Sometimes the most unprepossessing band can turn out to be a commanding live presence; such is the case with Gomez, who played Dublin's Olympia last Friday. With a Mercury Music Prize under their frayed belt, you'd expect Gomez to swagger like conquering heroes; instead, they shambled on unassumingly, looking like six random audience members who had accidentally found their way onstage.
They even began tentatively, opening with the slow-burning Get Miles, easing their way into a psychedelic country groove and feeling their way around the wide spaces of sound.
This lo-fi, grunge-poke collective may appear a bit ad hoc, but in reality they're a tightly-roped 12-legged rock machine; country cousins of Led Zeppelin who can kick like a bronco.
The gravelly voice of Ben Ottewell skids gracefully through Make No Sound and Tijuana Lady, but when Ian Ball and Tom Gray join in on Bring It On and Get Myself Arrested, the exuberance grabs you by the collar. And when the band deals out the syncopated sleaze of Las Vegas Dealer, the whole thing threatens to turn into a flamenco party. Gomez's second album, Liquid Skin, may lack the makeshift alchemy of their debut, but when songs such as We Haven't Turned Around and Rhythm & Blues Alibi are let loose, they get the crowd stamping for more.
