what an AMAZING weekend! you cannot go wrong when you get down to dublin and the young dubliners are playing. add to that a phone call to beverly while they were playing (and it turns out her FIRST phone call on her BRAND NEW IPHONE being set up in the apple store) and it made their the all the more interesting. next up were the elders (the PRIDE of kansas city) in their FIRST showing at dublin. let’s just say, they WILL be asked back! finally, the band that is crazy enough (and well liked enough) to play friday night in dublin before driving to waterloo, iowa for another show, the ALWAYS entertaining gaelic storm. even with a few audio glitches, the boys (and girl) never fail to disappoint and put on a set that rocked the house. after having been busy all day before getting down to dublin, i turned in early (around 3AM) and did not really stay around for the seisuns. for friday’s photos, look HERE
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saturday started off by heading to the band homeland. although they are local, i will stack them up against any of the bands that come in for the fest from around the world. led by scott mcgillvray, homeland just ROCKED the house. then it was time to chase all the way over to the other side of the festival. after catching what was my most memorable golf cart ride ever (thank you to a certain someone who knows who they are) we caught a set by the incomparable moya brennan (of her own and clannad fame) whose band included the amazing cormac des barra on harp, sinead madden on fiddle, and her daughter aisling on guitar. AMAZING, just AMAZING! next up, the multi-talented step crew. combining irish step dance, master fiddle playing and a bit of humor, cara butler, jon pilatzke, dan stacey, and the rest of the gang are a whirlwind of both dance and music. if you ever get to see them, i HIGHLY recommend it!
working my way back to the main stage, i caught the ALWAYS entertaining mossy moran, and the absolutely hysterical tartan terrors. i got back in time to catch another incredible group, barleyjuice. led by kyf brewer, these guys come at you with an incredible sound that will leave you musically satisfied even if you saw NO OTHER band that weekend. deciding to stay at that stage for the rest of the night (great music and a chocolate banana also helped keep me there). next up, were the tossers from chicago. these guys (and woman) can rock your face off! they are also very interesting golf cart drivers (see the photos in the zenfolio gallery!). so, how do you top all of this? with the young dubs, of course! fantastic as usual, one had to feel a little bad for the band as once their set ended, they had to drive straight to waterloo iowa to perform at a festival on sunday.
but the festival doesn’t REALLY end at 11:00. heading back to the host hotel for the bar, a seisun led by cathy jordan (of dervish) and john doyle broke out at our little table in the corner of the bar. it eventually grew to about 12 players before the bar manager almost had a heart attack while trying to shut everything down at 2:20 AM, and then it moved out into the hallway where i decided to call it a night at about 5am with the music still playing.
for the rest of the photos from saturday, look in THIS gallery.
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sunday! day 3 of trying to kill my liver while listening to great music! no, i did not get up early enough to see the druid service, but i did catch up with the always entertaining roger drawdy and the firestarters. next up, was barleyjuice again, followed by another great performance of step crew.
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i was on my way back to the main stage at 4:30, when the weather decided it was not going to cooperate on this day. with big storms in the area, all of the stages were shut down and people ordered to take cover in the rec center. a lot of the musicians made it back to the operations office, and of course, a seisun broke out there! at 5:30 ALL of the stages except the finale were closed down for the night (denying scythian a whole set after driving from iowa, poor guys) and then at 6 it was decided there would be an extra long finale. led by cathy jordan of dervish, the finale was a great send-off to a great weekend!
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for pictures from sunday, look HERE
