Soooo… when traveling, as a music head, I always like to look and see who is playing wherever I am traveling too. Unless you're going to NYC, L.A., Austin, Nashville, Chicago, Minneapolis or Athens GA you are setting yourself up for a variety of disappointments. You will never find local bands unless you have a local source and even then it is hit or miss and national acts do not tour on your travel schedule but over the years I have been able to see some fabulous shows.
When I scheduled my Irish boondoggle with daughter I went online and after thrashing around found Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros were playing at the Olympia Theater in Dublin and after a little more thrashing around I found out that it was a very cool, historical venue. We have some great places to see shows in St. Louis. The Fox is of course in a class by itself but it is too big. This place had the same setup but it was intimate, more like The Blue Note in Columbia but without the cigarette burns on everything, the holes in the drywall, the lack of lighting, the building code violations and the smell of urine… everywhere.
I epically failed to get tickets because ticketmaster said the show was sold out. It was saddening and comforting at the same time to see that even our Irish brothers are beholden to the Ticket Monster Franchise. I was able to remember and become infuriated all over again about how long the process takes, how I can never read their code which allows them to allegedly stop the robo dialing scalpers (that is a lie) only to find they are “SOLD OUT”. I considered stubhub, but was scrambling at work to get out of town so… I guess what I am saying is that I got lazy and got cheap.
I arrived at the Dublin Airport at 9:00 Friday morning having slept about three hours on the plane. My daughter had a full day planned and we hit a lot of sites in downtown Dublin including Jamieson and a museum and we got me a gluten free lunch at The Millstone and then we were walking along and saw the Olympia. So I walked into venue and asked and the nice old Irish lady said “we just had a cancellation! So we bought and the tickets cost less than i would have paid online.
My daughter who was trying to take care of me helped track down a gluten free pizza place and painstakingly got directions. Our iPhones do not work apart from a WiFi so she got directions and took a screenshot and we headed to town in the rent a car. We did not count on dark and rain and my general stupidity and abject fear driving on the wrong side of the road. We never found the restaurant and ended up back by the theater where we got a burger and some wings and then knowing doors were at 7:30 with the opener at 8, we headed down casually around 8. The street was weirdly dark. Laura wanted a chocolate milk or something to take the burn out of her mouth from the wings but the grocery was dark as well. They were lined up 40 deep outside the theater. We were instructed to go down a side alley if we had balcony seats so we went down a dark alley using the phones as light. It all felt sketchy but by the side door we were told, “Power outage. At Least ½ hour.”
So we went and had a cocktail at “The Czech Inn and then the lights were still off so we got another cocktail at some place where we were speculating on the average patron’s drug life. As we walked around the corner, the lights popped on in the street and we knew all would be well.
As we got in the opener was conducting a sing along because they still had not completed sound check. It was charming I guess but the crowd was having none of it singing along to U-2 and getting to sing a particularly painful version of Wonderwall. Still, it was suitable to have another drink to and prepare for the main course.
After a brief break he comes out… with is band… and they keep coming out… and keep coming out. 9 players (2 drummers, keyboard, organ, multi instrument, guitar player, bass player, random percussionist, and another guitar player and a female backup. An 11 piece band? Really. When I was listening to him on Spotify I did not really get it. I get it now. Edward Sharpe is an:
1 Entertainer
2. Songwriter
3. Misanthrope
4. Band Leader
A band leader! A bandleader singer! Like Ricky Ricardo! But cooler, and not dead.
He kicked it off raucously with a song called “In The Summer” and for several songs just did whatever the audience shouted out and it was a lot of fun. There is a joy to a loose set list and there is a joy to a band that is comfortable enough in their gig and good enough to roll with it. It is not that easy a thing to find, especially with 11 people playing together. And Sharp is an entertainer. He patters with the crown, he shuffles around and does odd things with his hands...he whistles… and he sings.
He then lit into “I Don’t Want To Pray” which is at best an...irreligious (is that a word?) song. But it is a good song with a nice hook. He sang a few verses and then had band members and audience members make up verses and… it was fun. As the show went on his patter wandered more and more but was always entertaining and then he jumped off the stage and waded into the crowd and started singing down there with them. He was given a gift of Skittles which he shared. he explained to people that Dublin was the New orleans of Ireland. He told a long story about drawing a picture of sitting bull as a child and how it morphed instantaneously into a song… and he spoke of the beauty of melody.Finally, he gave everyone his hit du jut “Home” and though, after the raucous evening he was a little out of voice and whistle it was a celebration.
Live at Bonaroo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qa10--IPdI
He was forced to wrap up quickly because of the late start due to the power outage and announced to everyone’s dismay that there would be no encore. But daddy was ready to go home and I had the joy of seeing a guy who is absolutely at the top of his game. I got to see him with my daughter. I got to see him at a cool theater in a foreign country. Life is indeed. good
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