A Love Letter to Music Venues

I was in Dublin city centre this morning for the first time in 12 months. The last time I was there was to see Jane Willow perform in the Cobblestone Pub on February 29th 2020. I never, not for a moment, thought things would turn out as they did. I was looking forward to a year full of gigs and excitement. I think we all know how that turned out.

After doing what I had to workwise, I took a spin around Dublin before I headed home. I drove by the aforementioned Cobblestone Pub, the Voodoo Lounge, The Grand Social, The Workmans Club, The Sugar Club and ended up outside Whelans.

I've had great nights out in each of those venues and in many more around the country! Dolans of Limerick, Crane Lane Theatre and Kino in Cork, Odd Mollies in Drogheda, the Moat Theatre in Naas, the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, the Solstice Arts Centre in Navan, Visual in Carlow... The list goes on and on.

2017 and Helmet played Whelans. There I am partying with them after the show. I've the photos, I know it happened! 2018 and I'm having a post gig drink with Steve Wickham in the Solstice Arts Centre. 2018 again and I'm with the Mindriot folk at Bear in the Woods. 2019 and I'm hanging out with the Stunning and the Frank and Walters at The Playing Fields in Clane. I even spent New Years Eve 2018 in Whelans with a great friend watching Mik Pyro play a blinder! We were the last punters to leave that night...

Those aren't me name dropping, they're just examples of the crazy stuff that can happen when you go to a gig here. Stuff happens, memories are made!

Every time I think of a good night out, I think of these places. Every single time. Even if I headed to a gig on my own, was I ever really alone? There was always someone there in the crowd I knew.

So, where was I going with this? Well, like many others, I miss these places, I miss these nights out with old friends, new friends or even alone. I miss the live music. Part of me is missing, a very important part of me. It's a hole I don't know how to fill with anything else. Again, like many others out there, these gigs are my happy place, a place where I can forget all the stresses and worries of everyday life, even if it is just for the night.

So yeah, I took a mini tour around some of these spots today and enjoyed the memories they brought back. I'm hopeful that later this year we will get to see live music again and that we get to make new memories and new friends once more.

The chances that any of those venues and their staff will read this post are slim, but you guys are more important than you probably realise. You keep me and many other people going, you keep our heads straight and we love you for that.

Until the next gig, stay safe!

2022-03-26 Buskers on Grafton Street, Dublin

I took a walk around Dublin today, thought I'd check out the buskers on Grafton Street. There's a fine history of busking in Dublin, acts like Hothouse Flowers , The Frames , Rodrigo y Gabriela , Damien Rice , Paddy Casey , Kodaline and a host of others all cut their teeth on and around Grafton Street. It stands to reason that some of those busking today will be successful in the future! So, who did I get to see today? Well, check out the photos below: Zoe Clarke Allie Sherlock Paul Jenkinson

Bye Bye Spotify...

I ditched Spotify Premium this weekend. Why? Well, I read an interview with Daniel Ek , the CEO of Spotify, and I profoundly disagreed with what he said and his attitude towards musicians in the interview. So I said 'F*ck it', and closed my premium account. I still do have a free account* as many bands choose Spotify to release their music, so I'll keep it for that reason. What now though? Well, I'd created a large library of music on my home server over the last 20 years or so. Every time I bought a CD, it got ripped to the server. Every time I bought digital music from Bandcamp , Google or 7 Digital , they too got stored on the server, and that was fine for home use, it worked well. But now I'd dumped Spotify, what could I do, how could I access my music outside the house? I'd played around with software called Plex a few years back, but had no use for it. I ended up doing nothing with Plex, but for this project, I decided to revisit it. I knew that i

Interview with King Kong Company

Originally published 10/09/2013 on Chunk.ie So, there I was, wandering around the Electric Picnic wondering who I was going to watch next. One of the lads said he had heard good things about King Kong Company and that we should check them out, so off we headed to the Body and Soul Arena to do just that. As I mentioned in my review of the Electric Picnic, the gig was epic. I figured we just had to interview them here on CHUNK.ie, and here it is! First things first, congratulations on a storming gig at the Electric Picnic. It completely blew me away. Was this your first Picnic experience? We’ve been to many Electric Picnics over the years but just as punters, and it’s always been a great festival, so it was a fantastic experience to play at its 10 year anniversary. King Kong Company is a rather interesting name for a band, where or how did you come up with it? The name is taken from the film Taxi Driver. If you look closely, Travis Bickle is wearing a badge which says King

IrishMJ

Search This Blog