GoGo Penguin at The Sugar Club review

Image: GoGo Penguin 

There had been a decidedly formal tone within the walls of Dublin’s Sugar Club. The dance floor in front of the stage had been filled with rows of chairs, and merry chit-chat and laughter was breezily hovering through the venue in place of the impatient unrest that often precedes gigs.

The suave decor and plush, deep red curtains of the place set a specific tone for the night which the audience readily adhered to. The crowd – which varied greatly in terms of age and fashion – calmly took their seats in anticipation of the spectacle that was about to occur. 

Gogo Penguin walked on stage at around 8 o’clock. They admired the crowd briefly, taking in the cheers only for a moment. Wordlessly, they took their places at their respective instruments before launching straight into two new tracks, both of which will feature on their forthcoming album Man Made Object - due for release in February.

There were no special effects on the night; no light shows or visuals. Instead, there were simply three incredible musicians on stage with a room full of people sitting back in awe of their mastery.

There was a description of the group at the back of the programme notes provided on the night which labels their music as “acoustic-electronica”. This is perhaps the most concise means of categorizing the group, as their sound encompasses such a vast array of influences.

Their music is distinctly their own, yet at the same time is a post-modern concoction of varying genres and artists, carefully sewn together and executed with astounding class and time. 

The trio from Manchester seemingly possess a quiet modesty, apparently unaware of the godlike status with which many of the crowd held to them. Occasionally throughout the set, double bassist Nick Blacka would address the crowd with a few short words, but only briefly.

It appeared that he would have been quite content not to say a thing, but the necessities of plugging their albums meant a few words were in order. When the formalities were dealt with, the three would again launch back into their wizardry, leaving their audience sitting silently in dumbfounded disbelief. 

The set was split in two, with an intermission occurring halfway through. The first half felt as if it were fashioned in order to settle the crowd into the evening. It was something of a showcase of the band’s talents, a performance designed to fully capture its audience’s attention.

Gogo Penguin tickets.

Fan favourite 'One Percent' (listen below) received the biggest reaction of the first half of the set, with the meticulously timed breaks at the end of the track breaking the crowd’s sense of formality entirely and injecting a bit more emotion into proceedings.

This cleanly paved the way for the second half of the set which felt less like a showcase of the group’s talents and more of a sincere expression of their music. It was a mind-bendingly poignant affair with glimpses of utter beauty at parts.

The melancholic chords of 'The Letter' - taken from their second album v 2.0 – had the crowd utterly mesmerised; people were sitting back in their seats with their mouths agape, minds racing and eyes a little wetter than anyone would care to admit.

While many of the group’s songs are undeniably compatible with dancing, the seated audience allowed for an appreciation of the performance that could not have been achieved with a mob standing before the stage.

The crowd rarely cheered out of turn. People wanted to listen, not to interrupt the flow of the evening. There were of course occasional bursts of excitement where the audience couldn't help but vocalise their elation: a notable highlight being a particularly dry and husky “I love you” occurring during that fleeting moment of silence after a crowd stops cheering and before the band starts playing again. But overall it was a respectful evening. 

With a U.K. tour and new album planned for February next year - and two more albums expected after that, having recently signed a three album deal with Blue Note Records - the group are seemingly still only in their infancy. They are a young band, but if the faces of the crowd filtering out of The Sugar Club are anything to go by, they are going to establish themselves as a band to be remembered.

Read: Snarky Puppy at Vicar Street Dublin review.