Those of you familiar with the Irish music scene of the late 1990s will remember Bren as a member of the superb Revelino. After releasing three great albums, they finally called it a day in 2001, and that was that. There was to be no more music from Bren.
Others in the band went on to release their own albums. Brendan Tallon released Love In These Times back in 2021, and his brother, Ciaran, has been releasing music constantly with Klubber Lang.
All that changed in January of this year when Bren Berry released his debut solo album, In Hope Our Stars Align. As I previously said, you can hear the influences of the Stone Roses, Echo & the Bunneymen and Leonard Cohen. No doubt there are others, but my untrained ears are, well, untrained!
Written in his garden shed during COVID times, the album, is at its heart, a love album to his wife and to his children, and to his home town of Dublin.
Last night, in the salubrious surrounds of the National Concert Hall, Bren teamed up with the Crash Ensemble to give the album its live debut, and what an enjoyable night it was. Each track on the album was reworked for the night, the additional keys, strings and wind instruments, courtesy of the Crash Ensemble, allowed the album to feel right at home in the National Concert Hall.
So, was it any good? Well, the crowd, full of his peers from the world of Rock n' Roll, TV and the Media, seemed to really enjoy the night. Me? I loved it. What more can I say? I loved it.
I'd highly recommend you buy the album, there's a link above to buy it on Bandcamp. I wasn't photographing the show, but I did grab a few shots for posterity!
