Raising bears and other stories

I used to be a regular blogger but some how when I fell down the worm hole that is social care work, my opportunities and desire to write have started to ebb away. It is not really that I have lost interest in writing because I haven't but the agency work I have been doing means long and unpredictable hours so my social life has fallen by the wayside plus when I do actually get out I am tired and cranky from working nights and the like so I generally don't have the brain power to put my experiences into words. Last night was one of my rare and fabled outings. I had been doing a lot of work outside Waterford  and I got home from my day shift at around 8.30. I had already told my other half that I would be coming to the gig but by the time I got home all I wanted to do was lie down. As you might have guessed I did not succumb to these urges and instead threw on my glad rags and headed down to Central Hall with the promise of a couch and some good music.

The main act playing was a duo called 'We raise bears' and I didn't check out their music beforehand but I was already a fan based on their name alone. The jury is still out on whether or not they do in fact raise bears, at lasts nights gig I saw no evidence to support this but its an excellent band name all the same. Their support was 1/3 of the band In The Willows, Daithi and Rowan. 

I had seen In the Willows play a good few times and I am huge fan of their music. When I first got my hands on their album I played it to death and sang along to my favourites but only in my car because I haven't a note in my head and it would be unfair to subject my boyfriend or the general public to that. One of the things I have noticed, on my many drives to various locations at which I am working, while listening to the radio is the overall terrible quality of most of the music that is being played particularly first thing in the morning. Hilariously bad lyrics that just stick in my head. This always comes to mind whenever I see a really good band play and the contrast in the music they are producing could not be more stark. In The Willows are one such band. Their music is full of beautiful instrumentals and haunting lyrics. Before now I had only ever heard them play as a full band so I was intrigued to see what it would be like to just hear two of their members perform. Usually everyone brings something to the song and sometimes when you hear them performed with less members then it can feel as though something is missing but this was not one of those cases. The stripped down versions of their songs were just as beautiful. I felt that Daithi did a particularly impressive job on Sirens, one of their songs that I love, when he hummed Tara's part ( my favourite part of the song). We even got treated to some of the new material and an absolutely beautiful cover of the song 'Bread and roses', an old protest song that has re-emerged as the LGBT community fight for equal rights comes to a head. Naturally as you have not been living under a rock you will know that Ireland has voted in Favour of Gay marriage as of today which is fantastic. In other great news In the Willows will be releasing some new material in coming months which is great because I was needing an excuse to play their last one on repeat ( in preparation for their coming tour)

So they were followed by We Raise Bears, Conor (lead vocals) and Sharon (back up vocals and player of many instruments). As I said earlier I was impressed by their band name which was enough to get me in the door. Plus the reassurance that it was not electronic music. By previous agreement I do not attend any electronic music gigs because I don't enjoy them and I have been told reading during a gig (even one that mainly involves someone using a computer) is rude, no matter how good the book is. I have yet to be disappointed by a gig in Central Arts, except for the one way back when where the was some delay with it starting and I was back home in bed by the time it did ( in my defence I was really tired), so I knew this was probably going to be good. They had an impressive musical set up considering there was just the two of them, mostly made up of instruments I could not correctly identify. They had some bells which were used very creatively by Sharon and she also played what appeared to be a type of accordion. I couldn't begin to tell you the actual name of the instrument only that she played it beautifully. My own dalliance with music started and ended with primary school recorder lessons. If needed I am pretty sure me playing the recorder would a viable method of torture So you will have to forgive me for simplifying music terminology. I do know good music when I hear it though and We Raise Bears played a fantastic set. I can't believe I came close to missing the gig because I was tired, shame on Tired Laura, If she had her way I would be incredibly uncultured. Their songs were passionate and heartfelt. A lovely mix of mellow numbers with more upbeat songs, some with an angry edge to them that added to the emotional weight their music seems to carry. They haven't been together very long as a band, just over a year, ( I know this because I just checked out their bio) which surprised me because they displayed immense talent and I am excited to see what they do next. They are releasing their EP over the Summer and hopefully their tour will bring them down to Waterford again and I can go from discovering some new music to being a fully fledged fan.