CMAT, an Irish country-pop act and self-acclaimed “ITV Taylor Swift”, continued the European leg of her tour with an Amsterdam showing on 15th February; a night of glitzy, effervescent chaos, so surreal that leaving the venue felt like tumbling back to earth after briefly being transported to another dimension.
And what a fun dimension it was! CMAT released her latest album – Crazymad, for Me – last year, to critical acclaim, and she takes its unique combination of hilarity and tragedy with her on tour, mixing self-referential lyrics about the artist’s struggle with mental health and toxic relationships with unhinged monologues on Amsterdam’s EDM museum. ‘Unhinged’ is probably the best way to describe a CMAT gig; every other song ends with her throwing herself on the floor, serenading a giant ornate mirror or dancing across a glitzy stage decorated with giant neon letters intermittently lighting up in the colours of the Irish flag.
Not only does CMAT’s performance perfectly match the tone of Crazymad, for Me, but the audience too was formed of diehard fans having the time of their life, from screaming along to the most popular lyrics (I’m surprised the shouts of “I wanna be a cowboy, baby!” didn’t deafen half of Amsterdam), to chanting the name of a 12 year super-fan in the audience (shout out to Ciara), it was a reminder that the perfect concert requires an equally perfect audience.
It was a night of glitzy, effervescent chaos, so surreal that leaving the venue felt like tumbling back to earth after briefly being transported to another dimension.
CMAT’s seemingly unending energy carries her tour; every single song is given the attention and drama of a show-stopping performance, and the end result is a show which unashamedly embraces the camp, the queer and the chaos of both the artist and her fans.
