Friday, June 26, 2009

Michael Jackson...Enough said

So its been 5 hours or so since I watched in a local bar of the unconfirmed death of Michael Jackson. An unconfirmed death on Sky News? What sort of news channel reports that? But anyway as the story changed from in a coma to the final confirmed reports of the death of Michael Jackson the human shock of a musical genius who has been lost was realised. I have been switching between several news channels and this alone has proved his status world wide. For the first time in many years MTV have actually shown music videos and not reality shows that have nothing to do with music at all. Okay they are all MJ videos but if they need to get back to reality on MTV its on how good his videos were. On other stories its on who has been his friend the longest and who gave him the best advice and so on. Its all Mickey Mouse news and with no real content in it. We all knew who Michael Jackson was, we all knew what he did musically and we all know the legacy he has left. As the jokes flow in and the different reports, we can all be assured that no matter what we may think, we all have, will and still listen to the music he has created! (Photo is of Michael Jackson and Will.I.Am recording in Ireland)

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Two musical experiences!

So 22 weeks later and I arrive back on homeland! Ah yes less noisey, smaller buildings and not as much tipping! Or paying tax that we are aware of anyway! Memories of everything I did and took part in will more than likely change a bit of my life but sometimes the gigs and shows I went to see still stood out. Not only because of a change of scenery and audience, but because of the opportunity we were given to see acts that we may not have taken notice of before. My memory has never been the best so I cant list off the bands we seen in order but I remember most of them. The most prominent would have to be Tim Fite who I enjoyed so much I went to see him again. Arriving at the gig first off in Brooklyn we had no clue who was playing - and we only really found out from two chaps who had driven all the way from Boston to see him play. (For some reason I doubt they drove back that night, legally anyway!) So after hearing praise for Tim we took a nice spot near the front to witness this supposedly great act! We certainly were not disappointed. From start to finish it was pure entertainment and random. Not something I am a fan of musically but this was something I had liked that night! So as always, whatever I think is good I normally spread the word as I did! Maybe a little too much! But never any harm introducing something new to the masses! Second time around we had decended on The Mercury Lounge in Manhattan where we staggered in. Sober I think? This time around we knew what to expect but as Tim was supporting it would obviously be a shorter set, maybe less of a stage act? Nope he satisfied just as he did a few months previous! Absolutely brilliant! So check him out! www.myspace.com/timfite And he has made sure Dublin will be on his hit list!



June 11th 2009, what to do? Birthdays only come once a year I think so when deciding what to do to "celebrate" was a tough choice. Three options...All extremely good. Option one : Tommy Tiernan, Ardal O'Hanlon and Dylan Moran all on the same line up! Handy! Option Two : Fleetwood Mac in Madison Square Garden. I had heard a few days before they would be playing The O2 but the difference was the ticket prices. I think the cheapest was 50 Dollars and the cheapest in Dublin is 80Euro ( I could be wrong about the Euro price) so Fleetwood Mac was looking like the good option! But then along come Band of Horses with their sold out gig in Carnegie Hall as option three. Acoustic, something they have not done before, sold out and of course Carnegie Hall where its not every day you get there. Feck it! We took our chances. Touts are not my favourite people but some interaction was needed. Tickets were 35 dollars each. So I wasnt going to pay anymore than that. ( I would have went to 40!) So as I told one tout I wanted four we were swarmed by all touts looking to get rid of the prized tickets asap! Eager - he offers me four up the front seats for 50 dollars a piece. Get the boat. 50 each! No way. Eventually he got pissed off, apparently he had tickets to get rid of up at Madison Square Garden so after a nice chat (not) we got them for 35 each ( a bargain considering he would have had to pay the booking fee - but fuck him! Thats what he gets!) One thing he wasnt was a liar. The seats were 5 rows from the front right smack bang in the middle! Couldnt have worked out better and option three turned out to be the best choice! As we took our seats, not something I am used to at gigs, the lights went down as they arrived on stage. This was going to be a good one. And once again I wasnt disappointed. A good two hour set was met with applause with some great tunes being presented. So one for the go see again book! As photos inside are not allowed we dodgeed the security guard to get photos after the show of the stage, as the security guard spotted us we ran through a door, not realising it was backstage, some security guard he was! Thats how we ended up meeting some of the band at the stage door...bang bang!
A huge thanks to all at The Music Slut for sorting us out with tickets to The Whip, Ida Maria, Tim Fite and many more! Without whom we would have never seen all the venues that New York has to offer.