Day three in the Love Rocks ‘madhouse’ and the musical pandemonium continues apace! The ensemble’s eyes might be a touch blurry with imbibing of unspoken spirits in the wee hours playing their part but there’s a hunger for further mellifluous treats. There’s a point where the creatures of the night morph into the people of the day; that point is blurry too but it’s roughly about now.
Here we are, a lovely day in the Irish capital, six hours in the car and a 320-mile round trip for me. We have a trio of musicians about to entertain and scare every musician in the room and there are a few here tonight, that’s for sure.
Waking up under a big oak tree where Press and Guest camp were situated was pretty beautiful. Today was a scorcher and after ten minutes walk into the Arena, the Apex stage was just getting ready for Australian outfit Stand Atlantic to kick Friday into festival mode.
After making my way into Nottingham, I get to the venue to see a generous queue has beaten me to it. Joining the VIP queue, I’m quickly ushered inside to await my pass at the closed box office. I chat to a fellow tog who I’ve never seen at RC previously.
It’s almost hard to fathom that just a mere two years ago, we were inundated with rules and regulations about taking measures to avoid one another, shops were closed, schools were closed, the health sector was in absolute chaos and of course, many industries suffered including our imperative music industry.
The last time I managed to catch the Goo Goo Dolls live was back in The Ambassador in Dublin when it was still operating as a venue and they were excellent.
The hallowed halls formerly known as the Civic have been closed for a while, during which some extensive redevelopment and updating has been undertaken, primarily they have added an extra balcony extending the capacity to a mighty 3000 folk.
Another lovely night in Belfast, and tonight we have American Blues royalty in town, Robert Cray on the last date of his European and U.K tour, playing in the Mandela Hall and it's sold out, which is always great to see!
It is warm as hell outside the venue tonight and it feels like hell inside, this is going to be a sweat dripping off the wall deathcore fest in here tonight! Lorna Shores first time over here and bringing Ingested from the UK with them on this one, the venue was sold out which I am loving seeing, let's keep that going and get as many bands over to Northern Ireland as we can!
The Friday morning after the Thursday night before! The music had, naturally, rocked 110% and while the beer flowed copiously the good times did, most certainly, indeed roll! Waking to cloudless skies and unbroken sunshine there was a collective pondering upon how Love Rocks could surpass the high bar set in across the board in 2022.
After what seems like an eternity for Puscifer fans, they finally graced the Irish shores last weekend with their eagerly anticipated Existential Reckoning tour.