Saffron of Republica at the 02 Academy in Liverpool. October 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
As an outside band to Liverpool, to perform in the city once a year is to be considered fortunate, to come twice, to blast the cobwebs that build up into nothing more than finely layered dust and its occupiers scuttling into the small cracks and fissures, should be arguably considered as a sign of mutual appreciation.
For Republica, already having supported Space with charm and a set that rocked the pants off the most stoic and passive of music fans, to support The Boomtown Rats is to hang a platinum medal around their necks. This was the acid test, to perform in front of fans of perhaps of a different generation than their own and that their music was not geared around in the closed confines of the 02 Academy which would heave and sweat, pulsate with a thousand lost memories just a short while later. With a feminine strut, the gestured wink of a woman out to take no prisoners, of an entertainer in the mood to party, Republica dominated the stage and for those who came early to bag their spot for the act ahead, they were spoiled rotten by Saffron and the band.
Saffron oozed confidence, not really a surprise but certainly an affirmation of the quality that was let go too soon as the 1990s heyday for the groups that paraded up down the decade. Those really great bands that kept music at least interesting in a ten year period in which there was more fluff knocking about than a giant digging round his bellybutton and making an embroidered, finely stuffed pillow out of, began to dissipate and leave the arena. Republica were let go far too soon, a band with creativity and control should never be allowed to linger in the back room and away from the crowd for so long but all has been rectified during 2014.
With tracks such as From Rush Hour With Love, the phenomenal Drop Dead Gorgeous, the new tracks of Hallelujah and the stunning, almost mind blowing, Christiana Obey and the crowd pleasing Ready To Go being played, for those inside the 02 Academy early, the music wasn’t just exciting, it was electric and complete.
To take this too the extreme, to go even further, all that is needed is a full set, two hours-worth of blistering rememberance and littered with more new material, for a band such as Republica, nothing surely is out of reach.
Ian D. Hall