Monday, December 3, 2012

Mark Geary live at Dolans , Limerick 30/11/2012 Review

Anytime Mark Geary is billed to play its worth dropping everything to get to it as he never disappoints . Friday last in dolans was another such occasion as he played the intimate upstairs venue.
 
The support act on the night were the local outfit 'Randolf and the Crokers' , A bit of a personal interest in the band as I play harmonica on some of the tracks. The band is also made up of Shane Storan and Clare O'Brien, The lads featured on last years Limerick compilation album 'The New Reindeer Age' with a track called 'Carry On'. The band played a nice warm up set of nine tracks including a cover of 'The Rolling Stones' track 'Love in Vain'. As a member of the band its hard to give a full opinion but it seemed like the crowd really enjoyed the set and you could hear a pin drop during songs which is always a good sign especially for just a support act. Randolf and the Crokers are set to play again this Saturday this time supporting the local band 'Moscow Metro'. Be sure to call down!
 
Mark arrived out on stage accompanied by a backing singer to his right and a pianist to his left. He played a sublime set taking in tracks from all his album releases including his 2012 release 'songs about love, songs about leaving'. He is a joy to watch on stage as he is so comfortable playing live , I last had the pleasure of catching live back in 2008 in the same venue (Review Here) just after he had released the album 'Opium'. As his discography grows his live performances seem to get better. The banter like back in 2008 is still great and he always has a great fun with his audience. Its great to see an artist just enjoying what he is doing. The classic tracks gained some great audience singalongs and he even roped me into adding Harmonica to his track 'South' , This was not pre-rehearsed but it somehow worked thank god :)
 
Clare from Randolf and the Crokers joined him on stage for the last number of the night 'It Beats Me' , Mark requested all the lights in the room be switched off which turned the room into pitch darkness leaving just the flickering candle lights that adorned the tables . He walked out into the middle of the room and was joined by the rest of the crokers (Shane and Myself) to sing the finishing lines over and over as we walked down into the hallway away from the crowd finishing the song out in the hallway to great applause.
That ended a gig that will be hard to forget , Cheers to Mark for an awesome night of music and looking forward already to his return! Go get his new album!

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