Walking On Cars @ O2 Academy 25/11/2016

Walking On Cars returned to Liverpool last night to entertain a packed O2 Academy with tracks from their debut album Everything This Way.

The last time Walking On Cars played in Liverpool was in March at the Arts Club. Eight months on, many more shows and festivals under their belt, the band came back to show us exactly why they’ve been dominating the music charts over in Ireland.

Supporting the Co. Kerry natives, was New Yorker, Tor Miller. Being the supporting act can be a tough gig, going out to a crowd who are there to see someone else and it’s your job to get their night off to a good start while also looking to gain some new fans.

Miller’s powerful and soulful voice was captivating, creating an intimate setting with just

his voice and keyboard. His short time on stage was one to remember as he reminisced about the streets of his hometown across the pond with ‘Midnight‘ and tales of people falsely idolised. The chatty crowd didn’t take long to go silent as they took in the talented musicians’ performance. He ended the set with a cover of Justin Bieber’s ‘Love Yourself‘, putting his own unique spin on the Canadian’s chart-topper.

Walking On Cars took to the stage with the sound of ticking clocks and alarms going off, almost like a countdown for what was about to unfold for the next hour and a half.

They immediately launched into the intense and passionate ‘Tick Tock‘, quickly setting the pace for the night. The band were feeding off the energy coming from the crowd, with their fans singing every word back to them, at times even louder than frontman, Patrick Sheehy.

Looking back on when Walking On Cars were last in Liverpool eight months ago, they put on a good show that night. In that time since then though, you can see how they’ve grown in such a short time. They’ve been to the States, toured across Europe and played their biggest show to date recently in Dublin’s 3 Arena to a sold out crowd. They’ve learned in that time and taken the best bits and put it together, to create a show that grabs your attention from the start and doesn’t let go until the band have left the stage.

Recently featuring on the soundtrack for the movie, Mum’s List, the band played ‘Nothing’s Impossible‘, which didn’t make the final cut to their debut album. A stunning ballad and a stand out moment from their set, with it slowly building throughout to a dramatic finish that came out of no where when the lights went down, leading the crowd to think the song had ended. It suddenly exploded to life again with a hair-raising instrumental that lit up the O2 Academy, before a final rendition of the heartfelt song’s chorus.

With just the one album to their name so far, Walking On Cars already have a set filled with big sing-a-longs and a light show to match others with a bigger back-catalogue of songs. Proof of this was when the final song of the encore came, bass player, Paul Flannery claimed before it started, that “you’re all gonna go to the bar after this but won’t be able to order a drink cos you’ll have no voices left“.

Their breakthrough hit, ‘Speeding Cars‘ ended the night the same way it started, leaving the crowd wanting more, except they had nothing more to give… For now at least.

Before the show, we sat down with the band to have a chat about touring, their debut album and what’s next for Walking On Cars. Check out the interview by clicking here