Barry Egan: Picture This deliver awesome display of brooding emotion that leaves the crowd on its feet

At one point, it felt like the audience was unlikely to stop clapping.

This was Picture This’s second and final night at the venue in which they made Irish musical history four years ago.

Back in 2019, they became the first-ever band to sell out five dates in the famous arena at Dublin’s docklands.

The Kildare quartet appeared onstage without an introduction; the lights just went down.

Wearing a black mac and matching trousers that made him look like a gothic Lou Reed, frontman Ryan Hennessy tapped his heart several times to show the audience how he felt about them. He and the band were then straight into Red Lights.

He sung, “Baby, all I knew was red lights, red lights”.

Hennessy hopped from foot to foot, dancing like a post-punk Michael Flatley channelling David Bowie

With that, the crowd then sung the next line back to him: “’Til you opened up the skylines to my eyes.”

We weren’t even one song in and Hennessy had them eating out of the palm of his hand.

On Things Are Different, he had everyone in the crowd on his slightly off-kilter emotional wavelength.

He sang about how “some of us will drift apart while others stay together / And some will step in from the rain while others face the weather".

The song’s magic was nothing to do with rhyming “together” and “weather”. Its beauty lay in the often painful, universal truths of what Hennessy was singing about.

Painful or not, the crowd sang and danced along. Onstage, Hennessy hopped from foot to foot, dancing like a post-punk Michael Flatley channelling David Bowie.

The Snow Patrol lyric he has tattooed on his chest seemingly said everything: “This isn’t everything you are.”

Unsurprisingly, he had a question for his fans. “Are you ready for the best night of your life Dublin?”

The roar of approval from the crowd indicated that they were indeed ready for the best night of their lives. It wasn’t enough for Hennessy, who appears to exist on raw emotion.

“Dublin, are you ready for the greatest night of your lives with Picture This?” he asked again. “Are you ready? Are you ready?”

It could also be said of Hennessy that he has the soul of a 15th-century Parisian poet

This was akin to a 1930s Baptist service, with Hennessy as the energetic minister whipping up his congregation into a frenzy.

There was plenty of that going on as he sung When We Were Young, and, in particular, that line about learning how to grow apart – “and it hurt”.

At best, his lyrics are a fusion of introspection and inner-revelation, existential ennui and crucifying self-doubt.

This sense is deepened with his broody facial expression. He sometimes gives off vibes of a soothsayer.

It could also be said of Hennessy that he has the soul of a 15th-century Parisian poet.

Throughout the show last night, songs from This Morning to Winona Ryder soared and fell. They went from euphoric to melancholic.

And it was a communal experience.

On this evidence, Picture This are closer to Bon Iver and The National than they are to a very good pop band from Athy.