The music of The Cranberries: Tasteful, infectious, full of zing

VOCALIST Dolores O'Riordan

The pounding of the bass drum could have downed the fainthearted on the front row of The Cranberries concert Tuesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. At certain moments we felt our chest was being beaten by crazed frat men.

But what the heck, the action onstage was worth all the body trauma. The music made the pounding audio bearable—guitarist Noel Hogan’s Johnny Marr-inspired rhythms shimmered, while his brother, bassist Mike Hogan, jammed with drummer Fergal Lawler (the culprit of the relentless thumping sound) to keep the tempo relentlessly upbeat.

Singer Dolores O’Riordan was a delightful presence. Her trademark vocals—a fusion of an angelic choir leader and a dangerous siren—showed no sign of wear and tear since the band came on the scene in the early 1990s.

She was a bundle of energy, her dance moves consisting of a vigorous and well-timed shaking of arms and body, sometimes breaking into a vintage twist, other times headbanging like a goddess-icon of heavy metal music—except that the band’s music was closer to New Wave via The Smiths, with touches of folk as in Celtic.

DRUMMER Fergal Lawler

There was much to enjoy in the band’s lesser-known tracks, including the tribal beats and voodoo guitars in “How,” the high energy in “Just My Imagination” and “Desperate Andy,” and the intense feelings in “Can’t Be With You”—even as the big hits “Linger,” “Ode To My Family,” and “Zombie” drove the fans crazy.

BASSIST Mike Hogan

Dolores is 40 but it suited her fine to groove to the vintage doo-wop sound in “When You’re Gone,” but she could easily go head-to-head with today’s female rock stars as she shimmied to the fast-paced numbers like a teener savoring her first summer holiday.

There were dark and somber moods, too, but the romantic desperation in “Losing My Mind” (from the 2011 album “Roses”) was difficult to absorb, especially with Dolores’ magnetism casting a spell on the rapturous women and wild men in the house.

Even the pitiful circumstance of the girl madly in love with her two-timing guy in “Linger” was hard to relate to, since all that mattered at that moment was Dolores warbling the chorus: “Do you have to let it linger.”

“Zombie” was about the political conflict in Northern Ireland, and the tension could be felt in the song’s droning guitars and foreboding rhythm. But it was an arduous task to feel indignant, mesmerized as the audience was with the singer’s yodeling.

The last encore number, “Salvation,” was a refreshing nod to punk rock, its anti-drug lyrics enhanced by the music’s onrushing beat.

GUITARIST Noel Hogan

When it was all over, the message was clear: Things can go hang, cuz rock ’n’ roll makes life bearable and exciting!

The tasteful zing in the group’s music matters to old fans and new converts. Dolores should take heed.  She’s too much of a performer to “be content with knitting at home, feeling like a granny.”

photos by Pocholo Concepcion