Casey McQuillen’s headline gig at the Sunflower Lounge had a recurring theme of immaculate vocals, demonstrated by Casey and her support act: Nathan O’Regan. As well as two beautiful singing voices, another common theme between the two artists is loveable personalities. Both acts engaged their audience with their refreshing, charismatic stage presence.
Nathan O’Regan
Nathan is an Irish singer/songwriter who uses stunning vocals and flawless finger-picked guitar to support his lyrics, which come from Nathan’s own life experiences and his perception of those experiences in the form of emotion-inducing songs.
Nathan’s guitar playing consisted of well-balanced dynamic variation and combined rhythmic and melodic playing (all of which was impressively intricate and complex), which removed the need for additional instruments, as this gave his guitar arrangement enough texture to suffice for the context of his set and emphasise his vocals and lyrics. Nathan’s voice is passionate, soft and pitch perfect with a controlled and well-placed rasp. His technically strong voice and guitar set the perfect tone for his lyrics. Nathan’s songs are deeply personal and emotional as he writes about subjects of contradictory emotions very close to his heart, such as positive experiences with his young son, and the deeply tragic experience of losing a childhood friend. Nathan also took the time to explain the stories behind his songs to his audience, which consolidated the personal connection and engaged his audience. While Nathan could take moments to talk about more sensitive and deep subjects in a serious and appropriate manner, he was able to make his audience laugh and smile for the more positive and uplifting moments in his set.
Casey McQuillen
Casey is an American pop artist whose set started with a bang as her band started playing without warning to the audience, which was intentional and created an immense leap in energy (as well as making everyone, myself included, jump out of their skin – which was very funny). This gave Casey the opportunity to make a dramatic entrance to the stage to grace us all with her first song: ‘Dying’. Following this song, Casey demonstrated her energetic, warm, and limitlessly friendly personality to the audience, which was refreshing and created a positive atmosphere for the audience. ‘How Love Begins’ engaged the audience further with acombination of pop and indie rock with a positive stage presence and catchy vocal melodies (as well as perfectly placed tom fills!). Following a discussion on the spelling, Casey played ‘Favorite’ (had to fight autocorrect to spell that, Casey :D), which was dramatic and exciting and contained synths and pads that added a beautiful texture.
Casey played a variety of originals, from the atmospheric and calm tones of ‘Hold Me’ and ‘Just Might’ to the catchy pop tunes ‘Taste’ and ‘The One’, but, for me, ‘Bourbon’ and ‘Lawless’ stood out, stylistically. As with all/most of Casey’s songs, the audience got to hear the lyrical backstories, but this also made the switch to country for ‘Bourbon’ and rock for ‘Lawless’ all the more exhilarating. ‘Bourbon’ also featured a line which Casey explained had previously demonstrated varied perspectives of her lyrics in the bridge, about the portion of her life devoted to a person. ‘Lawless’ combined Casey’s strong, soulful vocals with distorted power chords to portray her true crime-inspired detective story to the audience – which she also claimed was justification for buying a cool electric guitar (I agree, for what it’s worth).
Towards the end of her set, Casey covered ‘At Last’, during the intro of which she reminded us to not take the lyrics for granted and focus on their true meaning. Paying this closer attention, combined with Casey’s stunning vocals, created a powerful experience for this R&B classic.
Casey portrayed an immensely important message about body image and self- esteem with ‘Skinny’ which was deeply emotive and engaging and maintained soft atmosphere and dynamics to place more emphasis on the powerful lyrics. Following this song, Casey thanked her Mum and Dad for joining her on her tour and for their everlasting support, which was a beautiful moment in the show. In the final song, the audience was encouraged to turn the torch on their phone on, which lit up the entire room and made for an excellent finale. Everyone doing this together created a sense of community amongst Casey’s loyal and loving fans, which anyone can see Casey recognises and truly cherishes.
Overall, this was one of the more emotionally varied gigs I’ve attended (in a good way, chill). Both Nathan and Casey were able to joke around and have fun with their audience, while still taking time to talk about more serious and emotional topics and experiences. Their music is well-structured and well-arranged, and they both have immaculate voices. Good stage presence and charisma created a personal connection with the audience and allowed their audience to see their uplifting personalities even more. Anybody looking for a gig performance of immense talent combined with a loving and enjoyable atmosphere should definitely consider following Nathan and Casey’s careers and look out for more live shows.