Camille O'Sullivan at Stimmen-Festival - 20 July 2014

I had heard many wonderful things about Camille O'Sullivan, but was not sure what to expect. The concert exceeded my expectations.

Part of the stage was set up in the manner of an old French wine bar. The band stepped onto the stage and then Camille appeared and broke into Revelator. For the first two songs, there was little interaction with the audience. One would have thought that the singer was shy. This notion was quickly removed with the introduction of the third song. O'Sullivan took us on a musical odyssey from Nick Cave and Tom Waits to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Jacques Brel.

The show moved from the frantic and wild to quiet and sedate. Camille's ability to bring her audience along on this journey was remarkable. She danced, she pranced, she entertained. She told stories, changed costumes and even gave her drummer an umbrella when the roof started to leak.

The show was pure entertainment. It is hard to choose the highlight of the evening, but her transformation of Bob Dylan's Don't Think Twice It's Alright gets my vote. It moved from being quiet and calm to being full of energy and was worth the entrance fee alone.

O'Sullivan finished up with the Leonard Cohen song Anthem, walking through the audience and telling us that "there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in".

Then, for good measure, she spent the best part of an hour signing CDs and chatting to fans.

This was easily the most unusual and unique concert I have been to this year and I very much recommend putting a Camille O'Sullivan concert on your bucket list.

Stimmen once again proved to be a resourceful festival: when the weather forecast threatened rain, the concert venue was changed from the open air Rosenfelspark to the indoor Burghof.

Line-up:

Camille O'Sullivan (vocals)

Feargal Murray (piano)

Anthony Law (guitar)

Paul Byrne (drums)

Setlist:

Revelator

Wake Up

All The World Is Green

Galileo

Amsterdam

In These Shoes

Going Away

Red Band

Chelsea Hotel

Look Mummy

Hurt

Don't Think Twice It's Alright

The Ship Song

Anthem

- Ciaran O'Muiri