Working Rehearsal/Big Night Out

Sunday Night...

Babysitter arrives on time, and we depart the house with Paddy in floods of tears at 8:00, but even his screams don't make us turn back.

Hop in the taxi, ten minutes later arrive at the Olympia Theatre.

The opening act, this guy, is surprisingly good. "Surprisingly" because my first impression of him was that he looks like somebody I might want to punch in the mouth...but I let go of that cynical me and reaction, and enjoyed it, especially Serotonin.

Two cups of beer later and the crowd cheers and surges as they take to the stage. They played for about 2 hours, and it was a very different experience from what you'd expect. Kind of like we'd stumbled into a private practice that we weren't really supposed to be at. Maybe it was Michael Stipe having to read the lyrics off his laptop (I was liking the IMPEACH sticker on it) or how they false started 3 or 4 of the songs and had to start again to get it right. But that was what it was supposed to be about. A few old songs were thrown in to keep the crowd happy, but overall I wasn't thrown back to 1986...it was all new, and I liked it.

Confused? Look here and you'll get it. It's good to live in Dublin.