Loving The One Take Sessions

I sat and watched every act last night, chatted away to all the performers and thought to myself ‘Jesus, I love the One Take Sessions’. Not that my name was Jesus and I was trying to conduct a conversation with myself or anything, but last night was one of those nights where you could really sit back and say ‘this is real music, and this is damn good’.

While the night is still relatively fresh in my mind I thought I would extend a personal thanks to each of the acts in question from last night - Dave Johnston (Dublin), Rob O’Connor (Waterford), Ian Doyle (Wexford) and the lads - Johnny, Ryan, Steve - in TASC (Tortured Artists Social Club) who are now under the watchful eye of Edel Dooley.

We arrive in as usual just before 7pm, portable stage is pulled out and myself and Mickey got to work unloading all the gear, set up the desk, the right, get a start on the backdrops, monitors set, mic’s set so by the time the four of us are in it should be a bit of fine tuning in terms of the lights, layout and get a quick line and channel check done.

TASC hit the stage around 8:45 for a sound check, followed in hot pursuit by Ian Doyle and while we tried to wolf pizzas from the Italian Connection (with extra garlic as always) you could tell from the checks that we were in for something special last night.

So, cut to 9:40 and Mr. Dave Johnston (go on Dave Johnston) takes to the stage to get the proceedings underway and unleashes some wild playing singing through a set of original material. A stiff hand and an arm seizing up because of it couldn’t stop him as he played a most enjoyable set and marked a great way to start the night - garnering a great response for his music as well. Dave is hoping to return to Kilkenny later in the year and bring the band with him and would be more than welcome here to return. Hopefully we’ll both see and hear more of him down the line.

Rob O’Connor was next to the stage, no stranger to performing, Rob “will write a song about anything”. Literally. Even “bits of chicken, bits of people, and bottles of Budweiser masquerading as beer ” as he impressed both vocally, performance-wise and with a terrific stage presence. A great variation of tracks cut between himself and the band (Acrojunk, who play Cleere’s on June 22nd) including ‘Steve Austin’, an ode to the Six Million Dollar Man as his closing track. He’s got a 4-track EP available, give him a shout on MySpace or let one of us know and we’ll pass on the query. You can also catch Rob on Sound System Show #13 with Acrojunk playing ‘The Cold Old Playboy’.

Third up we had Ian Doyle. Chatting away to Ian it as evident he’s no stranger to the music scene, having been involved with the Wexford song club, played countless gigs with On The Verge in Dublin and elsewhere. With a Chaplin EP due out in the summer and an album to follow in September, you’d do well to see either Ian solo or the lads as a whole. They’re taking a summer residency in Wexford Arts Centre and hopefully we’ll use the final track from his set on the podcast on Monday night.

Last but by no means least to the stage were the Tortured Artists Social Club. A good chat in spots before the gig, some joke stealing, some question dodging, three extremely talented lads and a fantastic set made for a great way to close out the night. Their current single, Mandance, is doing well in the charts on DownloadMusic.ie and as far as they know they’ll be playing in Kilkenny over the summer. You should take a look at that upright bass though that Johnny is playing (pictured above). If he figures out how to get the brain to sing and bow at the same time it will make for some instrument.

So there we go, another One Take Sessions over and another one to look forward to on May 10th. As for this weekend, sure its Ross’ birthday, the bould chap turns all of 26 so no doubt there’ll be a bottle of tequila turning up somewhere over the weekend. Me? I’m thinking BBQ and Harvey Wallbangers… anyone with me?