Happy days are here again - Chic bring Good Times to Cork
If you've never been to a Chic gig before, let me tell you how it invariably goes down.
It's a bit like going to see a DJ play all the disco tunes you love and more besides - only it's not really like that at all, because it's live and the guy on stage wrote them all himself.
You dance your socks off and spend the next few days making no effort whatsoever to wipe that cheesy smile off your face.
And so it was again tonight.
As they prepared to take to the stage at Live at the Marquee in Cork, the announcer reminds us of some of frontman Nile Rodgers' stellar CV. It's hardly necessary - anyone who starts tonight not knowing just how influential this guy has been throughout the years is certainly in no doubt by the end of it.
@nilerodgers in the midst of #Cork pandemonium #Ireland we love you! @CHICorg #GoodTimes http://t.co/HTvLPBpkft pic.twitter.com/4zrfYnApsM
— Nile Rodgers (@nilerodgers) July 10, 2015
Now, most bands have to juggle their repertoire, skillfully alternating between the both the upbeat and the better-known tracks with the … well ... not so upbeat and little-known tracks. Chic don't actually have this problem. Upbeat and near-universally popular songs are just .
Songs like 'Everybody Dance', 'Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)' and 'I Want Your Love' on their own would be the high points in the sets of most bands - for Chic, they're just the openers to get the crowd warmed up.
LIVE on #Periscope: Watching Chic live at the marquee in Cork https://t.co/LueB5rfn7x
— Ray C (@WLRFMTheShift) July 10, 2015
So they got tonight started on a real high, and got better from there.
Even when Nile politely asks the audience for a minute to tune his famous "Hitmaker" guitar (surely one of the most valuable in existence?), about a third of the way through, they hardly miss a beat.
"We're a party band, right?" as the rest of the band strike up a jam that gets us all moving again.
As it drifts into the familiar tune of Lost in Music, albeit in kind of funky Caribbean style, it all stops. But only so that wonderfully familiar intro can be heard by itself in all its glory.
By now everyone who had been sitting down have realised - resistance is futile.
Feeling the love! #chic at the #marquee #cork https://t.co/3u939ZrtnR
— JennïeØSullivân (@OSullivanJennie) July 10, 2015
The love just kept on coming for Nile & Co, including a loud cheer that seemed to go on for a full minute after 'Notorious'.
It's not just non-stop hits. Chic gigs are always interspersed with lots of stories from Nile - be it how he got the inspiration for a song or an anecdote about one of this many famous collaborators.
He's a humble guy with lots of tales to tell, as his autobiography will testify. It's an amazing read - but ends before perhaps the biggest turning point of them all - his cancer all-clear.
This is a man with a new lease of life and he's loving every minute of it. We all share in his joy at knowing he'll be around for another while yet when he shouts - "I'm cancer-free … and I feel as lucky as hell!!".
Of course there's plenty of musical nostalgia to go around here, but he delights in reminding us of his more recent impact too.
First up is Chic's new release, I'll Be There - their first in decades. It's recognisably Chic (why mess with a winning formula, right?), but all the better for it, and it wins over an initially hesitant crowd.
Chic!! @cork pic.twitter.com/0czfVt4e8N
— Naoimh Reilly (@naoimhreilly) July 10, 2015
"Every time we do a song, we like to Chic-ify it," smiles Nile, as the opening strains of Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky' oh-so-slowly arrive. We're not kept waiting long for them to bring the funk, as they do in spades.
There's so many songs that delight throughout, but special mention has to go to Nile-Rodgers-produced David Bowie hit Let's Dance - a highlight in a gig of highlights. The full range of ecstatic crowd reactions were on show -, from swaying hands, to jumping, to general just-plain-bonkers-going.
After we're bombarded with yet another classic in the form of Freak Out (we did), the traditional "introducing the band" was actually a welcome respite.
LIVE on #Periscope: Chic live in the marquee cork Ireland - freak out https://t.co/xetIFfFjqD
— Richard Daly (@richarddaly) July 10, 2015
Nile then proceeded to start... introducing members of the band to one other.
"It's a Chic joke..." he laughs. This gig has everything. We even had an updated lighters-in-the-air moment.
#chic stunning pic.twitter.com/xXFgg9VFvw
— KC (@kcshowcork) July 10, 2015
After the real introductions were done, and the enthusiastic appreciation was of course forthcoming.
The grandstand finish comes in the form of a killer medley of Good Times and Rapper's Delight (which famously stole the Good Times riff of course).
Then, right on cue, the stage is taken over by some glamourous locals who get the best dancing spot in the house. Lucky things.
Chic certainly stretched the supposed 10.30pm curfew to its limit, and beyond it. Nobody wanted this gig to end - not the crowd, certainly not the lucky two dozen or so women on stage, but most of all the band themselves were going nowhere if they could help it.
Nile's excited promise of a new album and a return to Leeside next year will just have to do us all for now.
Good times? They don't get much better.
