Crowd-pleasing Westlife deliver wholesome predictability at first of 13 shows

If critics in the year 2001 had been asked to predict the future of music, few would have bet on Westlife being the band to jubilantly command a 13-night residency in Dublin’s Point Theatre an entire quarter of a century later.

Louis Walsh may have opined there were “no passengers” in the Sligo-Dublin pop act , but even among their own peer group (top 10-bothering whelps like Boyzone and Take That), Westlife were known as the tamer, safer, harmony-loving boy band option. A dance routine in Westlife’s world involved getting up off a bar stool. A change of direction meant a less syrupy ballad to cover. You did not need a trigger warning to listen to a Westlife record. Cool did not come knocking at this band’s door. Mammies loved them. They seemed relatable, likable and ephemeral.