Reviewed by Stefan Krulle
Die Welt, 27.10.2005
Still a category of his own: Singer Christy Moore triumphs at the Laeiszhalle
Morosely the little Irish wrinkles his nose, gets up and spins around. “Do I only see it or is there too much smoke in here?”, asks Christy Moore and risks to disappear amid this artificial smoke. “Maybe the person in charge of the smoke could just simply press the red button?” Three minutes and half a song later the smoke in the crowded Laeiszhalle has faded away, but not the laughter. Whoever started to do music in Irish Pubs, has either become an entertainer or works for the city cleaning.
After almost ten years of stage abstinence, Moore, the darling of the public, tries to defend his position as being Ireland’s best singer/songwriter. And still, there is nobody fit to handle a candle to him. He inherently is a class of his own because he never actually gets down to the lowlands of Irish Folk. The fact that Ireland tourists in handmade slipovers are coming to the shows to clap along is neither his fault, nor their disadvantage.
Moore constantly sings about gallons of wine and barrels of beer but also about the Devil and that he knows him personally. Complex or conflict charged themes are put into clear verses with little punch lines that are never sneaky. He sings: “America, your head is so big; America, your belly so big; America, I love you, but I wish you’d stay where you live.” An anti-Bush-song of such simple greatness has not been written by anybody yet.
In between, Moore tells wonderful stories in an even more wonderful Irish accent. For instance the one about “a woman from Hamburg who was at my show in Liverpool because she heard a day too late about tonight’s show. Welcome back to your home town!” And then he plays the woman’s two favourite songs. Whoever thinks that this is kitschy, doesn’t have a heart in his breast. But Moore does not even consider himself too good for some lovely foolish punch lines. He seems to have learned a song from Richie Havens “backstage in Woodstock, I still don’t know whether it was a dream or the truth.” One night he says, “all of my favourite singers appeared to me in a two hour dream and sang for me.” If this should ever happen to one of us, then Christy Moore will do the intro and the finale. At the least.