October 25th, 2007
Is this the weirdest gig location of the year?
Previously flagged a couple of weeks back, the most excellent Cougar are playing Whelan’s on November 30th. News reached me last night that they’re playing a second date, December 1st. In Kilcoole. In County Wicklow. In a Scout Hall.
Apart from seeing Momus play a cinema (the Scala in London, where he nipped back to his flat around the corner mid-gig to get another guitar lead), Julian Cope play a rather stately room in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Death in June in a South London castle and Brainiac in Sudsy Malone’s (a launderette-come-venue where you got to watch bands from the vantage point of a washing machine and got in free to gigs if you brought your washing along) most gigs I’ve been to have been in the usual sweaty venues, tiny pubs, drafty arenas or in a field.
I’m sure there are far more exotic places to see a band - anyone got any?
If you can’t make Whelan’s, be sure to head for Kilcoole Scout Hall on December 1st. These guys didn’t make my best albums of 2006 list for nothing. Check out the track ‘Atlatl’ on their myspace page. Support on the night in Kilcoole comes from Halfset and fair play to Eoin from Enemies for organising it.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
There’s always the Union Chapel in Islington London…ok, it’s a functioning venue but it has the pews and all sorts. Saw Bjork, Arab Strap, Sparklehorse and Sigur Ros there. Needless to say I can die happy now.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
whoa, the tickets for cougar at whelan’s are only 13 euro! what a bargain. and Halfset are playing too. can’t wait.
i saw Fugazi play the local parish hall in kilkenny many years ago. it was an all ages gig. it’s probably the same deal for Cougar in the scout hall. Fair play. or should i say dib dib dib? (Sorry for that lapse into Russ Abbott style humour there.)
October 25th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Tanya, haven’t ever been there but it sounds cool. Sigur Ros in a church? Wow…
Sylvia, Halfset play the Kilcoole gig, not Whelan’s. There’s another support for that. I think it’s a night time gig, but I’ll check that out. Don’t worry, I almost put a “dib dib dib” in the post.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Hey sinead - Ian MacKaye’s band The Evens play a rake of not-the-norm venues in 2006, including the St Nicholas of Myra Parish Centre in Dublin and a church hall on Princess St in Cork.
It’s really cool and should happen more. It ensures the gigs are all-ages (because there’s no bar), attract a crowd other than the usual suspects and is full of people who are there to listen to the band and not chat away to their mates down the back of the room (as will inevitably happen at Whelan’s when Cougar and Efterklang and Dan Deacon play in the coming weeks)
October 26th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Great to see the Goosebank in the media spotlight. That’s St Patrick’s Hall, and is much more than just a scout hall Sinead - they have feis ceoils and 21s too.
Who are these Cougar lads? They look like a bunch of rotten mites!
October 26th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Dennis McNulty has performed his anti-tours in various apartments around the world. You make him dinner and he does a gig! http://www.dennismcnulty.com
Also, The Sick & Indigent Song Club recently played in a farmhouse in West Cork.
October 26th, 2007 at 11:04 am
This is a total coincidence, but your man Denis McNulty actually played a gig in my apartment block in Dublin city centre! He stuck a bit of paper on the entrance door saying that he was going to play in the courtyard. No mention of anyone cooking him dinner though! My flatmate went down to see him. I just presumed he was just some mite who thought he was a bit of a cool lad, so I didn’t bother.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Eh Sorry Jim, Have to pull you up on including Dan Deacon in that list. Efterklang yes but I personally guarantee that everyone in Whelans for Deacon will be acting like an aroused pack of hyenas and will not be standing down the back with their mates.
I bloody hope not anyway..
October 26th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Jeez Gleeson, have you been stalking me for years or what? I too remember the Julian Cope gig in the RHK, him and his big pointy hat that he wouldn’t let anyone touch - ‘Don’t touch the hat, man, the vibe is centred around the hat.’
Elsewhere you mentioned Kraftwerk - I too was very moved to see Kraftwerk at Electric Picnic - Stradbally is my home town you see and I remember being wowed by the ‘werk in the ‘bally playing in the field where I used to climb trees as a kid. Johnny Marr at the same venue this year brought a lump to my throat.
Other than that I once saw the Frames and many, many others play long into the night at a ’secret location’ gig in the dunes at Brittas Bay a few years back.
A strange bill of Mark Eitzl, Blind Boys of Alabama, and Green Day at a protest outside City Hall, San Francisco was fairly cool also.
October 26th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I saw many punk bands in the back room of a Philly Cheese Steak shop at 40th and Walnut back in the mid 80s. It was tiny and he had stacks of inventory around that we tried to ignore.
October 27th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
niall - i hope i’m wrong but whelan’s seems to have an unnatural attraction for people who want to pay in and chat to their friends all night long.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Yeh, sadly this is often too true. Hence, I try to avoid the venue as much as possible. It’s just not conductive to having a good time / dance.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:26 am
If not the weirdest, then definitely the coolest (sorry!):
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22666598-401,00.html
October 31st, 2007 at 11:12 am
hey sinead long time eh. congrats on new addition.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:47 pm
54quid for the PJ Harvey gig in the Olympia? How cheeky are promoters actually getting?Unreal
November 5th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
In Paris there are venues which are converted barges on the Seine - the Batofar(an Irish former lightship), the Alternat and the Cabaret Guinguette. The gig is in the hold of the barge, which is moored; you can feel the barge bob up and down on the water - and when you look out the porthole you can see boats going up and down, their wash lapping against the side of the barge. We were at a punk gig in the Alternat once; all the pogo-ing was (literally) rocking the boat…
…and PJ Harvey is charging from 52 to 79 euros for her gig in Paris, so it’s not just the Irish promoters’ fault. This time, at least