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It was all about the new with We Should Be Dead this weekend, their first gig since returning from LA and the band were keen to play tracks from the just released album Dreamstate. The band that once showed so much potential before decamping stateside walked on stage in Dolans Warehouse and delivered a show that proved they are ready to play any stage, any festival, anywhere, anytime. Confidence was high and the sound made bigger helped by months of recording time with producer Owen Lewis and the line-up now swelled to a five-piece. On the night, possible hit singles came in the form of ‘Where Do We Stand?’, ‘Breath In’ and ‘Right Back at You’ judging by the crowds reaction to a set laden with new material and a spiky version of ‘Forget Romance Lets Dance’ and a fine cover of Womack and Womack’s Teardrops sent the punters home happy. They Will Be Big.

On the banks of the River Shannon at the falls of Doonass, a scene of some of the most destructive flooding last November, Siobhan O’Brien’s voice rang out over the Clonlara fields singing “Come gather ’round people, Wherever you roam, And admit that the waters, Around you have grown” from Bob Dylan’s ‘The times they are a changing’ proving the relevance of Dylan’s lyrics whether taken metaphorically or literally to the times we live in today. Bobfest is a small scale one day event that celebrates the work of Bob Dylan, held this year on the grounds of The Anglers Rest Bar. Siobhan O’Brien’s appearance sets the tone for the night with a very smokey/bluesy version of ‘I’ll be your baby tonight’ and accompanied by Eamonn Hehir also on guitar delights the gathering crowd with ‘Shelter from the Storm’, ‘It’s all over now baby blue’ and other early gems from the Dylan songbook that were not to feature in the mans own gig in Thomond Park the following night. The festival now in it’s second year will hopefully be back again in twelve months.

Last Days of Death Country, the Limerick band chosen to open the show impressed with their no-nonsense live run-thru of tracks from their ‘Mode and Effect’ EP including Seasick Steve who remained backstage to check out the band’s set. Next up Alabama 3 stormed thru a brilliant set of their acid-country groove, most notable ‘My name is Johnny Cash’ and ‘Vietnamistan’. Seasick Steve claimed he is an old dog and not about to learn any new tricks as he started the ‘Doghouse Boogie’, and with the best received show of the supporting cast, all messy blues and beaten up battered guitars he has enough tricks in his bag right now. With just Seasick Steve on guitar and Dan Magnusson on drums the duo make sweet racket and new song ‘Burning Up’ rocked the gathering crowd. [...]

The Cranberries made a very special return to Limerick last Wednesday for the Special Olympics Ireland Opening Ceremony. As the band walked onto the Thomond Park stage situated less than a couple of minutes from the Hogan brothers original home in Moyross the band ended a 17 year wait to play for a Limerick audience . As the opening chords of ‘Zombie’ were trashed out, the crowd roared their approval and the band looked confident and sounded great. Taking time out from their world tour to fly back from France to attend this special one-off performance the band continued with their biggest hit, ‘Linger’ followed by ‘Salvation” from their third album ‘To the Faithful Departed’. The significance of the event for the band was obvious when singer Delores O’Riordan declared that the band were “proud to be from Limerick” and after introducing her mother from the stage sang an emotional rendition of ‘Ode to my Family’ . She also encourage the crowd to follow their dreams before playing out with their breakthrough hit ‘Dreams’. Though short, the gig hit the right notes and the positive crowd reaction should ensure another Limerick appearance for The Cranberries when they return with new material next year. Pic by Ken Coleman

The Lightning Seeds will play in Dolans Warehouse on Saturday 8th of May. Fronted by main songwriter Ian Broudie, The Lightning Seeds had a top 20 hit with the debut single ‘Pure’ from the album Cloudcuckooland in 1989, and went on to more success through the 90s with pop classics like ‘The Life of Riley’, ‘Lucky You’, ‘Change’, ‘Perfect’, ‘Sugar Coated Iceberg’ and ‘Three Lions’(With Skinner and Baddiel) which went to Number 1 twice in 1996 and ’98. The band released their sixth studio album ‘Four Winds’ in May 2009 featuring the singles ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Don’t Walk On By’. The band are undertaking a short tour this April/May coming to Dolans on May 8th.

The SongWriter Sessions continue to attract great interest and the next session is set for Thursday March 11th at 9pm. The special guest will be Donnacha Toomey, an accomplished singer-songwriter / guitarist originally from County Limerick. His debut album ‘Carnival of Colours’, has received much praise for its “warm sounding earthy rhythms” and “judiciously crafted songs”. Songs from the album are regularly featured on RTE and BBC radio channels. Donnacha has also received extensive airplay on well established US radio stations. The SongWriter Sessions will  features songwriters doing short sets of two or three songs. All types of music and singers are welcome and a limited amount of instruments will be available for use on the night at The Locke Bar venue. Further details can be got at www.myspace.com/songwritersessions.
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Donnacha Toomey – Emilia
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Donnacha Toomey – Early One

Sounding a little like a cross between Just Jack, Mike Skinner and Dizzee Rascal, Example ( Elliot Gleave to his folks) hit the charts with ‘Watch the Sun Come Up’ last summer and now comes to Trinity Rooms this Tuesday 23rd of February. First coming to prominence with ‘Girl Can’t Dance’ riding on a cheeky sample of David Bowie’s Jean Jeanie and telling us “if she can’t dance, she’s rubbish in bed”, Example featured on the stompin’ funky ‘Hooligans’ for Don Diablo with the refrain “We came we saw we killed the crowd”. A definite one to watch in 2010, Example will drop his new album in April, but in the meantime the current single ‘Wont Go Quietly’ is another scintillating cut mixing beats and rap that remains edgy but with overground appeal. He has toured with Mike Skinner (The Streets), Hadouken, Just Jack, Fratellis, Get Cape Wear Cape fly and Arrested Development to name just a few. Currently signed to Ministry of Sound and working with the Metrophonic production team, hit making on a global scale is just around the corner for Example, catch the show before it goes massive.

Ennis town for as long as I remember (being old enough to have seen gigs in Laydens & The Banner Arms) has a rich musical tradition and when local bands created their own music it was invariably impossible to categorize, just a joyous cacophony of great and good ideas totally ambivalent to charts and trends. And so it is with fresh-faced, three-piece, Cities who formed in 2007 while still sitting their Leaving Cert and have been on an “endless barrage of gigging ever since then, stopping only for loo breaks and instrument repairs”. Which goes some way to explaining the quality of their debut EP. On it the band plunder metal, techno, punk and electro to make their own type of west-coast-instrumental-space-rock. Tracks ’15728′ and ‘Satellites’ stand out but the EP flows like a mini album rising from melancholy to white noise with another wicked hook around each corner. Live they will be loud and first on stage at Green and Live Sessions 23, Dolan’s on Thursday February 25

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Appalachian Rockgrass hellraisers, Hayseed Dixie first came to prominence in 2000 with the release of their first album, A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC thus creating a brand new niche in music where bluegrass playin’ hillbillys covered AD/DC and other bands like Queen, Black Sabbath and, eh, Scissor Sisters and they called it RockGrass. Hayseed Dixie will release their 8th full-length studio album on February 8th. ‘Killer Grass’ contains 7 original compositions along with 6 reinterpretations of previously known songs about drinking, cheating, killing and hell – with a particular emphasis on murder and death. The band have been a permanent fixture on the festival circuit for years with appearances at Glastonbury and the Cambridge Folk Festival and Electric Picnic and have clocked up over 1000 appearances in 21 different countries. But the most important fact worth remembering about a Hayseed Dixie gig is that you are absolutely guaranteed a good time when the guys from Deer Lick Holler bring their full-tilt party to Dolans on Friday, February 19th. Check out their unique version of Bohemian Rhapsody and some other reinterpretations here on limerickpost.ie/music

Last May, when The Department of Sociology and The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick convened a one-day symposium on Morrissey, These Charming Men played to an ecstatic bunch of Mozzer fans at a sold out show in Dolans. Now on February 6th they return once more to Limerick to play the music of Morrissey and The Smiths”.
These Charming Men have been playing live shows at the Annual Smiths/Morrissey Convention in Los Angeles since 2001 and with musicianship this tight and accurate this is a great opportunity for guitarists to see how one of the most influential musicians of recent decades, Johnny Marr, created the perfect backdrop for Morrissey’s poetry.

Here is the real thing with the classic, This Charming Man: