CMAT
3Arena, Dublin
★★★★★
On the windy north quays of the Liffey, freshly pelted with rain, Stay for Something, one of CMAT’s transcendent torch songs, blares from a passing car. It’s Friday night, the frenetic energy of December fritzes through the city’s veins and – danger here – it’s a full moon.
Inside 3Arena, CMAT, Ireland’s own, and one of the stars of the year globally, is missing from the stage. Her band is present, and then the spotlight angles towards a balcony. CMAT leans over and begins one of the best gigs of the year.
Star of Glastonbury, partly responsible for Bertie Ahern not entering the presidential race, and creator of an album of the year in Euro-Country, CMAT is at this stage less a pop star (although she is that) than a phenomenon.
A giant euro-coin-style screen hangs in front of a stage backdrop of a cloud-punctured blue sky. Yellow star lights line up below. The staging and lighting design are perfect.
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CMAT launches into The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, she and her fantastic band delivering a muscular, frantic, blistering rendition of one of the finest tracks on her third album.
She reminisces about her final pre-Covid gig, playing to seven people in her Bewley’s uniform. Now, thousands roar; the swaying to I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby! – an early hit – is a spectacle. They’re also in full voice for Take a Sexy Picture of Me. She acknowledges the participation in the song’s dance craze: “The thing about Irish people is we love an organised dance.”
This is high camp and higher talent, a pop pinnacle for shows in the capital this year. CMAT having conquered an arena, the immediate feeling is that a stadium awaits.
Everyone knows she writes brilliant songs. But the craft, structure and melody remain underrated. She is one of the best around. On Friday, in a two-hour show that never dips, her prowess as a writer shines.
There are two gorgeous duets. Her support act Fancy Hagood returns for a wonderful version of When a Good Man Cries. Where Are Your Kids Tonight?, originally recorded with John Grant, is performed with the band’s captivating keyboardist Colm Conlan.
Then the big one, Euro-Country, a song that acts as a release valve for thousands of people in the audience still nursing the wounds of the Great Recession. The crowd screams the lyrics: “All the big boys / All the Berties / All the envelopes, yeah, they hurt me.” CMAT keeps winning fans as an entertainer, but her true talent is depth.
She ends on the tune that car stereo was pumping before the gig: Stay for Something. It, like the entire show, is a triumph.
Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson is getting her flowers in real time. But this show demonstrates again that heaping superlatives on her talent, graft, charisma, performance, presence and, most of all, songwriting is one thing. Experiencing an artist at the peak of their powers is another. It’s moving and it’s wonderful.
Her final words departing the stage: Free Palestine.
