Odessa, Dublin Wednesday 18th May
This years students of the Hotpress MiX Course were organising a charity concert for the Simon Community in Dublin's Odessa Venue. The students raised a total amount of 355.98EUR
5 amazing, talented bands from Ireland performed on the Wednesday night to support a great cause. There was a great variety of music showcased, ranging from an acoustic set to start the night and finishing off with a laser show raving to the sounds of Makings until 1 AM.
The line-up started with a little delay at 20:45 due to some technical difficulties earlier that day. We had a brilliant and dedicated soundengineer who managed everything brilliantly while shortly causing a little electric problem by having too much power. But all resolved very fast!
First band on stage was the duo Holy Ghost | Holy Grail,playing an acoustic set. The band formed back in 2011 and went from a 4-piece band to a 2-piece band.
Eoghoin & Matt were the perfect start of the evening with their raw and organic lyrics and vocals supported by melodic guitar tunes.
Modern Pictures, a Dublin based college band and its 7 members took stage at 21:15, performing two of their own songs and finishing off with brilliant covers from Arctic Monkeys and the likes.
They definitely got the audience ready for more action and were perfectly placed to heat up the crowd for the next acts.
Next on stage was a Dublin/Galway based band- Mud Coloured Carpet. The band consists of 5 members, with lead singer & lyricists Cheryll Kelly, supported by Ferdia Kelly Murphy and Paul Brohan.
Their sound is a mixture of Arcade Fire meeting Bob Marley, infused with some psychedelic influences of Bob Dylan. Catchy tunes like “On my way there”, will be in your ears for the next couple of days and reggae infused songs like “Lummy”, made even the barman shake from left to right. With their easy listening tunes we think that Mud Colored Carpet are definitely one to watch in the future. Last week they have been playing Whelans supporting Fiction Peaks, which was very successful night for them too.
Fourth band on stage were a band from Dublin and abroad called Mannequin Sex Drive, an electro-acoustic, folk-punk outfit based in Dublin. The band released their first two singles back in May 2014, receiving nominations fromPureM Magazine and for "Best Single" and "Best Irish Act" back in 2015. The boys are currently super busy with many shows around the country and their latest single "Out of my Mind" got everybody really excited about more things to come.
Last but not least the four piece electro-rock band Makings made their appearance on stage and rocked us threw the nichgt.
Everybody was amazed by the laser show and the energy from front-man …. These boys been in the scene since 2011 and recently been quoted by “Hotpress” as the ones to watch.
I would define them as the Irish Kraftwerk mixed with Depeche Mode and their own undescribable flair – which makes them so unique!
Makings were a really amazing finishing touch to the night and the audience including the venue manager and bar staff advised how impressed they were with the last performance.
The night was an absolute success for the students that organized it, the performing bands as well as the venue Odessa, who were impressed by the turn-over of almost 90 people at the peak point of the night. The total proceedings that were collected additionally for the Simon Community were 351 that have been donated straight to the charity after the gig.
For more amazing pictures of the night you can visit the Hotpress website. Kudo's to our amazing photographerJoe McNulty.
Organising a charity concert for Simon Community in Dublin was a brilliant experience and I can just say that it wasn't always easy but definitely very rewarding. It gave me the best buzz and helped me to build a great network in the music industry.
I have been since working with some of the bands to optimize their social media services for musicians in Ireland. If you are interested in getting some advise on this feel free to contact me directly or follow us on Social Media!
