Back in the Saddle Again

The Cranberries returned to Washington, DC, on Wednesday night for the first time in nearly four years, kicking off a small nine-stop tour to promote their new album, Bury the Hatchet. Crammed into the remodeled 9:30 Club in Northwest Washington, roughly two thousand eager fans sat through a lackluster five-song set by opening act Jude. Once the Cranberries took the stage, however, all else was forgotten, and the masses rejoiced that their beloved quartet was back in form.

Sampling heavily from their new album, which had been released only the day before, the Cranberries delivered an alternately rocking and soothing twenty-song performance. Dolores O'Riordan Burton, the band's energetic lead singer, got the crowd going from the outset with a rather heavy rendition of current radio staple "Promises." Following a pair of straightforward versions of two more Hatchet songs, "Animal Instinct" and "Desperate Andy," the Cranberries gave their fans exactly what they came for. A rollicking "Ode to My Family" kicked off a quintet of older songs, highlighted by an incredibly uplifting "Sunday" and "Salvation," the biggest hit from the band's To the Faithfully Departed album.

Determined to expose their fans to all that Bury the Hatchet has to offer, the Cranberries went a softer route with emotional efforts on "Saving Grace" and "You & Me." If that were not a sufficient display of the band's ample range, a powerful "Daffodil Lament" got the crowd swooning once again. From there, the Cranberries roared to the close of their set, delivering top notch performances of classics "To Be With You," "Ridiculous Thoughts," and "Zombie." Sprinkled in as well was a personal favorite of mine, "Deliliah," another rocking tune from Hatchet.

The obligatory encore was enjoyable though somewhat unfulfilling. "Pretty," a mellow track from the band's first album, led into "Shattered," the seventh song played from Bury the Hatchet and an equally mellow number. The crowd sprung back to life with the arrival of "When You're Gone" and the band's final song, "Dreams." The entire set took closer to an hour and half than two hours, as the band sped through most of their songs, improvising little. Dolores did a superb job, bounding across the stage in her pink top and blue mini-skirt (which she donned for the conclusion), tossing her shoulder-length hair all about to the crowd's delight. The band's long layoff, necessitated by Dolores's pregnancy, did little to dampen the band's excitement, and, in fact, the reverse might be true. Dolores and company delivered a set that was seemingly designed to allow the band to once again feel the thrill of the show, giving their fans as much music as possible as quickly as possible. That is all any Cranberries fan could want...

Submitted 4/28/99.