Abuse your Illusion

For me, last Friday was a busy night. Not only did I get to do some great whiskey tasting at the Dublin Whiskey Festival, I made it to Fibber Magees in time to catch a Guns and Roses Tribute (cover) band, called Abuse Your Illusion.

The band started at 11 PM, and did a full 2 hour set covering all of the best Guns and Roses songs. The above is some of the highlights and photos put together into “video” format. (Sorry it’s a bit far back as I was at the back – to avoid the front pit.) Overall, the crowd was pretty great, and as you can hear from the video, they were singing along to everything from Patience, to Sweet Child o’mine to November Rain, to Paradise City, and Knocking on Heaven’s Door, and Live & Let Die. I can’t imagine how hot the band was (under the spotlights and in costume) but they really had down the mannerisms and sound of the original. They were brilliant, and I look forward to going again when they’re in town.

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Australian Pink Floyd

Australian Pink Floyd

Tuesday night, I was fortunate enough to head to the Australian Pink Floyd performance at the Olympia theater. It was sold out and deservedly so!

Australian Pink Floyd

While my seat wasn’t the best (behind a column) the performance was amazing. They had a huge round screen set up, lasers, smoke and that was just the beginning. Their musical sound was tight and super spot on to the original Pink Floyd that we all know and love.

Australian Pink Floyd

The best part was really the crowd though. As the concert began, everyone was quiet and listening. However as the performance went on, folks became more animated, clapping, whooping and whistling. Then… during Comfortably Numb (and from that point on) the entire audience was participating – doing what can only be described as a “Pink Floyd Sing along”. I love it when that happens – it’s like the entire crowd takes over, starts singing – and all that’s needed is the band for the background music. It’s those moments where you really feel inspired, and like everything else strips away – and there is only the music and we are all the “musicians”.

If you get the chance to go see the Australian Pink Floyd Live, I’d recommend it. (Just watch out for the obstructed view seats at the theater!) You can find out more about when /where their performances will happen on their website at http://www.aussiefloyd.com.

Australian Pink Floyd

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Swing, Swing, Swing

Yesterday, I told you about the visit to the Vintage Cocktail Club, and the ritzy start to the evening. After leaving the club, we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant and then headed on to the Button Factory. I’d been dying for about 3 weeks to go see the Swing Cats – but tickets were 20 Euro. It seemed a bit steep – but when the offer came up for 2 for 1 tickets on one of the local discounter websites, I couldn’t pass it up.

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Dressed up in a swing style outfit and ready to boogie, I switched from my flat shoes into my 3 inch high “dancing shoes” upon our arrival. It was about 7:50pm, and the place was already nice and full. The opening act was a trio of French girls – performing Andrews Sisters tunes. They did excellent covers of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree, and Bushel and a Peck. They were fab, but it was only as we went into the main show that I realized I wasn’t enamored of the set up.

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The stage was great – but as you can see from the pictures below, the Button Factory had tables all over the hardwood dance floor – while the people who wanted to dance were jammed into the back entrance area near the stairs (this meant limited dance space – as only 2-3 couples could be there at a time and were constantly jostling with folks trying to get to the bar). And worse yet – they had a balcony with seating area that was almost completely deserted! (Had it been me, I would have moved the tables – opened the space closer the stage for those that wanted to dance – and had people who wanted to just “watch” sit in the balcony… but it wasn’t, so I made the best of it and danced when I could – while totally enjoying the music.) That being said, the band was great.

The Swing Cats are an Irish band that plays big band era music. Every thing they do is designed for Swing Dancing (aka West Coast Swing / Jitterbug / Lindy Hop) and tonight’s presentation was called “The Story of Swing”. I must say they covered everything. Starting out with some classic charleston, they quickly progressed through into classic big band era songs like Sing Sing, In the Mood, Pennsylvania 6-5000, and the Jungle Book.

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From there, they went on into the Rat Pack (They also introduced a “friend” to help them out with some classic Sinatra and Dean Martin), keeping us singing along, toe tapping, and moving like mad – before progressing into Bobby Darin’s Mack the Knife and then their version of Stray Cat Strut.

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After nearly 3 hours of their singing and my dancing my butt off (I had to switch back to the flat shoes part of the way through as my feet were done in), the Swing Cats left us breathless and concluded with a great rendition of New York, New York and got a standing ovation.

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It was a great show (I do think 20 euro is quite reasonable for the band now that I’ve seen them live). If you want you can check out some video at their website – http://www.theswingcats.ie/ and I’m sure you’ll be hoping they’re in town too.

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After this, we ended up walking over to the Gypsy Rose for a last couple drinks of the night (And a bit of acoustic metallica covers) before heading home around 1 am. Good fun was had by all – and thankfully, there were no hangovers – and only sore feet. (photo below- one tired but happy girl) 🙂

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