Scala & Kolacny Brothers

Olympia Theatre, Dublin

Scala and Kolacny are a combination of an all-female Belgian choir and Steven and Stijn Kolacny. Their work looms in the wings of various TV and film projects, be it adding an elegant echo to Downton Abbey or haunting the trailer of

The Social Network.

Here, interpretations of Yellowby Coldplay, Marilyn Manson's Beautiful Peopleand a game version of Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill are dispatched efficiently, with Steven on electric piano and the odd sample or backing track lobed in for texture behind the 15-piece choir.

It’s a safe and effective template; there is little room for soloists, and the choir don’t tackle instrumentation with their voices. The effect is to prettify much of the source material, sanding down the edges and making the tracks more lush. Given the limited live instrumentation, the songs can feel sapped of dynamic and bite, not that this dims the audience’s enthusiasm one bit.

Things take a turn for the anthemic when Steven’s original material is deployed. He favours big electronica backing tracks and booming rhythm sections. Early on, some of the crowd take these opportunities to check if the bar is open, but at one point Stijn has the whole venue clapping along to what could be the latest banging Euro pop anthem.

As any good heckler worth his insult knows, though, there is one sure way to success – play the hits. So for the encore it's back to their signature elegant cover of Radiohead's Creepand the likes of U2's With or Without You.

The group have already been booked for a further two nights in the Olympia in the near future;  the standing ovations here suggest theyll get more than a few repeat customers.