Super Furry Animals in Dublin. This isn’t exactly my band. I liked Phantom Power (their last album), but didn’t really get into their earlier stuff. They might be changing into something I like – not sure yet. I bought the tickets because I was bored in January.

It was a miserable Sunday. I slept late from exertions the night before. Wasn’t feeling particularly social so I decided not to bring someone on my spare ticket. I’d flog it in town. It seemed achievable. Niceone rang me. He was going too (but seated upstairs). We arranged to meet up beforehand in Brogans, though I wasn’t too hot on the idea of actual interaction.

I sat on a ledge beside the Castle, then decided to wait by the Olympia. After watching traffic and people for quite some time a guy walked in front of me. He told his mate the touts wanted forty euro for a standing ticket. I sold him my spare for face value. This seemed to please him.

Then I went in.

Missed the support, but the crowd older so I just walked through and stood at the second crash bar. The guy on my left was giving me some bad vibes.

The dj thing was good. At first I thought it was a bit gimmicky, but it turned out nice. There was a camera above the decks that relayed to the stage screen. I’m too lazy to type what it showed.

Band came on. They were ok. Sound was a little off, though it might have been monitor mixes leaking into the main sound. Things seemed to gel sometimes, other times it felt like they didn’t. During the second or third song someone turned on a lovely switch*, but the switch* came and went. Maybe the Ambassador has me spoilt…

I guess they did what I wanted them to do. I wanted to hear them play Phantom Power, and the rest of their tunes kept my attention just fine. I suppose I’d heard plenty of them before from the other records I’d owned. Phantom Power I’ve heard over and over again - all the times it looped on the little pod when I drove to Cork last Summer (2K3). I have a suspicion that future SFA’s releases will appeal to me more than past ones.

Yeah. I guess the gig was alright then. I probably wasn’t in the best mood for it. People eventually tried jumping up and down but it was a lame attempt (sorry everyone). The person behind me didn’t even go to the crash bar when I left a massive gap to peer around someone’s head. There’s something friendly about a little bit of crowd pressure. This was very tame indeed…

Afterwards I split through that quiet little door at the corner of the venue. Texted Nicone and hung around to wait for a reply. I decided to get a last bus and started to walk through to Temple Bar. Ran into Niceone and his Cruz/SJP lookalike mate just outside the stage door. Went along to a bar called The Globe for a drink. It was the end of smoking in bars. Things seemed pretty busy. I won’t miss the smoking. I don’t smoke. Stood around talking a little and feeling weird. I’d put both my collars up after I left the Olympia - dressing like last summer again. After midnight they went around and collected all the ashtrays. I suppose they just threw them out. What else would you do?

Walked a friend of Cruz/SJP’s back to Mount Street coz I was still a little bored.
Got a taxi home.

First time I’d been to a gig on my own since about 1994.
I did want to see them play that album. I guess they played it pretty well.







* there was no switch, but it felt like there might have been.