Gig review: Ethel Cain more than able for sold-out Dublin set despite feeling under the weather

Hayden Silas Anhedönia, known professionally as Cain, steps on stage to distorted old-time radio music, a reminder of the persona the singer-songwriter has crafted over the past few years.

Her 2022 concept album, Preacher’s Daughter, is a narrative about the Ethel Cain character of sorts, who leaves her religious family in Nebraska and meets a gruesome end after trusting a stranger. In her own life, Cain – whose father is a deacon – left home and her church at 18 and transitioned, an experience she has credited as loose inspiration.

It’s songs from that album, such as the sultry Gibson Girl and the haunting Sun Bleached Flies that make up the majority of her setlist. Bluesy Thoroughfare is sung by the crowd for the final chorus, with Cain taking up a tambourine.

She teases an upcoming project, with two new songs. Amber Waves, she introduces as slow and quiet. “I invite you to be as still as possible and let it flow through you,” she tells the crowd, who respond with loud cheers until someone yells “shut the f**k up,” making Cain laugh. To their credit, the audience stays silent thereafter.

“This one is also a new one, also a still, quiet one, part of a project we’re about to put out,” she says before playing Punish. Like many of Cain’s songs, it takes a slow and meandering musical path before a surprisingly punchy end.

Cain is capable of hitting both high and low registers seemingly all at once. It’s an impressive vocal achievement, especially for someone not feeling their best. “This is our very first headline show in Ireland, but I want to be real with you all, we have all felt under the weather,” she tells the crowd.

She woke up on Friday morning with no voice “but I was not about to not come to my very first show in Dublin. Please bear with me if I sound a little rough.”

Cain is a vocal supporter of Palestine and there’s a keffiyeh draped across the drumkit. At one point, a member of the crowd yells “Free Palestine,” which is echoed by Cain, and a second keffiyeh is thrown on stage as the audience starts chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

The audience is made up of those who are clearly very familiar with Cain. Any moment of silence is instantly interrupted with shouts of “We love you Ethel.”

It’s a connection she extends to the entire venue. Feeling her best she may not be but nevertheless her stage presence feels special. With that level of control of both her voice and the room, even while ill, it’s hard to imagine what she would be like at full capacity.

Said illness that almost derailed the gig in its entirety doesn’t seem to properly phase Cain until the final two songs. After the encore – filled with the ever-present olé olé olé – the show resumes with Cain’s admittance that she has no idea how the last two songs are going to sound, “but we’re going to f**king rock this out.”

First up is a cover of Kim Carnes’s Bette Davis Eyes, before she rounds out the show with American Teenager, a track that was on Barack Obama’s list of favourite songs in 2022.

All at once a pop hit and an anti-war anthem, it brings the whole theatre to their feet. With Cain’s voice starting to crack, the crowd fills in the gaps. “We’ll see you,” she begins to say before her voice gives out, “we’ll see you guys next time,” blowing kisses as she runs off stage.

Judging by how effusive the crowd is, and how quickly this show sold out, the preacher’s daughter may well fill a bigger church when she returns.