Taking in CMAT’s latest tour: an artist worthy of obsession
I’m racking up my CMAT credits. In 2023 alone, I’ve seen the Irish country star turned indie leading light four times now, all in venues of various scales and states of grandeur.
It started in April with high standards as CMAT stomped onto the Royal Albert Hall stage to steal the limelight from Wet Leg, whom she was supporting on the night. Then, at Glastonbury, she dominated the entire lineup as my favourite set of the weekend. I even chased her to Lisbon, where she stole the sunshine’s thunder for a performance that brought me more joy than even 32 degrees and a cold beer could.
My fourth encounter with the singer came last week, a time when I painted pink onto my eyelids and pulled my cowboy boots on to join the western-clad masses queuing up for her sold-out Shepherd’s Bush Empire show. The following behind Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson has swollen dramatically in size this year. While her 2022 debut album If My Wife Knew, I’d Be Dead gained her a tight, dedicated fanbase and began the tradition of cowboy attire only at her shows, her recent sophomore effort has upped the ante.
Entering the ancient theatre, CMAT’s new staging is a sparkly and eye-catching sign that stands to demonstrate immediately how well things have been going. While previous shows have involved nothing but matching berets worn by her band and CMAT’s charm, this current tour sees her scaling a set of stairs up to a light-up mirror on a platform, which she describes as her “bedroom”.
From my first-floor balcony vantage point, I’ll admit I felt a little dubious. With three other shows under my belt, I was already wondering how this one might compete now the stakes had been raised. Had the clutches of commercialism felled my hero? After all, that can sometimes be the moment an artist falters: when they add in staging that does nothing but distract you or seem to spend more time on their choreography than their singing. But as CMAT saunters onto the stage, welcoming her crowd in with the opening track of her new album Crazymad, For Me, her faultless rendition of ‘California’ immediately puts any nerves to rest. This show would be as good as the others.
In fact, I quickly forgot the staging was even there. Beyond literally raising CMAT up higher so her growing crowds and bigger venues can see her signature dance moves more clearly regardless of where in the 2000-capacity theatre they find themselves, her performance remains the same. That is a good thing. As she begins to move through the set list, weaving between new album cuts like ‘I hate…who I am when I’m horny’ to debut fan favourites ‘2 Wrecked 2 Care’ or ‘Peter Bogdanovich’, CMAT is on hypnotic form.
It’s hypnotic simply because she is having so much fun. Dancing around like a teenage girl in her bedroom, pranking her bandmates and interacting with her front-row fans, CMAT’s joy on stage is utterly contagious. The entire venue erupts into laughter at any little witty comment or silly stunt, creating an atmosphere so genuinely lovely it’s no wonder I can’t stop coming back for more. As she dances, the crowd dances more. When she laughs at herself, they laugh, too.
At one point, midway through her 2021 breakout hit ‘I Don’t Really Care For You’, CMAT and her band all collapse to the floor. Directly after the song’s big climaxing chorus, she breaks it all apart just to let the venue applaud her. I’ve seen this skit a few times now as she collapses, recovers amid the applause, fake clears her throat, and then breaks down her bridge line-by-line, with the clap growing louder and louder between each chunk.
It would be an annoying moment, prompting groans of “get on with it”, if it wasn’t for two reasons: the first being CMAT’s comedic timing and genuine charm, suggesting she could have a promising career in stand-up if she wasn’t such a strong singer. The second, and perhaps most important, is that amidst this little joke lies some of her finest lyrics and the pauses merely allow the crowd to reflect on what she’s actually saying. Singing, “All you did was hurt yourself and let me take the blame, I loved you like a mirror, So, I guess I’ve done the same” – the mix of silliness and total, poetic sincerity seems to be the thing that makes CMAT so unique and, apparently, addictive.
As the encore wrapped up, one thing struck me: at every other CMAT performance, she has always ended with her biggest and most defining hit, ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby’, asking the crowd to join her in a “Dunboyne County Two-Step” that sees the whole venue swaying. It’s always a beautiful moment that even we, in the usually stuck-up media box, can’t help but indulge in. Up until this point, that made sense as the closing song. But now, only a few months after its release, her new track ‘Stay For Something’ has usurped it, as she closed with the fitting euphoric power ballad.
Most artists go their entire career chained to one particular closing song. Even years post-release, even if their style has completely changed, they’re stuck. Lorde still has to do ‘Royals’. Pulp always end on ‘Common People’. Even Paul McCartney will forever be singing ‘Hey Jude’ or some other Beatles classic over a Wings cut.
But CMAT seems free from that, proving that not only is she growing in stage production and crowd size, but her reputation and identity as an artist is also being allowed to grow and change, too.
As the applause dies off and we all shuffle down the stairs and out into the cold November night, turning a sharp left into the pub next door to keep the high spirits up, my fourth CMAT show officially makes her the artist I’ve seen the most times in my own personal history of gigs. But with my face almost aching from smiling so much and my heart satisfied after a musically perfect performance and a joyful crowd atmosphere, I’m already plotting ways to return.
