Reviews a week after a gig don’t generally make sense so I’m sorry. My excuse here is that a gig it took me two days to get over and then a further three days to get my act together and get the pictures up online whilst struggling to get coherent words together to get out into the blogosphere MUST have been good. That, and the fact that I haven’t written a review or well… anything on here in ages. (Again, my apologies.)
Probably Dublin’s worst kept secret started doing the rounds last week after it was announced Brendan “Bik” McFarlane was to play his first gig in Dublin. The secret being that Damien Dempsey was to share the stage with him in a fundraiser for the Preda foundation, an organisation whose purpose is the ” promotion and protection of the dignity and the Human Rights of the Filipino people, especially of women and children.” Initially to be held out in the Setanta Club in Ballymun, due to circumstances beyond the organisers control it was moved to Cassidy’s on Westmoreland Street in what I think may have been the first gig downstairs since its recent re-opening. DFallon has spoken of Cassidy’s highly on here before and I love the place so much its starting to vie with Brogan’s for my local, and thats saying something.
And what a night it turned out to be. There was nobody stealing the limelight at this gig, both of the lads more than willing to chat to the seventy or so people who paid in, mingling with the crowd and sharing the mic. There was definitely no headliner and no support, each of the lads equally supporting the other – Bik got up, then Damo, then Bik, the two of them, Damo again before it became a bit of a free for all. Cassidy’s was the perfect venue for the gig; no stage, no queue for the bar and an appreciative audience.
It is close to imposssible to pick out a highlight to be honest as it truly was an amazing night. If I had to pick one from each side though: From Bik’s set, Terrorist or Dreamer in particular the line “There’s tea and cakes in Downing Street, there’s whispers in the halls, let’s move to cure Rhodesia now our backs are to the wall,” and from Damo’s (though Bad Time Garda runs it close) was Colony, a song I’ve talked about my love of on here before. Special mention, too, goes to the joint effort for the Auld Triangle, dedicated to the Freedom Waves activists.
Its a strange one looking at it now. Generally when I take pictures on a night out, the quality diminishes along with my physical wellbeing… But the pictures from Saturday seem to improve as the night went on, and typically enough my battery died as the session got going properly and moved upstairs. This, unfortunately is where my memory starts to impair, maybe others who were at the gig can fill in the gaps but I do recall a group renditon of James Connolly at one stage and the barman singing a tune Sean-Nós to pindrop silence.
As you can see, we were in good company on the night, with Robert Ballagh, illustrator of the old pound notes and one of my favourite pieces of art making an appearence. Roll on the Christmas gigs in the Workmans, I’m going to try making all three…
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Photoset from the gig here.
Will Bik McFarlane be at the Christmas gig?
Small bit of footage – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19mOGA2LlgI
Just heard Galileo on the net from last nights Late date, it is the most fabulous of songs, as I wrote this line it reappeared as I had rewound it, I’m not mad on Damian’s other stuff but this is awe inspiring inspirational fictional documentary song writing.