Saturday evening and the venue was the Wicked Chicken venue in the
Cuckoo’s Nest on Dublin’s Southside. The
event was the launch night of a new promotions company in LEKMK Promotions.
Joint organisers Phil Kealy and Mick Cummins have been doing this for nearly a
year but have now put their stamp on the venue market and will host a number of
gigs at the Cuckoo’s Nest venue.
The first band of the night Penrose, are the type of band
who will get the real benefit of a venue on their doorstep. There are plenty of
bands out there just looking for this opportunity but the stage was not there.
But thanks to LEKMK the opportunity may finally come knocking.
3 Piece band Penrose from Dublin have recently transformed
from a guitar duo comprising of Darragh McGrane and Philip O'Luanaigh who began
their journey in 2012 to more recently adding a drummer (Jeff) to add the final
piece of the puzzle. Penrose have a deep mid 90’s Brit-Pop sound
comprising of several discernible influences of the era. The place was full by
the time Penrose came to the stage to warm the crowd up for what was to follow.
Kicking off with the first of several originals including ‘Your Past’, ‘Feel
the Love’ and the sublime ‘It Ain’t Country’. They may be a bit rough around the edges but
that’s to be expected considering the recent addition, but there is this
glimmer from the band, mainly from frontman Philip O'Luanaigh and his tireless vocals
that make you stand up and take notice.
Late City Edition were next to the stage. Having
only been together for a few years, their fluidity and tightness on stage was
something to behold. The vocals of Richardson and their all-round musicality was
immense. LCE’s sound is again very Brit-Pop but with the addition of 80’s
Mods and modern Rock it gives them the full rock sound. The band has an obvious
following which was evident as the dedicated crowd sang along to ‘Forever Now’
and ‘Everything you thought you had’. Late
City Edition are all set to release their next single ‘She Saves My Soul’
in early October.
The main act of the evening was none other than Meteor award
winning Paddy Casey. Accompanied on the piano he played a 2 hour
acoustic set which was unsurprisingly faultless. Paddy was banging out
the hits like ‘Addicted to Company and ‘Lucky One’ early on, to really get the
crowd in the mood for more. Keeping the
fast pace going with the groovy ‘Not out to get you’ which really got the
dancers at the front in full swing. Encouraging the crowd, Casey played
the choruses of the not so well known or new tracks to get people to sing along
at the vital times, to keep the party atmosphere going. This set was not surprising,
it was perfect in its execution but we’d accept nothing less from this big name
on the Irish music scene.
In summary this was a brilliantly organised event by LEKMK.
No doubt their date books will be full very soon. One thing is for certain, if Phil & Mick
can put on more nights like tonight then the will have nothing to worry about.
Penrose: www.facebook.com/penroseireland
Late City Edition: www.latecityeditionmusic.com
Paddy Casey: www.paddycasey.ie
LEKMK: www.lekmk.com
