Cork Rocks. Too many musical acts to mention seen over four days!
September 23rd, 2008 by Frank
So apparently there was some kind of Culture night in Cork last Friday, I hadn’t a clue it was on until I stumbled across a friend of mine performing as part of it. Now, I don’t read the paper or listen to the radio, but I have loads of friends who do and nobody much seemed to know what was going on… so many cool events, why wasn’t this the talk of the town?
Pictured above is Chequerboard who was in the Vanguard Gallery on Friday from 5.30 to 10pm exhibiting some of his artwork and playing music from his album Penny Black. Chequerboard AKA John Lambert was in my class in college, which is how I heard of this event. I popped in, originally for twenty minutes and ended up staying about two hours listening to Johns chilled out choons as he layered up beautiful spanish guitar playing using pedals and other electronic equipment to create a full, rich, smooth organic sound.
After the Vanguard I headed onto Cyprus Avenue to see Fujiya & Miyagi (with support Project Jenny/Project Jan) both acts were superb, and after a brief stint in the Liquid Lounge which I wasn’t into I headed over to the Crane Lane where the atmosphere was more to my liking.
And the Crane Lane was where I found myself again the following night for Viking Moses. I arrived in time for the last song of the support act, Golden Ghost, which was excellent and I wished I had got there earlier. Viking Moses then started up… I thought at first I was listening to a sound check – the music started and ended abruptly and without warning, and the first two songs were so short they only served to confuse. The gig went on somewhat the same, with songs appearing to have no traditional structure, no beginings and no endings, but despite this I liked the sound.
I’ve read since that Viking Moses has gigged with the likes of Will Oldham, Cat Power, Six Organs of Admittance, Cass McCombs, Little Wings and Devandra Banhart, and I now wish I had bought a CD because I think the recorded material may surpass the live act.
Check out this track:
Viking Moses advised everybody to go see Bob Log III in the Crane lane on Monday night, and I had already been advised by several friends not to miss it, so I vowed to return, but in the meantime we still had Sunday to contend with, and on my way to meet someone for a coffee I wandered through Bishop Lucy Park (The Peace Park) where there was a mini festival going on… music, poetry, massages all kinds of things – again WHY DID I NOT HEAR ABOUT THIS???
Bobby lee and band were playing when I passed through, I went and grabbed my friends, sent out a few texts and relaxed in the park listening to excellent music. Bobby Lee got Sylvio up to do a Manu Chau song which rocked – Sylvio, if you read this, get your band back together, WE MISS YOU! Harry J and friends then played, followed by Aine Duffy who unfortunately only played three numbers, and finally Wiggle played out the mini festival and got the whole park dancing. Wiggle informed me their album is approaching readiness so watch for that!
After a more relaxed Sunday evening, we get to Monday when we head to Crane Lane at midnight for Bob Log III. I posted about Bob Log III already with YouTube videos, but let me just say this – YouTube does him no justice. The man is a LEGEND. UNBELIEVABLE. A sight to behold. I was dying with a cold but I dragged myself along to the gig, and I am not sorry. The energy and talent of this man is something else. Bob fucking Log people. Bob fucking Log. If you get the chance to see this man again, DO NOT MISS him.
A big shout out to Vicki and kate who sat on Bob Log’s knees, after much encouragement, for ‘I Want Your Shit On My Leg’ (where are the YouTube videos people?? I tried to capture it on my phone but is was too dark). Bob Log III was unable to find any Cork women willing to put their boob in his scotch though (see this YouTube clip from Adelaide for more on this).
So after four days of amazing musical outings, and with O’Death playing in Crane lane tomorrow night, I have to ask – has Cork always rocked like this if only I had ventured out more often???
Entries (RSS)
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
2 Bob Log shows in one night! I’m still smiling. Half tempted to get to Galway tonight!
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I wonder if Bob will get his boob scotch at any irish gig?
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Just noticed something Frank. The girl in the purple pants in the picture above Bob Log is the same one that sat on his left knee during ‘I’ve got your shit on my Knee.’
Wow!
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Leg. Not knee.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Well spotted my friend! You win the spot-the-girl-who-goes-to-all-the-same-gigs-as-us prize. Prize will be distributed at the next pub we’re in, prizes cannot be exchanged for cash.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:24 am
I dreamt about Bob log last night. That’s how much the gig affected me. I Dreamt he was sitting on my knee and Frank was on the other and I was singing ‘I want your shit off my knee!”
Brian you’re such a nerd.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:42 am
The last gig I dreamt about, now that I’m thinking about it was a gig in Leap by a band called Indecent exposure who were supporting the Dublin punk outfit, Striknien D.C.
The lead singer, Trevor indecent, pulled down his pants and played with his microscopic willy while singing ‘Ban the late late show’ That’s reality, not my dream, I’m not that warped. Any way, I was so horrified, I turned around to see if my friends were as equally horrified, while jumping around like a mad thing shouting ‘Ban the Late late show’ & ‘Gaybo is a wanker’ at the top of my lungs…. none of the lads seemed to be horrified as much as me and when I turned back to see if Trevor was still doing it, as i turned my face a big, warm, wet, oozing thing landed in my face.
Still reality.
Thankfully It didn’t turn out to be what I feared, it was just a gob of innocent phlegm. It caused much anguish though, for about a minute.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I got a bit of an insight into the creation of Bob yesterday when I bumped into the gig promoter in town.
Apparently he had been playing with another guy in a band in the nineties and they had a falling out before a show in someplace. They broke up but Bob took to the stage solo and did his One Man Band thing (not sure if there was a helmet involved at this stage) and got a great response. He sold a load of CDs of his then current band and shagged a new lady friend in a closet. He had an epiphany that evening and hasn’t looked back since!
Ed, I remember that night well, but what was happening in your dream?
Are you sure you’re not confusing a dream with the next time we saw Trev and Indecent Xposure? Remember, upstairs in McCabes, 14 people in the audience, Trev wiggling his pecker when an aged prostitute joined him on stage unannounced and writhed about with him after revealing the longest pair of breasts I’ve ever seen in my life. Val swears he got a semi hard-on that night. Trev did, not Val. Although now that I think about it I’m not sure what he meant.
That wasn’t your dream Ed. That was all real.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
September 24th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Right-o Frank.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Yup. Speechless.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
No Brian, I remember the McCabes Indecent Exposur gig very clearly. This one was in Leap. It was the striknein gig where paul calanan lost his glasses and Deko Dachau made everyone stop and look for them and then got pissed off and said fuck that.
The dream was that I dreamt that I was Trevor indecent but instead of a microscopic todger I had a gigantic one and when I pulled down my pants everyone fell to their knees and worshipped it.
And don’t give me any of that Freudian bullshit.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:50 am
OK Vitmar. Its rare to encounter somebody who would have been at both those gigs but outside my own circle of friends. I guess I’d know you to see but your name doesn’t ring a bell. Sorry Vitmar.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Darn, rumbled.
I actually had a dream about you recently too. i dreamt that you were moving out of your gaff and I needed a room so I moved in to your room. the only problem was that you lived in monkstown graveyard. You know, the one where your dad put the tin foil in the eye sockets of the skull so when people shone torches at night they would get a fright.
Well anyway, It was a perfectly normal house on the outside but it was built on the graveyard so your bedroom was full of old tombs and headstones and you slept in a broken old tomb.
I knew there was something wrong about the set up (in the dream) but couldn’t quite identify what it was so bedded up in a tomb.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Last night. for anyone who may be interested, I dreamt that I was out in the back yard in a bucket full of cockle shells.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I dreamt lastnight that I met a member of a popular Canadian Indie band and she was wearing an ill advised belly top and was very wrinkly and wore a too tight belt.
What did you dream about last night Frank?
September 25th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I dreamed Bob fucking Log III was playing a gig and the audience produced a little yellow boat into which he climbed and was crowd surfed around the room playing his demented music… oh, no hang on wait, that’s a TRUE STORY!!!!
September 25th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I have a bucket of cockle shells left over from when I went cockling (I’m learning self sufficient ways of eating from the land as my ‘armagedonitous’ (did I just invent a VERY usefull word??) is getting severe. In other words I am a confirmed ‘Armagedonasafarion (again!)
Anyway, I left the cockle shells out too long and these fucking strange little stick like insects, that swim sideways by snapping their tails and have little hooks for hangng on the underside of the waterskin have moved in to the bucket. I have been observing the insects and noting the change in their life cycle (some have lost their tails and are a bit fat looking) as they become something else. I don’t know what they will eventually become but am interested and hence my fascination with the cockle shell bucket and hence the dream of being in the cockle shell bucket.
Just in case you might have wondered why I dreamt that I was in a cockle shell bucket in the backyard.
September 25th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Actually ‘Apocolypsefarian’ is much better.
Apocolypsafarian: One who believes in the impending end of civilisation as we know it and whose life is shaped around the belief of such an event.
September 25th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
God, 3 days not working and look what happens. i got your bollocky cold Frank you bastard. That’s the last time we’re going for dinner.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:59 am
D’oh. Sorry Ed. Maybe we shouldn’t have kissed.