Knock knock.
"Who's there?"
"The drummer, you guys ready?"
We looked at the pile of equipment we needed to bring. A guitar, peddle board, bass, two boxes with CDs, two overnight bags - in fairness, my bag only had a toothbrush, wax, hoodie, and a charger; only the essentials. I could have put it in my pockets, but whatever. We carried everything outside, jingling like court fools, and felt like it too when we popped the boot of the car.
Of course, the drummer had to bring his breakables; symbols, peddle, snare. We played a nice game of Tetris, and as the last of the items were shoved in a bead of sweat ran down my forehead. Please, please let there be room for the Bass I wished.
There wasn't.
Already, off to a good start. Only a 3 and a half hour journey, squished by sweaty bodies with my bass between my legs, at least I got the window seat. Oh well, I guess they say we have to suffer for our art. I got some picnic bars, crisps, and a can of monster to try and console myself as my guitar gently whimpered.
My perspective in the backseat of the car as we left on our adventure.
There was some solace though, which broke me from my shackles of uncomfortability.
The guitar player started to laugh.
"What?"
"I took my stage clothes out, hung them on a hangar, hung them up on the stairs, and left them there." He replied with a sniveling grin of misfortune.
Well, guess he's going on stage in a Friday the 13th t-shirt and a dirty ole pair of shorts. I suppose punk is about what you feel, not what you wear.
The singer had a throat infection which didn't give us a vote of confidence. He had sprays and stuff and opted to stay mostly silent on the trip, to save his voice. One downside to this was that the whole way down to Cork we had to keep our windows open and the racket from the wind made it so no one could talk too much.
About 50 miles outside of Cork City, there was a beacon of hope. We had been looking for a service station of some sort, and here it was McDonald's. Personally, I'm not a fan of it, but by this stage, I needed to stretch my legs, and by now it was 5 o'clock and all I had eaten was two picnic bars and two packs of crisps.
Entering Cork was a breath of fresh air, I love the city and hadn't been there since pre-covid, so it was nice to be back. It's a really cool city and everyone is really down to earth - everyone I met anyway.
We got to our Hostel, and it was a nice place, called Sheila's, all the staff were sound and a three-person room only cost us 100 Euros. The only problem was there was a double bed, and a single on top which meant that two of us had to share, but, it didn't matter, it was a roof over our heads to crash for a few hours at the end of the night.
The Venue - Fred Zeppelins
After dropping off our stuff we got walking and headed for the venue, the first band of the night - whose terf it was - supplied the backline which was so sound and it meant that we didn't need to lug our amps down on the journey.
The pub was pretty small, but had a hell of a lot of character we were welcomed with open arms by everyone and shown upstairs. The room held about 70 people, maybe 80 if some of the crowd decided to crowd-surf their way around the gig.
Stantons Grave - Us, Them, Everyone
Here's a song from the first band, Stantons Grave, they were so sound and played great. A thing I really liked about the lads was they were able to have a bit of craic with the crowd in between songs and then kick into another tune.
We had a good laugh with the lads after the dust had settled when all the music ended. They said they'd get us back down there when some other gigs are going and we said we'd get them up our way if there's anything happening. I'd say over the summer we'll be putting on a couple of gigs, so there'll be some good nights ahead.
Dangerous Dave and the Side Effects - Well I Never
We were second on, and I think the set went alright, we did about 12 songs, which took about 40 minutes. We got a good response from the crowd and people seemed happy to hear a bit of ska-punk, done badly.
Plenty of people came up chatting afterward and we even sold a couple of t-shirts and CDs, I'm delighted whenever we get a chance to play in different towns/ cities because you're instantly opening yourself up to some new ears.
Paranoid Visions - Mutant Circus
Paranoid Visions came on and blew the roof of the place, they're a good laugh too. I can't remember too much by this stage, I think due to issues and stuff, the time slots got pushed back, but it was still a good night.
The venue stayed open for a while after Paranoid Visions set ended, and once the place closed me and the lads had to go on the arduous journey back to Sheila's with the gear.
Me and my dad decided to grab some munch before heading back and found a really nice Istanbul food place and got a fat kebab. The thing was huge, and the pitta was kind of like a nan bread, as opposed to the typical soggy dough things you get in a chipper.
The other two decided to wait outside and have a smoke, instead of getting food. After we finished our meal, we went outside to find the lads gone.
With a shrug, we carried on back to the hostel to find them sitting outside it, turns out the cheeky gits got a rikshaw back there, and as they approached the hill leading up to the place they had to get out and push the thing.
We hung out, outside the place chatting, until someone stuck their head out the window and told us to shut up, we apologized and whispered from there, then we could hear them talking loudly so asked them to be quiet haha, anyway, by this stage, it was 4 am, so it was time to go to sleep.
Woke up pretty fresh this morning after about 4 hours sleep, we even got a continental breakfast in the place and it only cost us 4 Euros
