Tracksuited, denim and leather clad and hidden behind wrap-around sunglasses, the Cork five-piece, Cardinals, look like they’ve just stepped out of Warhol’s factory in Midtown Manhattan rather than the picturesque village of Kinsale, and yet to live in a Cardinals song is to be surrounded by a grainy, monochromatic landscape that holds both a gritty rock and roll nostalgia and the rolling hills of Ireland’s traditional musical past. Their pogues-leaning, shanty-esque verses swoon into room-filling choruses and often cloak dark and brooding tales of love in gentle first-person conversational narratives.

Navigate, formed in 2018, combines raw energy with introspective lyrics in their alternative rock. After their debut album Nothing Ever Happens Around Here and powerful live shows across the Netherlands, they now kick off the evening with their captivating sound.

Cardinals | Bandcamp