BEWARE THE U2MANIAC!!

This is what happens when you say certain things about Bono in my hearing....

So, I admit it - I am really a U2maniac....it's not just an easily memorable email address.....

Havhingsten fra Glendalough - The Sea Stallion from Glendalough

Wrecks of Viking longships were found in Roskilde Fjord in the 60s. At some stage they found out that one of them had been built in Glendalough in Ireland app. 1000 years before. So then they decided to build a replica and sail it back to Ireland in homage of our shared heritage, and to see what it was like and all that.

So here it is! The Sea Stallion from Glendalough, which arrived in Dublin yesterday after leaving Roskilde on 1 July. It was very rainy when we got there, after work, but that just means there aren't hordes of people on my pictures. Hehe.


Anyway, we were sneaking peeks at the live footage from the actual arrival in the afternoon, and it was a very impressive sight, seeing the ship come up the Liffey, with the bright yellow-and-red sail blazing. They had to take it down pretty soon though, to row to shore.

Here is a picture of the big poster, where you can see the sail:

Very funny story from the Real Life

This is about a friend of a friend who has a 4-year-old boy.

Recently they went to the zoo. The boy got lost, and when the mother found him after 45 minutes or so, he was crouched in a corner, clutching his backpack. He insisted on going home, and not even the promise of a visit to the toy shop could lure him. He just wanted to go home and have a bath. Naturally, this freaked the mum out a bit - what on earth had happened to her little boy?

So, they got home and she ran him a bath. After a bit, she went to check on him, because she thought the splashing was getting a bit out of hand. Turns out he wasn't alone on the bath tub. A little penguin was keeping him company, having a grand time in the water. She rang the zoo, and they said not to worry. Apparently this penguin was very friendly and liked to take field trips. It had been hidden in the boy's backpack for the whole time it took for them to get home from the zoo. They said to simply drop the penguin back to them the next day. And I am not making this up!

Concert Report - Crowded House & Peter Gabriel, Marlay Park in Dublin, 22 June 2007

It had been raining massively throughout the day, and I kept checking the promoter's website to see if the concert was cancelled - Marlay Park might be too flooded, or the instruments might be damaged by too much humidity or whatever. At that stage I sort of wished it would get cancelled, because it meant I wouldn't have to make a decision about it. Anyway, it didn't get cancelled, and I didn't make the choice not to go, which in the glaring brightness of hindsight was a really good choice, as shall be seen.

There were 3 of us heading off from Dublin 15 onto the sometime carpark otherwise known as the M50 (for those not in Ireland, that's a motorway running outside Dublin city, making as much of a circle it can. They're still building extensions to it and now expanding existing parts of it as well). We didn't have any trouble finding Marlay Park, because there were signs up from the relevant M50 exits and all through Ballinteer. There were also Gardaí directing traffic in perfectly well-functioning traffic light junctions, which made no sense to us. Anyway, the parking in the park was very well-organised - people were directed into neat rows. It's worth noting that we actually praised the organisation skills on display here, and it's also worth noting in this context that both my companions were Irish.

We sat in the car for a while, eating sambos and waiting for the rain to stop. Crowded House would take the stage a bit after 7 and Peter Gabriel around 9. Starsailor, who were opening the show, were finished by the time we got to the actual venue, but we didn't really care - we had heard them from the car and also while walking up from the car park. There was a motley crew of people in umbrellas and assorted rain ponchos (on sale there too) waiting around, eating chips and swilling pints.

When Neil Finn & Co. came out, they seemed very happy to see us, and about 6-7 songs into the set (I actually think they'd just played 'Weather With You'), lo and behold, the rain stopped! The skies did not clear, but at least it stayed dry, and we even got a ray of light or two at times. I only knew the bigger hits, so there were a lot of songs I had never heard before, but I really really liked them. The audience were great singers and sang the chorus of a good few songs note perfect. You could tell that Neil Finn, as well as the rest of the band, were really enjoying themselves on stage, which is always lovely to see. The last song of their set was, predictably, 'Don't Dream It's Over', which we were all singing along to at the top of our lungs, of course. Brilliant stuff altogether!

Peter Gabriel began a bit after 9, I think. He said that he would be playing songs that fans had voted for online, and for the first few songs I thought it was all going to be stuff I wouldn't know, and that it would mean no 'Sledgehammer' or 'Don't Give Up'. But then he played 'Blood Of Eden', which I know because it's a duet with Sinèad O'Connor, and I was delighted that he played it - I had completely forgotten about that song. Lovely lovely version of it, even without Sinèad. Then, he played 'Family Snapshot' which I also know, and before long it was all good old stuff :) The first encore was 'Sledgehammer', precipitated by the audience singing the signature horn phrase - very funny. The second encore was 'In Your Eyes', a very lovely song and one of my favorites.

He has an almost magnetic stage presence, and when he comes out from behind the keyboard and takes to the lip of the stage, he is downright hypnotic. 'Theatrical' was also a word that came to mind, as were comparisons to Jack L, a very charismatic Irish singer I once saw give an unforgettable performance in the Olympia. Neil Finn was much more natural in a way, more laid back, even if nothing about Peter Gabriel's show ever felt fake. Maybe the theatrical aspect also came about due to the fact that Peter Gabriel had a light show - these grilles of neon lights that looked like they'd been taken from sunbeds, vertically aligned in sections of 4 across the stage, and used to display any kind of light graphics in high resolution. Above them were a grid of little points of light, arranged symmetrically, and of course a lot of spots above and around the stage. Very tastefully done I thought.

All in all, a good night, but I was happy when we got home and I could take my soaking wet shoes off.....*aaaah*

Concert Report - Tori Amos, Falconer Center in Copenhagen, 13 June 2007

When Tori announced her world tour, I got tickets for the Copenhagen gig for me and my sister, and I ended up booking a week off, so I was lounging around Mona and Thomas' apartment the day of the concert.

I had been debating with myself all morning whether I should go down to the venue early in the afternoon, juuust in case Tori would come out and sign autographs and stuff before the concert.
In the end I didn't, partly because of the layout of the venue itself, and partly because I have a lousy track record anyway, doing stuff like that. (Apart from getting to shake hands with Edge at the Eason book signing session for 'U2 by U2' of course. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't ask him about how the Welsh yoga was going).

So, once Mona got off work we had a quick bite to eat and then made our way down to the Falconer Center. Ah, the wonders of public transportation on the continent! You sure learn to appreciate it, once you've had to depend on Dublin Bus for a while! But I digress - ranting about what passes for public transportation in Ireland is not the purpose of this post. It's Tori.

Of course, I had to get a tour program and a tshirt - a really cute blue one with a line from 'Bouncing Off Clouds' and a wee blue aeroplane on it. I was very excited! My first Tori concert! Weeeheee!! They finally opened the doors and let us in to find our seats. Ours were roughly halfway down the floor, in the middle. Thankfully, the floor is slanted, and it felt a bit like sitting in a cinema - brilliant visibility.

The opening act was Seth Lakeman and his band who were very impressive. They played a kind of Celtic folk that was very infectious without being at all diddley-aye. Definitely one to check out.

And then! Isabel opened the show with 'Yo George', which for me was the only slight flaw all evening - this was a European, not an American show, and I just felt that there were other songs that would have worked better. Anyway, she was awesome. She was sitting between a keyboard and her beloved Bösendorfer piano, and was sometimes playing each with one hand, singing into one of the microphones above each instrument with her back to the other instrument. Tori rules! During the solo section I swear, you could've heard a pin drop, we were that quiet. Especially during 'Winter'. What a totally fantastic song that is. I've given the album information in the setlist below:

As Isabel:
Yo George (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Sweet Dreams (Little Earthquakes era B-side (1992), re-recorded for her retrospective Tales
Of A Librarian 4 years ago)
Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield cover)
Devils & Gods (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Mr. Bad Man (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Almost Rosey (American Doll Posse, 2007)

As Tori:
Big Wheel (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Caught A Lite Sneeze (Boys For Pele, 1996)
Liquid Diamonds (From The Choirgirl Hotel, 1998)
Cornflake Girl (Under The Pink, 1994)
Bells For Her (Under The Pink, 1994)
Siren (Great Expectations soundtrack, 1998. This is one of my all-time Tori
live favorites, and I'm so happy she played it!)

T & Böse (short for Bösendorfer):
Silent All These Years (Little Earthquakes, 1992)
Mr. Zebra (Boys For Pele, 1996)
Winter (Little Earthquakes, 1992)

Band comes back:
Putting The Damage On (Boys For Pele, 1996)
God (Under The Pink, 1994)
Code Red (American Doll Posse, 2007)

Encores:
Precious Things (Little Earthquakes, 1992)
Bouncing Off Clouds (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Cruel (From The Choirgirl Hotel, 1998)
Hey Jupiter (Boys For Pele, 1996)

There were no tracks from her in my opinion most weighty concept albums prior to American Doll Posse - Scarlet's Walk and The Beekeeper. Although, I know she has played 'Hoochie Woman' from Beekeeper previously on this tour.

Of course I would've liked to hear stuff from those eras live as well, but I think that these albums would probably be harder to dissect in order to incorporate the songs into a new structure, because they are part of a cohesive structure of their own. In any case, I think it speaks volumes of her musical power that she can play songs from all her nineties albums and none of them have aged a bit. I hope she never gets tired of playing 'Cornflake Girl'!

She flitted on and off the stage like a glittery sprite, and she made the venue feel like we were just a couple of thousand of her closest friends in her living room. I can't wait to see what she will be like at the Oxegen festival here in Ireland in a couple weeks time!