Great Gigs & Live Bands

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I know I’m probably gonna miss some but this is my openers. In order:

Trenchtown; (Nordy ska band & best live act I’ve ever witness)Sir Henry’s circa 1989 and again in Camden Town (could have been stoned clueless tho’)
The Pogues; Sir Henry’s circa 1988
Emotional Fish; Trinity Ball and a couple of weeks later in Henry’s 1989
My Bloody Valentine; Sir Henry’s 1988
Sonic Youth; McGonagles 1990
Ride; The Buttery 1990
B-52’s; Trinity Ball (can’t remember)
Kirsty McCall (as above)
Cranberries; Rock Garden 93?
The Waterboys; City Hall 88?

Honorable Mentions for some great gigs

Cypress Mine and Stump (Groupie maximus here btw)
Sugar Cubes
Style Council
The Beat
The Specials
MicroDisney
A-House
Bruce Springsteen
Meat Loaf (great all round show)
KD Lang

I’ll keep adding as some of the cobwebs scatter

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Never got into the gig scene as much as I should - don’t know why but never did.

Anyway a few special gigs from the last while:

REM (Ardgillan Castle 2005) - a boiling hot day. Great location. No queue to the bar. Excellnet support from Moby and of course most importantly REM rocked the place. That was the second time I saw them and I wasn’t loving them at that stage after Around the Sun but they were amazing.

Pixies (Phoenix Park 2004) - this was a kid who had Pixies written on his bag in first class so I eagerly awaited this comeback gig for years. Missed a quarter of it because misjudged the time they would start but it was stil incredible. No interaction with the crowd really. Just stopped playing one song and started the next. Left straight after, didnt stay for the Chillis.

The Pogues (RDS 2007) - All I can say about this is they did not play Lullaby of London and Broad Majestic Shannon but it was still one of the greatest ever…

Most disappointing:

Arcade Fire (Phoenix Park, 2007) - wrong venue, wrong crowd, wrong set. Still some good moments like Tunnels leading into The Well and the Lighthouse (their two best songs imo) but overall a disappointment

Whipping Boy (Olympia, 2006?) - Bandage provided me a ticket the day of the gig and we were sitting almost directly above the stage. I only really knew Heartworm at the time so found the set a bit predictable. Rock was standing and said it was smashing…

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How old are you, 50?

4

You can probably figure it out if I had the Pixies on my bag in first class in 1990 (around the time they were at their peak)?

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Ditto on both counts. I had originally bought tickets for the chilis but ended up completely ignoring them and went off and got hammered when they evetually came on. Couldn’t believe the Pixies were added as support. None of my friends were massive fans so I headed off my own and gazed in awe for the complete duration of the concert. As you said they just rolled out the classics one after another

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In no particular order and I’ll try and get the dates and venues right too…

Morrissey: The other night in Cork. Brilliant. 2nd time I’ve seen the great man. 1st was 2 years ago down in Killarney. That was better as I was just taken a back to see Mozzer.

Supergrass: The Olympia, 1998. At the height of their powers and were promoting the “In it for the Money” album. Also played tracks from a CD I picked up in the USA, a japanese import. Class

The Manics: San Francisco, 1999. Small venue, intimate if you will. Brilliant gig. About the best in fairness

The Pixies: Phoenix Park 2004. Can’t believe it’s been 4 years, time flys. Talk about a game of two halfs. Pixies were brilliant, as Farmer described. Chillies were absolute rubbish!

The Divine Comedy: The Savoy in Cork, 2001. They were breaking up and I thought I better go and see Neil and the boys. Great gig, they kept going in the end…

Tenacious D: RDS, 2006. Went with buddy of mine who we’d always joke about the 'D about at work and Mrs. Locke. Great gig, venue shit though (indoors, more of a shed). Ben and Jerry were mere buns in the oven the same day; their first gig if you will…

REM: Slane 2005. Thought REM were muck to be honest but Oasis rocked. Was off my box the same day on drink and the heat was something we don’t get these days. Saw Oasis again in the Pairc in 2006, great gig but not the same as Slane

Feile in Thurlas: Lots of different acts: Crowded house, INXS, The stunning, Therapy?, Maddness… class.

I’ll come back to this thread. Loads more…

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Two Best Gigs I’ve Been At:
Radiohead Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon July 2002. This was their first gig in a couple of years and they were writing Hail To The Thief at this time. Gig was divided in two with them playing eight new songs first and then twenty old songs after. Fantastic atmosphere and the band were superb. New songs sounded fantastic at the time.

Interpol Oxegen 2006. Saw them play for the second time in one of the tented stages. Really great gig. Sound was amazing and atmosphere was superb. Set was made up of songs from Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics. Think they were the only band I was interested in seeing at Oxegen but they were worth it.

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Jesus Christ Farmer, God makes you tall enough to actually see the band on stage and you don’t even bother to go to any gigs. I hope you go to hell!

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Farmer - the ageist comment was addressed to the OP - we were obviously typing up our posts at the same time.

Pixies in the Park in 2004 was indeed a glorious, glorious performance. Chillies were indeed rubbish. Went with my now ex-bird (she bought me the tickets for my birthday), Bohs had been beaten by Rovers in an early kick-off on the Saturday lunchtime but Black Francis & co did a hell of a job cheering me up later in the afternoon. Still managed to have a row with the missus later in the day though.

Blur - Point Depot 1997, promoting the Blur album I think, cracking performance
Manics - Thurles 97ish, my first time seeing them, have seen them around 10 times since but that was probably the best
REM - Glastonbury 99 - triumphant
Beautiful South - also Glasto 99 - the sun, beer, just finished my Leaving Cert repeat and was on top of the world

New Order at Oxegen a few years back is probably the best gig I’ve ever been at though, it was pure pure class.

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[quote=“Sledgehammer”]Farmer - the ageist comment was addressed to the OP - we were obviously typing up our posts at the same time.

Pixies in the Park in 2004 was indeed a glorious, glorious performance. Chillies were indeed rubbish. Went with my now ex-bird (she bought me the tickets for my birthday), Bohs had been beaten by Rovers in an early kick-off on the Saturday lunchtime but Black Francis & co did a hell of a job cheering me up later in the afternoon. Still managed to have a row with the missus later in the day though.

Blur - Point Depot 1997, promoting the Blur album I think, cracking performance
Manics - Thurles 97ish, my first time seeing them, have seen them around 10 times since but that was probably the best
REM - Glastonbury 99 - triumphant
Beautiful South - also Glasto 99 - the sun, beer, just finished my Leaving Cert repeat and was on top of the world

New Order at Oxegen a few years back is probably the best gig I’ve ever been at though, it was pure pure class.[/quote]

Saw the full original New Order line up back in the day; think it was in the original Marquee if it wasn’t then it was Mean Fiddler. Cant remember. Didn’t include it in the list 'cause the sound was shite. Must have been the old Marquee then.

BTW I’m 40

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You’re obviously not a lady then as if you were you’d have taken grave offence to my original comment, for which I will now take the liberty of apologising. Are you married/taken?

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Saw OCS in the Olympia some time around 1998, awesome

Oasis first ever live Irish performance in the Point 95/96, Liam threw a strop and Noel played acoustic for ages

U2 in PuiC around 93/94, first big gig, achtung baby tour, great stuff

The Stunning, Conollys of Leap, many times, how many stunnig fans can you fit in a samll live venue in the middle of nowhere, answer a fookin lot. Belting out the hits

Does Tiesto count? Saw him in Amsterdam a number of years back, an experience

13

Not much of a gig-goer either but I’ll go with:

2007 - Arcade Fire - MEN Arena - Super venue, super band. Pity Liverpool couldn’t do the business the following day to make it the weekend it could’ve been.

2007 (?) - Damien Dempsey - Vicar Street - There with Bandage, therock67 and cullyeile. Was Jack Flash there? Might’ve been 2006 but it’s the only time I’ve seen Damo and it brought tears to my eyes.

2007 (?) - Bloc Party - Ambassador - Probably the best venue I’ve been in, really intimate and they fooking rocked the place. Jugs and Bandage were also in attendance and after the gig was an infamous might in the Harbo with chair-robbing and all sorts of hijinx.

2001 - U2/Moby/to a lesser extent Ash - Slane (2nd gig) - love U2 so this was going to be special. Moby was class in getting the crowd revved up. Credit to Ash also.

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Some memory on ye to remember the years

Probably 2005(not sure, there first visit to Ireland) Velvet Revolver at the Point, was stone sober at it and it was savage

The Pogues, there Christmas shows every year up to 2006

Shane McGowan and The Popes in the Quays in Galway probably around 2004/05 again. Probably the best craic I’ve ever had at a gig. McGowan had his leg broke after falling getting off a plane langers in Dublin airport. They didn’t appear on stage til near 1am as one of the Popes was unconscious from beer and the quays staff were plying him with coffee for 2hours trying to sober him up.
6bouncers carry McGowan in a wheelchair to the stage to start off the gig and they play til about 3am. I got my last drink near 3.30am. On his finale I was gone stone mad on the tiny dance floor and a black bra mysteriously lands on my shoulder, I throw it up on stage and it lands on Shanes head. He’s so pissed he doesn’t cop and carries on singing and a bouncer has to retrieve the bra off his head during mid-song, crazy stuff.

The Sawdoctors throughout the years especially in the small pokey venues for good clean bogger fun.

15

Was at that Pixies gig in the park too, brilliant they just beat the piss out of the Chillis so bad, you could see the fear in the eyes of the kids there to see the RHCPs. They just stomped through their whole set basically without a break. After that I just got the fcuk out of there and lay on the grass for the whole chillis set which I had little interest in. For me the Pixies destroyed them, but it was gas to talk to an amount of people afterwards who thought the opposite. Not for me.

Other memorable gigs…

Whipping Boy - Warwick Hotel Galway - 95ish
Great gig, Ferghal jumped into the crowd a few times. Introduced one song as “Run to You” before playing something else…funny.

Radiohead - Castlegar GAA - 95ish
One of my first big outdoor gigs, excellent set list from the Bends tour.

Radiohead - Big Top Punchestown - 2001ish
Brilliant atmospheric gig, while they were promoting ‘Kid A’

Super Furry Animals - Olympia Theatre - 2006ish
Came on stage aboard a gold buggy, nuff said. Very good.

Manic Street Preachers - Semple Stadium 96ish
Excellent, supported the Prodigy the same day, really good show.

Elbow - Vicar St - 2008
Excellent.

Morrissey - Dublin Castle 2005ish
Came on stage to announce the demise of Ronald Reagan…great gig!

Hall of Shame gig… Ian Brown Ambassador 2006, truly dire sound.

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[quote=“balloobasluvsbeer”]
Shane McGowan and The Popes in the Quays in Galway probably around 2004/05 again. Probably the best craic I’ve ever had at a gig. McGowan had his leg broke after falling getting off a plane langers in Dublin airport. They didn’t appear on stage til near 1am as one of the Popes was unconscious from beer and the quays staff were plying him with coffee for 2hours trying to sober him up.
6bouncers carry McGowan in a wheelchair to the stage to start off the gig and they play til about 3am. I got my last drink near 3.30am. On his finale I was gone stone mad on the tiny dance floor and a black bra mysteriously lands on my shoulder, I throw it up on stage and it lands on Shanes head. He’s so pissed he doesn’t cop and carries on singing and a bouncer has to retrieve the bra off his head during mid-song, crazy stuff. [/quote]

I saw McGowan at the Freshers Ball in UCD one year and he came on stage in a wheelchair and played a storming set. Around the back of the stage after the gig he actually took a piss while still sitting in the wheelchair, which prompted hysterical cheering from the 15 or so of us who witnessed it. But pathetic but there you go, music does these things to people. Aslan played the same night and played a decent enough set.

17

[quote=“farmerinthecity”]Never got into the gig scene as much as I should - don’t know why but never did.

Anyway a few special gigs from the last while:

REM (Ardgillan Castle 2005) - a boiling hot day. Great location. No queue to the bar. Excellnet support from Moby and of course most importantly REM rocked the place. That was the second time I saw them and I wasn’t loving them at that stage after Around the Sun but they were amazing.

Pixies (Phoenix Park 2004) - this was a kid who had Pixies written on his bag in first class so I eagerly awaited this comeback gig for years. Missed a quarter of it because misjudged the time they would start but it was stil incredible. No interaction with the crowd really. Just stopped playing one song and started the next. Left straight after, didnt stay for the Chillis.

The Pogues (RDS 2007) - All I can say about this is they did not play Lullaby of London and Broad Majestic Shannon but it was still one of the greatest ever…

Most disappointing:

Arcade Fire (Phoenix Park, 2007) - wrong venue, wrong crowd, wrong set. Still some good moments like Tunnels leading into The Well and the Lighthouse (their two best songs imo) but overall a disappointment

Whipping Boy (Olympia, 2006?) - Bandage provided me a ticket the day of the gig and we were sitting almost directly above the stage. I only really knew Heartworm at the time so found the set a bit predictable. Rock was standing and said it was smashing…[/quote]

enjoyed the ardgillan castle gig myself farmer - great setting
the pogues at christmas is always a deadly show too
Esbjorn Svensson Trio in vicar street was brilliant

18

saw mcgowan in the olympia when he was in the wheelchair - he got sick on himself- i fucked my shoe at him & got fucked out-i walked in through the bolted door & did it all again, then threw a bin in the window & got arrested - spent the night in the drunk tank - as far as i waa concerned the incidents that night were done in his honour

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Agree about the Ambassador. Went to see The Polyphonic Spree there about 4 years ago. Fantastic atmosphere. Really laid back venue.

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Shane would be proud of you that night NCC