The Blog of G

We’re off to Jam in the Dam in march and as I mentioned before, I’m really excited to see Les Claypool play, but I have never heard of the rest of the bands so I decided to do a bit of research on them. Moments Later Youtube was fired up and being searched hard.

I made up a play-list of a random selection of video’s by the artists & bands (I could find) that are playing.

Finding Les’s work was easy thanks to youtube’s Vevo service so there are a few Primus Video’s and some of his own as well. The other artists (Umphrey’s McGee, Yonder mountain string band, The new Mastersounds & Josh Phillips Folk Festival) seem to only have live recording’s available (on youtube anyway) so I’m going to have to dig a bit further for more on them and the others listed for the show.

One thing I did notice looking through all the search results is that all the bands seem to have one thing in common, they seem to be fond of guest appearances and jamming live. I wonder will there be much of that? here’s hoping anyway

In the meantime here is the playlist I built…

If anyone reading this is planning on making the trip, or has been to a previous Jam in the Dam, leave a comment below.

I’m off on holiday, well more a weekend away in that it’s only four days. I’m really looking forward to getting away for a few days though, some relaxing, a change of scenery, some sight seeing and the first music festival that I’ve been interested in going to, in more than a decade.

“So where are myself and Elly off to?” I hear you ask. The city of Amsterdam, one of our favourite cities in the world and the place that we got engaged. We’ve been there a good few times over the years and we’ve seen a lot of the museums before. Thankfully there is a (kind of) new one for us to see this time, Hermitage Amsterdam.

I say kind of because The original Hermitage museum is in St. Petersburg. I have always thought that it was in the Kremlin as that’s what our tour guide told us when I was in Moscow in 1990, but maybe the 20 years have taken there toll on my memory more than I thought.

Either way that Museum tour was one of the most amazing of my life, our guide barely stopped the whole tour and I know there was a lot more to see. I could have stared at the Imperial Faberge eggs all day, such amazing pieces of craftsmanship and pure beauty, I cannot describe and no photo I have ever seen can do them justice. But I’m waffling now. In short, I’m giddy with anticipation

I mentioned we’re going to a music festival, Jam in the Dam to be precise. Two concert halls under one roof and a full set from all the bands each night, which is great because if you miss a band one night, you get to see them the next. I’d love to be able to go to all 3 nights but these days I’m grateful to even get 1 night.

There is only one act on the lineup that I’ve heard of before (I will be getting myself upto speed on the rest of the lineup before we head off so expect some post about them as well) but I’ve been a fan of Les Claypool since I first heard Primus play at the battle of the bands in San Dimas, California… oh wait a minute, that was in a movie… Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.

Primus were barely even on screen but the music grabbed me and it’s never let go since, they still sound as fresh as the first time I heard them. Bands come and go and over the years Les has moved on to other projects and I have purchased almost all of his albums since.

If ever there was a band that I would travel through time to hear it would be Primus, even over the chance to be at Woodstock, so there was no way I was going to miss the chance to see Les play, especially since it’s his first European gig since I discovered you could use the internet to keep tabs on your favourite bands.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to wait until March but in the meantime hears the track that grabbed my attention so fiercely 19 years ago…

So saturday, Myself and Elly, along with some of her American work mates, went into Dublin to see the parade. I’ve lived in Ireland all my life and this is the first time that I’ve ever seen the Dublin Parade Live, as it were, so, after we all met up and found a suitable vantage point along the route, we settled in to wait for the parade, snapping a photo or two and chatting while we waited.

I took a few snaps of the masses as we all waited for our first sight of the parade.

Elly took a few shots in black & white. This one was just some random child in the crowd, but he seems to be enjoying himself:)

As the parade arrived Elly was closer to the rails and started to snap shots in both mono and colour.

Mono wouldn’t have been my choice for a parade but I don’t think either of the next two shots would have worked as well in colour

I’m not sure which one was scarier!

One thing, I noticed that surprised me, was the lack of any Irish Dancers. What’s up with that?

Well there were some interesting St. Patricks

These last 2 are my favourites I just love the colour and the energy. I am at times jealous of Elly’s ability to just pick up a camera and snap great shots, especially when she hogs the camera for an entire afternoon :p

OK, here’s the concept, for the launch of the Dublin Fringe festival, the organisers thought it would be a great idea to dye the Liffey pink as a publicity stunt. So I happened along with my trusty camera to snap this once in a lifetime oppurtunity.

Thing is as a publicity stunt it sucked the people on the street were wondering what had happened to pollute the river like this! there was no advertising anywhere that I saw and well no Fringe festival to be honest??? all very confusing for the literally tens of people that were standing around watching the spectacle.

You have to wonder why there was no one on O’Connell street bridge handing out flyers or even posters about to draw attention to the fringe festival, or am I finally just getting old and not able to “get it” anymore? Is this the new thing now then? is it? At least these guys looked like they were having some fun but again nothing to explain what was happening…

I have to admit to being tempted to tell a few tourists that the Luas had derailed crossing the bridge at Heuston station and that the red river was the result of the contents of the passengers vascular systems having emptied into the river, but then I decided not to tempt fate. you never know.