Concert Reviews

14.05.2005 The Point, Dublin QUEEN & PAUL RODGERS € 70,95 18 years after their last tour and 14 years after Freddie Mercury’s AIDS – related death in November 1991 Queen are back. The band that struggled for over a decade in the quest to replace Mercury finally found a match in Ex – “Free” Front man Paul Rodgers. This is a highly anticipated tour – living legends live in Dublin. As a matter of fact, the Dublin gig is the last gig of the tour and the Point seems to be sold out. Around 9 p.m. Queen and Paul hit the stage and play classic after classic for the next 2 ¼ hours. The mood is infectious and Roger Taylor and Brian May accompanied by world class musicians are simply amazing. Brian has two solo parts where he sings with the crowd and where he plays a massive guitar solo. Needless to mention that the Queen production is big. The sound is massive and the visuals match the music. Roger Taylor also sings a couple of songs on his own including “Say it is not true” against HIV. All...

27.02.2005 Whelans, Camden Street, Dublin: PAUL DI´ANNO Special Guests: € 17,- “Bruce Dickinson IS the best singer of Maiden … “ (Quote, Paul Di`Anno) – but that doesn’t mean that Di´Anno isn’t a great singer himself. After all, it was his voice that made Iron Maiden famous in the first place. When Maiden exploded, rumour has it, Di´Anno couldn’t handle the pressure that came along with fame. But all that is ages ago and Di´Anno is back on track and back on the road. Or, is he? Apparently not. Shortly after 8p.m. the first of two support bands “Involution” started the evening off with a four-song set. Unfortunately, the songs weren’t any good and nobody seemed to have liked them. So: No points for “Involution”. Almost immediately after “Involution”, “Scavenger” hit the stage to play seven songs to the audience. The songs were way better than “Involution’s” and the audience was way more supportive. Scavengers singer pointed out that Paul Di´Anno is pretty pissed off because England lost...

25.02.2005 Vicar Street, Dublin ERASURE € 41,50 Support: Piney Gir It has been a while since Erasure embarked on a tour therefore it is no surprise that nearly all gigs are sold out. The Erasure tour kicked off in Belfast only a day before Erasure hits the republic of Ireland for a two nights sold out performance at the Vicar Street. As a life long fan I have been waiting for this event for years. The tour supports their new album: “Nightbird” – truly: Erasure’s best album in years. Female vocalist Piney Gir supported by two Gentlemen on the keys opens up for Erasure. She uses a very old Yamaha SHS – 10 keyboard and a Casio DG-20 to make her music sound “old” or at least old fashioned and herself is wearing a fifties style petticoat. As interesting as she may look – the music cannot score at all. To describe it as strange wouldn’t do it any justice. She is reminiscent of Björk at times but hasn’t got her grace. None of the songs really grab the attention of the audience and even thoug...

02.07.2005 RDS Arena, Dublin ELTON JOHN Support: James Blunt, Rufus Wainwright The concert day coincided with the historical LIVE8 concerts, once more organised by Sir Bob Geldof. This time Geldof had arranged 9 concerts simultaneously around the globe. “Make poverty history” was the slogan used for the events. All concerts were entrance free. “We don’t want your money – we want your name” (Geldof) – the name was wanted on the pledge to make poverty history, available on the especially created Website: www.live8live.com - 9 cities, 150 bands, 2 million spectators, 3.8 billion viewers! Due to the fact that Elton John was performing @ LIVE8 in London earlier in the day the gates of the RDS opened at 1p.m. and from 2 p.m. onwards LIVE8 was broadcasted on big screens until 6p.m., the time when James Blunt plus band was coming on stage. Blunt was very nice and his songs were all well interpreted by him and his band. The songs are all love songs really and their 40 minutes set was nice to l...

DURAN DURAN Birmingham Football Club, 28th May 2005 Support: The Bravery, Daniel Bedingfield ₤ 45,- Wow! That really was a superb experience. Only a 25min. walk from the hotel brought us to the stadium. We booked and paid the tickets months ago per credit card and Ticketmaster™ UK failed to send the tickets to us on time therefore we ended up in a long queue to finally get our tickets on the day of the event. Fortunately the entrance 6: “Seating Blocks 25 – 35” was next to the ticket desk so we didn’t have to look any further and decided to take another stroll through the city instead of waiting for the stadium to open alongside all the others who only got standing tickets. The stadium opened its gates around 3.30 p.m. and the show finally kicked off around 6.20p.m. when The Bravery from America came on stage. The sound quality wasn’t great and so the songs did not really catch my attention. The sound got better towards the end of their rather short set and what I could hear was quite ...

02.08.2004 Gaiety Theatre / Dublin RIVERDANCE We were sitting in row E on the seats 18 and 19 just a few metres away from the stage. Riverdance lived up to its promise to be one of the best performances ever. In general the play depicts scenes from the great Irish famine, slavery and from the time when the Iriah fled in their thousands to escape starvation. The stage lighting and numerous slideshows add value to the stunning performance of Irish dance. Very well done was the scene in which black American guys were dancing in the streets and where there was a competition between them and the newly arrived Irish chaps. The ensemble consists of approximately 25 performers and there is an excellent five piece band backing them up musically. Vocally there is this massive black fellow who sings: “There life can be golden if your heart unfolds” referring to slavery. The evening is full of diversity and yet everything fits neatly. A superb experience and good value for money. Riverdance ***

20th October 2004 St. Mary´s Pro Cathedral, Dublin HARLEM GOSPEL CHOIR When my mother visited me over here in Ireland two years ago we couldn’t get tickets for the world famous Harlem Gospel Choir. She passed away in April this year and now they are on tour again. My son was visiting me for the first time ever and we went to see the choir and in retro-spective honoured my mum that way. The church was packed and the choir lived up to its expectation. Among well known church songs the choir also performed songs from artists such as the likes of R. Kelly and the Beatles and their voices were great. It was a nice evening in the midst of a nice church and as the choir sang: “It’s a mighty good thing to be chosen by god” … *** Super

26th October 2004 Olympia Theatre, Dublin WHITESNAKE, support: Ham Sandwich “Ham Sandwich” replaced “The Quire boys” as Whitesnake´s support act and their 30 minutes set was not a very good one. The songs lacked originality and the crazy behaviour of Ham Sandwich’s guitar player couldn´t make up for it. Although their female singer had a nice voice and was nice to look at they didn’t quite spark. Not good at all Just 10 minutes later “Whitesnake” hit the stage for a 2-hour happening at the Olympia. Me, my girlfriend and my son Kevin happened to be at the front row, directly in front of a huge set of speakers and we were blown away in the very sense of the word. David Coverdale, already 53 years of age, still behaved as if he would be in his late teens and his attitude was not always nice: He is a real fucked up rock and roll singer !! And people like him for it. The band itself was as brilliant as a band can be. They were really friendly, outgoing and passionate musicians and nice to w...

17.07.2004 RDS Arena / Dublin SIMON & GARFUNKEL Support. The Everly Brothers It was really sunny day and we knew that this gig was going to be sold out. The concert was supposed to start at 8pm and the gates opened around 5 p.m. We made our way to the RDS Arena in Ballsbridge around 1 p.m. and the event staff at the gates were very friendly. They gave us blue ribbons so that we could wander off again but still could be in the very first row in the pitch area later during the show. The place was really crowded and just standing behind the barriers from 5 until 8 p.m. was torture. Finally Simon and Garfunkel kicked off their “old friends” tour at 8.15p.m. The huge stage offered a good view at the artists and due to big screens to the left and right of the stage it didn’t really matter that they were a good bit away from us. The chemistry between Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel wasn’t brilliant but the material and their performance was superb – after all: They are living legends. Simon...