Arthur's Day, The Big Top Limerick 22/09/2011 Review

To Arthur!

I arrived at about ten past six late for the 17.59 celebrations. The Guinness was full and truly flowing at this stage, I was wondering how the crowd got here this early.

The feeling were half way through their set and played a nice few tunes, running through their radio over played numbers. They played Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" with the guitar player playing the tin whistle solo expertly using a whistle that was bought around the corner minutes before they got on stage. A good set in fairness to them.

Sharon Shannon was the next act up on stage and played a set full of Sharon Shannon songs i.e. Wedding hooley tunes to a great reception to the young first time Guinness trying crowd. A mundy lookalike arrived on stage to play "Galway Girl" to a rapturous reception.

The Big top once again was excellently laid out thanks to Dolans , The food stalls were superb, Tried out the country kitchen for a steak sandwich and was blown away by how good it was! Will be down to the the market on Saturdays just for that. The only complaint would be the amount of toilets in the place, The queue was crazy big every time and with hundreds of people chugging Guinness, it was bound to be busy.

Next up were another radio overplayed act Royseven. I must say I like their single We Should Be Lovers even though its constantly on at the moment. The dublin act have been on the scene now for a long time almost 13 years, The new album You Say, We Say is getting great air play at the moment and tonight they played one hell of a show. I wasn't expecting much from the band but we got a great performance as they stole the show! Would really check them out live in the future.

Next up was local band Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters, The lads gained a place on the stage due to a battle of the bands competition , However they shouldn't even need to do something like that and should have been included anyways. They played a small set of tunes from their excellent debut album Devil in Music, Well worth checking out these lads.

The main act of the night Calvin Harris arrived on stage to a huge reception, Rumours were that he had just come from a short DJ set in Mickey Martins. Decks were rolled on stage and it looked like we were on for another DJ set. I saw Calvin "Perform" at Oxegen a couple of years ago and when I say perform I mean sing and have a backing band and not load on records and wave his hands around. Unfortunately that's what he was here to do, launching on his hit records one after another and interjecting now and again using a mic. A power cut happened during his playlist and he headed off stage for awhile returning to spin two more of his own tracks. The crowd loved it but I was disappointed not see him live up to the performance of Oxegen a few years previous, but I guess thats what he does nowadays.

I didn't stay there for the next act instead heading straight for O'Connells Bar(old Quarter) to catch the end of Paddy Casey's Set. Paddy was playing a small marquee at the end of the outside area to a jam packed pub. Managed to catch most of his great set, playing most of his hits.
Ended a great night of music and enjoyed an excuse to get out of a Thursday night. Cheers Arthur!

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