BellX1 are currently on an acoustic tour to celebrate the ten year anniversary of the release of ‘Neither Am I’ their first album. They played in the Pavilion in Cork last Saturday night. I like hearing BellX1 play their stuff acoustically because it puts a different slant on the songs for me. The band started off the night with ‘Pinball Machine’ from Neither Am I and later played ‘Slow Set’ from the same album. It felt a little magical when BellX1 played ‘Rocky Took a Lover’ from Flock and the audience joined in. I loved the feeling of the crowd singing along unobtrusively and feeling part of it. BellX1 did a great version of ‘Flame’ with a sort of Country and Western twist. They were excited about playing some new songs and played one called ‘Sugar High’ from their new album due out next year. A resounding rendition of ‘The Great Defector’ was enthusiastically shared between the band and the crowd, each trying to politely outdo the other. To finish up BellX1 played ‘I’ll see your heart and raise you mine’ and towards the end Paul added in some lines from ‘There is a light that never goes out’ by the Smiths. It’s funny how he has managed to fit so many different lyrics into the end of this song. I kind of liked the addition of ‘And if a double-decker bus crashes in to us, To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die, And if a ten ton truck kills the both of us To die by your side, well the pleasure, the privilege, is mine’ to the other lines that have been used in this song. The band played a good encore and as always left the crowd wanting more.