Only two releases in and Limerick five-piece THEATRE already sound so effortlessly cool and assured, their latest track “You Are” adds another compelling piece of evidence that they’re here for the long haul and only just, literally, getting started.

The song is wrapped in a gauzy, dreampop atmosphere with biting rock crescendos and codas. “You Are” burns slowly and deliberately, balancing a kind of bruised intimacy with widescreen persona. Maeve O’Shea’s voice is the centre of gravity here: tender one moment, towering the next, guiding the song with emotional precision. Most bands spend years chasing that delicate beauty. Around her vocals, the bands collective instrumentation swells and recedes like turbulent weather rolling in off the Atlantic and winding its way along the Shannon. Guitars shimmering against a rhythm section that deftly uses the power of restraint.

What makes THEATRE so compelling is their ability to deliver nostalgia with a soft-focus that isn’t sentimental. “You Are” stitches together fragments of memory with clarity. It’s cinematic and quietly devastating and at its most vulnerable there’s almost a feeling of defiance running underneath it all. Their music aches but crucially heals too.

Following the promise of debut single “The Fall”, this latest release is another choice morsel plucked from their debut EP Incarnate due to land June 12th, THEATRE are undoubtedly due to become a band who are impossible to ignore.

LIVE DATES

16 MAY – Scala, London (UK)*
18 MAY – Yellow Arch, Sheffield (UK)*
19 MAY – YES (Pink Room), Manchester (UK)*
21 MAY – Whelan’s Upstairs, Dublin (IE)
22 MAY – Mike the Pies, Listowel (IE)
23 MAY – Kasbah, Limerick (IE)
25 JUL – Deer Shed Festival, Topcliffe (UK)
26 JUL – Truck Festival, Oxfordshire (UK)
8 AUG – Absolutely Free Festival, Genk (BE)
29 AUG – Rock N Roll Circus, Sheffield w/ Wunderhorse (UK)

5 OCT – The Castle, Manchester (UK)
6 OCT – The Lexington, London (UK)
7 OCT – The Louisiana / The Croft, Bristol (UK)
9 OCT – Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield (UK)
12 OCT – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham (UK)
13 OCT – Voodoo Daddys, Norwich (UK)
14 OCT – Heartbreakers, Southampton (UK)

*Supporting Bleech 9:3

Connect with THEATRE: Instagram