This blog post is a very important one for me, it is arguably the most prestigious concert to be hosted in the town of Athy since the days of the 60s, when Johnny Cash played the same venue.
For this particular post, I will be straying from my standard criteria that I have used in my previous posts as I believe this concert is impossible to rank among them due to its unique circumstances. Including, the wide variety of acts, the location and other factors.
This concert was put on as part of the Brigid festival in Kildare, with other events such as a similar concert hosted in Kildare town.
This was not a concert I was expecting to go to, I was actually away when it had been announced and due to it not being announced through the normal channels I did not hear about it until it sold out. But considering I am not a man who backs down at the words “sold out“ I managed to get myself some tickets.
I only managed to secure myself a pair of tickets two days before the actual event, for an incredibly reasonable price of €23.50.
The lineup for this concert is one of the most stacked lineups that I have seen outside of major festivals in this country.
Starting the concert off was a group of young musicians from a local school with their act entitled MOA, which stands for made of athy. This act played covers of songs made famous by people or bands with relation to the town of Athy, included in this were some of the young people in my local youth club which I work in, and I have to say I was incredibly proud of their amazing showmanship, musical talent and spectacular control of the crowd.
Next came on the first headline act of 5, yes, of 5, Robert Grace. Robert Grace is a man I have went to see before, and whom I have met twice now, and all times he has been incredibly friendly and warm to talk to. He did a set of some of his most popular hits to a crowd of people who, I imagine, most of wouldn’t know him, and he did absolutely brilliant, talking to some people I knew after the show they were all happily surprised at his songwriting talent, musical and singing abilities.
Next up came a classic of anything based in Athy to do with music should have, our very own Jack L. Growing up about a two minute walk from the venue he is incredibly popular worldwide within his own scene. I have to admit, I would have never listened to him and still may never will, but I can only applaud his performance at the concert, an incredible showman with an incredible voice, a great storyteller between songs and a great back and forth relationship with the crowd. He finished up with a cover of “Folsom Prison Blues”, in honour of the concert played by Johnny Cash there all those years ago.
Next up was a rarity in the live music scene, Danny O’Reilly, lead singer of the coronas performing solo, a very rare occurrence to see him performing without the full band. And what a delightful rarity it was, Danny’s musical ability and amazing singing and diction delighted the crowd, a large amount of which seemed to be present for him mainly. Including a beautiful acoustic version toy “Heroes or Ghosts” partially performing in the Irish language was an immense crowd pleaser and great way to finish off his set.
Next up came an act I was only semi-accustomed to, Amble. A new Irish-trad/folk trio from the midlands of Ireland. I had heard rumouring of them from here or there, one of my friends saw them in a lesser slot of electric picnic last year and said they were great, I’d heard about their string of Irish shows including three sold out nights at Dublins Olympia, which is no easy feat. And by god did they deliver on this small reputation they had built up in my head, they sang just three songs interspersed with stories about the band and their songwriting and each and every song could rank up in the greatest songs I have heard live. Only once before have I been truly floored by a piece of music live (The Dave Matthews Band and their song Gravedigger live) until that faithful Sunday. The song “Mary’s Pub” absolutely stumped me live, an absolutely amazing piece of music, incredible instrumentation and incredible lyrics, I am still in awe of that performance.
And last but certainly not least, the biggest name on the list, and another rarity to see perform solo without his band, Bob Geldof. It was genuine insanity to hear that Bob Geldof was playing in Athy, a town with less than 10,000 people, widely regarded as nothing but a commuter town, and Bob Geldof himself was to be there. Bob delivered an amazing set with his hits from The Boomtown Rats “Rat Trap” and “I Don’t Like Mondays”, and some of his solo work like the delightfully Irish sounding “Young and Sober” and finishing with a poetic reading of the lyrics followed by performance of “What’s so Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding.
This concert is hard to rank among my greatest concerts due to the sheer abnormality of it, but after sitting with it for the past few days I think I can easily rank it as possibly the best concert I have been to.
A combination of the venue, the performers, the local crowd and plain to see immense talent stuffed into a sports hall in Athy is something I have never seen, and maybe will never see again.
With this being the second major gig in this town following Johnny Marrs performance in June of last year I hope this is the start of something great for the town of Athy, both concerts were a huge success and were both sold out, I wonder who will come along next, time will tell.
Jays Concert Blog 