Maybeiwenttothisgig

There I am, sitting in my room starting to study for a test the following morning. It was a Monday. I'm listening to some Maybeshewill, a (for the most part) instrumental, post-rock band from Leicester, England. So, I get to thinking (a first for this particular study session); 'Maybeshewill did an Irish tour there about a year ago, which I missed. I wonder if they're coming back any time soon.' Grateful for the break in 'study', I start Googling (if that's a word) and, sure enough, they were playing in Baker's Place in 2 days time. Job!

So, It's Wednesday 20th October. After a few sneaky beers at home, I arrive at Bakers at, I'd say, half past ten. There's a good enough crowd there already. I don't know if it was a particularly busy, quiet or average night. Being Corkonian diaspora, This was my first time being in Baker's Place. I missed the first act whose name escapes me but caught the second half of the next band, 'A Plastic Rose' from Belfast. They seemed to be some sort of nu-wave, electronic, pop-rock (I've never been good with genres and sub-genres). Handy all-in-all.

Sing the word hope in four-part harmony

At about quarter past eleven, the main act, Maybeshewill, took to the stage. Their set was just over an hour long and was, in a word...Awesome!!! Their style is a mixture of heavy, distorted guitars and slow, melodic breakdowns. They could be compared to bands like 'And So I Watch You From Afar' and 'sleepmakeswaves'. They played most of their material incluing the majority of their latest album 'Sing the Word Hope in Four-Part Harmony' plus several favourites from their previous album 'Not for Want of Trying'. The atmosphere was electric and the performance was flawless. The highlight of the set was probably the title track from 'Not for want of trying' which features a great monologue from !976 film 'Network'.

The gig was great. Excellent crowd, Excellent venue, Excellent crowd! I will definitely keep an eye out any future 'Maybeshewill' gigs happening in Limerick or Cork. I urge everyone to listen to this band...

Songkick.com: http://www.songkick.com/concerts/5765331-maybeshewill-at-bakers-place
Maybeshewill on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/maybeshewont

Kevin O'Leary 10119302

"OKTÖBERFEST" in the “Scholars bar” in University of limerick.

I attended this event on the 14^th of October in the Scholars bar at 7 o clock in the evening. The event was organized by the UL Student Union and the Boarders Club. I found out about this event through the website "Facebook". The url of this event is: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137915776254890&ref=share .

The event was to raise money for charity. It started off being very quiet as it was very early in the day as many were only finishing college at that time. However as time went on the quantity of people started to rise. There were many games and activities at the event such as “beer pong” and many other drinking games. The hosts of the event dressed up in traditional German clothes.

To raise money the UL boarders club sold pint glasses with their logo stickered on the front. The glasses were cheap at only €4 a glass. As well as this once you owned a glass you were entitled to fill your glass for only €3. This seemed to be a great success. The game beer pong ,which was very new for me, is where 6 plastic beer cups are set up at either end of a table in a triangular pattern. Each cup contains a small portion of beer. Each person is given 3 ping-pong balls each and the object of the game was to bounce the ball into the opposing persons cup. If a ball lands in the cup then that person has to drink the portion of drink. It keeps going until one person has no drink left which means the other person wins. Other games included driving a nail into a log of wood with a hammer and sliding a pint of beer across a table without spilling it. The night seemed to have a great turnout and a huge success. I very much enjoyed the night and made many new friends. I’d definitely recommend going to this event if it was organized again next year.

Name: Nicholas McDonogh

Student Number: 10120866

The Bear Brothers at The Shamrock Bar, Newcastle West.

The Bear Brothers are a two-piece band from Newcastle West, I first heard of this gig when the drummer invited me via the social networking site Facebook. I already knew the drummer from a local band called The Stellas and he told me that The Bear Brothers was his new two-piece band and that I should come to see them, he even offered me free tickets. The gig took place last Sunday, 24th October and began around 10pm in The Shamrock Bar. The two-piece consisted of Larry Stewart on drums and Donal O’Sullivan on bass and vocals. I attended the event along with a few friends of mine including my girlfriend who’s brother was the drummer (hence the free tickets).

The Bear Brothers where already on stage by the time I arrived and the music was in full swing. The bar was a lot busier than I had expected it to be for this fairly new two-piece band but the lads had many of their fans from their other band The Stellas there supporting them. The two lads where the only piece playing a set that night and so they performed well into the night delighting the crowd with such covers as ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ by Little Richard and ‘For The First Time’ by The Script, they also went on to do covers of The Beatles and even Westlife, much to the amusement of the crowd. Unfortunately, I do not own a camera and I failed to borrow one in time for the night so I don’t have any pictures.

As the night ended the band joined us for a few drinks and we laughed and talked about the gig. I asked when their next gig is but was told they were unsure at the moment, I’ll just have to hope I get another

chance to see this excellent band perform someday soon and I would encourage anyone with a broad taste in music to come along to their next gig. You can follow them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bear-Brothers/168442366505580 or follow The Stellas at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Stellas/168700953197

Killian Stone 09005157