The Guggenheim Grotto live at Dolans 14/09/12 Review

The upstairs in Dolans was jam packed tonight to welcome back the Guggenheim Grotto after a three year absence of gigging in Limerick, The duo have been residing stateside since we last saw them and have been making huge in-roads over there.  
Kevin May from Ballinrobe and Mick Lynch from Westport started the night off the exact same way they finished the night three years ago in the same venue with a beautiful acoustic rendition of 'The Universe is Laughing' accompanied by the ukulele and standing in amongst the crowd in the middle of the room. (Review from 2009)

The Guggenheim Grotto are a big indielimerick favourite and are rarely off the ipod, Their three albums to date are fantastic and each one worth checking out. Their fourth album is on the way in the coming months. This album was a pledge effort and was very unique in that they recorded twenty tracks and then asked the pledgers to chose twelve to make the final record. The fruits of their labour will be out sometime next year and pledgers (including me) will get the album hopefully in the next month or so. You can still pledge to get the album just not all twenty tracks here.

The set tonight included some brand new tracks from the forthcoming album, its always a joy to hear songs emerging for the first time and the grotto always give you the story behind each new song. By the sounds of the newbies tonight the fourth album will be filled of classic grotto material as they gel perfectly with the rest of their catalogue. Your always guaranteed to hear some great stories from the road between songs and they didn't disappoint, one such story was the band getting a private gig in America which turned out in the end to be a swingers party!
The set also included a slowed down version of Thin Lizzy's The boys are back in town and also another uke track from the new album which again was performed acoustically out in the middle of the room and showed off some great whistle harmonies. I took quite a few videos so check them out below including two new tracks from the new album 'Electric Life' all about a local sidewalk preacher and the charming 'Afloat'
It is always a pleasure to catch these guys live, hopefully we wont have to wait another three years to see them again, looking forward to the new album. Cheers for a great night!