The Corrs, The Point
Andrea Corr ringing in the New Year at Dublin's Point Theatre.
Andrea Corr ringing in the New Year at Dublin's Point Theatre.
The marketing of the most successful rock group ever to come out of Dundalk has always leaned heavily on the appearance of the three Corr sisters - all but ignoring the charms of brother Jim. In concert, however, the imbalance between what The Corrs have to say and the videogenic charm with which they say it seems to gape ever larger.
Every part of the staging is kept minimal; nothing odd, quirky or unexpected is allowed to distract attention from the girls and their kinky boots. It is as if at some level the audience is still supposed to be taken aback that Irish music might be sexy, as though that surprise in itself ought to be just about enough to guarantee a good evening's fun.
Their best songs, such as Runaway, Forgiven Not Forgotten and the hiberno-reggae sprig, The Right Time, have a pleasant balance of clean instrumentation and gleaming sharp hooks, but even these tunes have now almost all been hammered flat by constant radio rotation.
Remove the layering of sprightly fiddle, tricolour licks of penny whistle and flute, skip the bodhrán interlude from Caroline, and the music of The Corrs would sound remarkably like a fairly dancey early Madonna track. When the band moves in the opposite direction, dropping the crisp international pop professionalism for an extended section of instrumental Irish dance tunes, the evening begins to gather some momentum. At a Corrs' show, however, it is never long before shiny pop sounds and gleaming, positive grins are back in the ascendant.