide
  15. Salvation
  16. Ridiculous Thoughts
  17. Shattered
  18. Dying in the Sun
  19. Promises
  20. Dreams