Whelans, Dublin
It is a filthy day in Dublin; windy, wet and cold. Your clothes steam as you wheel case after case of equipment through the rustic front bar of Dublin's famous music place, Whelans, into the back room where the stage is, and then your head steams as you try to fit everything onto it. The television silently shows scenes of devastation from Madrid. There are people facing worse things today than a small stage and a large band.
Upstairs there is a grand Edwardian dressing room with a roaring fire where you can warm your shoes and look out at the rain and discuss the situation in the Colonies.
Since Whelans is small, it doesn't take much for it to be filled with people (some of them soft-faced Dublin lasses with delicious accents), and they are a joy to play to from start to finish. When Matt is enjoying himself, the introductions for songs can go on for ten to twenty minutes. You turn me around is introduced with hand puppetry and a musical theatre-style accompaniment. You had to be there. We had been toying with the idea of playing Tongue-tied tonight, and because its guitar part is very similar to Another little hole, when we came to do Another little hole, I found I could only play Tongue-tied. My brain could not distinguish between the two, which was a shame since one is in 6/8 and the other is in 4/4. It's weird when your brain lets you down.
Afterwards we enjoy another disco loadout (this time with driving rain!), drop a lighting strut on a taxi, and then return to the opulent dressing room which gradually becomes the secret lock-in room for Locals, which includes Timmy and Brian from Bell X1.
More Guinness?
Why not?
