On the first of their four sold-out nights in Dublin, New York's smooth Criminals breezed into King Of New York, leading their Irish fans down the backstreets and alleyways of the Big rotten Apple. Huey, Fast and new drummer Mackie come on like elegant hoods, singing mock mobster tunes such as Back On The Block, Southside and Coney Island Girl, even re-enacting scenes from the movie, Scarface, with Huey playing Al Pacino, natch.
It's all in fun, of course: the jaunty mix of metal guitars, funky bass and streetwise rap is not designed to be taken too seriously; make no mistake, though, the Fun Lovin' Criminals are serious about their influences, as the sweet soul of Love Unlimited shows, and the blues explosion of Fun Lovin' Criminal hammers home. Make no mistake, either, about who is the don in this particular mob. The crowd gets it right, chanting "Hu-eey! Hueey!" at every opportunity, while the boss opens fire with some killer guitar riffs. His capo, Fast, handles keyboards, bass and harmonica with expert authority, and when he pulls out the trumpet and aims it at the audience, the crowd reaction is ecstatic.
Scooby Snacks ends the gig all too soon, but FLC return for an extended encore which included Minibar Blues, Bombin' The L, Smoke 'Em and All For Self. So far so-so: perhaps they're pacing themselves for the rest of the weekend. A final encore of Louie Armstrong's We Have All The Time In The World, however, proved that so-so ain't all that bad.
