The Santanas and V-Sensei mosh up the Workman’s Club

Co-headliners the Santanas, brothers from Balbriggan, and Victor Makinde, stage name V-Sensei, climaxed a big night of music at the Workman’s in late Feburary.

They topped a bill that included Jaq-Reidy, Infandum, GNS (Themba Mwenelupembe), Joe Butler and Dio Bando.

Upon arriving at the venue, you could see there was a lot of space for a mosh pit – an area front and centre where moshers jump, bump and slam into each other – common when the artist’s performance involves hyping up the crowd.

Between sets, the DJ at the back played songs from more well-known artists like Pop Smoke and Ice Spice. The lighting was purple and white which added a disco vibe to the event. It felt like you could just relax and sway your body – like you were in some sort of music video shot in a school hall.

Opening act Infandum started with his single, ‘One Take’. It was a good decision for him to open the show with his one released song, because he wouldn’t have been able to hold the audience for long. Then he performed freestyles for the crowd and they were pretty good – with a Mac Miller-2000s flow to them.

He kept the audience entertained by including them in his freestyles, asking them to give him words to rhyme.

Next up was Jaq Reidy, coming on with quirky and upbeat energy. Before he even started performing, many people rushed to the front of the stage to get as close as they could to Reidy.

His performance did not disappoint, with songs like ‘TONY DANZA!’ and ‘BROKE!’. (He is a big fan of capitals letters and exclamation marks.)

He got the whole crowd jumping and chanting his name. He even attempted to create a mosh pit and despite not that many people joining, he carried on.

The venue became unglued when Reidy brought out V-Sensei during his set and the two performed ‘BRUCE WAYNE’ and unreleased music theY have together.

The two acts had good chemistry on stage and bounceD off each other smoothly.

Before the concert, Victor Makinde spoke about some of his goals when it comes to making music, he said “I’m really doing this for myself and my mama. I’ve found peace and happiness through writing and producing music.

“Having such supportive friends and family helps me want to achieve the highest accolades one can achieve in music, so, yeah, that’s pretty much the goal with my music career, but who knows, anything can happen,” he continued.

During V-Sensei’s set, he performed hit songs, ‘Conviction’ and ‘Blue On Blue’. During his set that he brought Joe Butler, Dio Bando and GNS on to the stage to perform and promote songs they have coming out within the next couple of months.

He also performed ‘Model’, his newest release with Bando. He even went topless and he was very amped up during this song.

WhilE performing with GNS, V-Sensei announced that he and GNS have a new single coming out on March 14 called, ‘Love a Lie’.

V-Sensei’s performance was by far the best of the night – filled with energy and enough beautiful melodies for him to exit the stage with the whole crowd clapping and cheering his name.

Finally, in the last act of the show, The Santanas entered the stage and it felt like the entire of Balbriggan came to see their ‘hometown heroes’ perform.

The moment they came on stage was filled with raw energy and a lot of jumping. They were able to bounce off each other very nicely despite there being a lot of acts on-stage. They performed ‘Sin City’ and ‘Breakfast’.

After performing their last song, ‘The Greatest’, they were able to send the crowd home happy with a night to remember.

Many of these artists are up and coming in Ireland and will be back at the Workmans this month.