So much great music this weekend, and I'm 100% sure that you got to see more of it than I or any of the staff did. So as we begin booking KC Irish Fest 2010, and believe me those conversations have already started, I need some input from you:
Who did you hear this year that we should have back in 2010?
Who did you hear that we shouldn't?
Who wasn't here that we should be calling?
What would you change generally about the music and the way we present it?
This is music only. We'll get to the other stuff later. Let's hear from you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
36 comments:
Slide, Hot House Flowers, Vishtn, and Maken & Spain. Great Music - Great Weekend!
PLEASE bring back Pogey, Slide, and Sythian!!!
Loved all the music. Sure hope you bring back Gaelic Storm next year.
Slide! Vischten! Pogey! Cara! Hot House Flowers. I could listen to them all weekend.
Enough of the Elders.
Definitely bring back Hothouse Flowers! Enjoyed Slide also.
Missed the Fuchsia Band, Gaelic Storm, Saw Doctors.
On the Heritage stage, enjoyed Robbie O'Connell and Barry Fitzgerald.
The big screen was a really great addition.
Cara and Slide were the favourites of my my crowd
I agree with Pogey, Slide, and Scythian!!! Missed Gaelic Storm, or Saw Doctors, or 7 Nations. Didn't hear a thing that I didn't love.
The Ultimate band to have that we didn't is the Saw Doctors...that would be AWESOME!
I was the winner of the Mix 93.3 Contest that included tickets to the festival for the weekend, Snug passes, drink, & Merchandise voucher, plus the stay at the Westin Crowne Center. I want to start off by saying THANK YOU for the best weekend, especially for the ladies in the Snug tent. Without you my weekend would have been a bust. I am looking forward to next year already and my kids are geared up to come back. My highlight was meeting Barry from GHI in the elevator at the hotel - sooo coool!!! For the people who won and didn't show you MISSED OUT on the best time. The food was great, there was a lot for the kids to do and the music was awesome. The Festival outdid themselves and it will be interesting to see next year because I'm sure it will only get better. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. Cristy Slade
I agree, the big screen should be a mandatory/permanent. It made the Boulevard stage seem that much closer. It was awesome during Hothouse Flowers!
Great Festival.
Loves: Hothouse Flowers, Slide, Kelihans, Maken & Spain, Sythian, Pogey, the Turfmen
Didn't Love: Vishtn, Cara, Danny Burns & the Defectors & Ellis Island
I would love to see the Young Dubliners, the Prodigals, Screaming Orphans, Tossers (from Chicago), Seamus Kennedy, and any incarnation of the Wolfe Tones.
I loved the big screen. I hope you keep it in the future.
I lean towards the trad groups so loved Cara, Slide, and Vishten. I would hate to see such a great Irish Fest become too "rock" focused. I thought Slide did an amazing job holding their own during the Elders. I hope everyone took the time to watch someone new. I would love to see Bodega, Liz Carroll and John Doyle, Kate Rusby or Dervish.
Jackie in Iowa
K.C. Irishman thinks that Gaelic Storm needs to be a part of this featival. I do like 7 Nations as well, The Elders are a must, this is their town. Quite a wish list I know and when do you have them play. Pogey is was great as was Sythian. Tough duty. I wish I had a better idea on how to do the music different. Thanks for a great Festival.
I second the request for the Prodigals.
As for who to have back from this year, I liked all the bands I saw. Though my favorites were the Elders, Pogey, and the Indulgers.
And very cool that you had the Makem and Spain Brothers. Due to inability to be two places at once, I only caught about 20 minutes of them, but they were really good and I saw they had a large crowd.
loved Slide, Scythian, and Pogey, would love to see Fuchsia Band
also enjoyed listiening to Barry Fitgerald speak
Without exception, I enjoyed all the bands.
For the future here is what you need to do on Friday:
5:00 pm Flogging Molly
7:00 pm Dropkick Murphys
9:00 pm Bob Reeder (to cleanse the pallet)
10:00 pm The Pogues.
Now that would be something!
Forgot to add in The Indulgers. They were great fun and super nice guys.
Gaelic Storm was very much missed this year...please don't leave them out in 2010!! Scythian is fantastically amazing and is a definite must for next year as well. I saw them at the 2008 fest so I already knew how great they are. However, I can't tell you how many "Oh my Gods!!" I heard from first-times and how many people I saw on their phones calling friends and saying "You have to get down here and see this!!"
> Dan asked...
>
> What would you change about
> the music and the way we
> present it?
PROS
Vishten and Cara, and the amazing sets they did. If KCIF sticks with that level of on-stage professionalism and sheer talent level you can't ever go wrong.
The live webcast.
It worked like a champ all weekend.
No other BAIF ( Big American Irish Festival ) has pulled this off as yet so congratulations. It was truly a 'first' for American Irish festivals and amounts to nothing less than "One small step for KCIF, one giant leap for BAIF!"
CONS
Not many... but if Dan is looking for suggestions about how to improve the presentation level here's one small suggestion...
Please, please don't repeat the mistake of ending such an amazing (Irish?) festival with a marginally performed Sting cover song followed immediately by people holding 'cheat sheets' because they don't even know the words to 'Wild Mountain Thyme'.
It amounted to 'going out with a whimper' and the weekend deserved better than that.
For God's sake... the legendary Robbie O'Connell was standing right there and no one even made sure he had a microphone, ( and I'm sure Robbie didn't need a cheat sheet ).
Scythian, Cara, Turfmen, and Kelly were awsome.
The maken & Spain brothers put me to sleep and the David Munnelly Band was a huge dissappointment. especially after starting late due to there 1 hour sound check.
SAW DOCTORS, GAELIC STORM, AMD ALL OF THE ABOVE.
I have to say that The Elders ended their set perfectly. They do "Message in a Bottle" better than The Police. It was amazing as usual.
This was the first fest that my family stayed through Sunday night to see the Elders. It was well worth the extra night, great show. Jim Malcolm was also a highlight for us. We missed Gaelic Storm. Would love to see Damien Dempsey again, he was the highlight for us last year.
SOLAS
SOLAS
Damo, HHF, Salsa Celtica, Teada, Cara, Elders, GS, Danny Burns, Pogey.
Agree with most of these 25 - particularly Saw Doctors, Gaelic Storm and 7N.
However a humoungous disagreement with the comment on "marginal version of a Police song" - were you at the same show I was? I don't like the Police, Sting, or Message in a bottle, but the Elder's version of that is nothing short of amazing. (It did sort of go downhill after that, but how could it not.)
Hmm, I don't know..nothing against the Elders, but it's Irish Fest after all. So something Irish would be nice.
I agree with kevin that the big farewell could have been better.
I am more on the trad side and liked Cara and Slide best. Also Jim Malcom!
The festival doesn't dictate to bands what song to play when. And the Elders certainly weren't the only band who took a well known non-Irish song and made it their own. And they played it then because they had more time to fill before the Mighty Craic.
A band you had a few years ago that we really enjoyed was the Different Drums of Ireland. Very upbeat group.
More Irish traditional music, like on a smaller stage. All instrumental music such as duets that play uilleann pipes and fiddle. Trios with box and fiddle and flute. More trad!!! Less big show bands!! pleeezzz!
I go to a lot of festivals...and can usually discern what KCIF will look like by looking at Milwaukee's, mainly by the bands on tour in this country. Not a judgment, just and observation. That said, 2009 bands I'd like to see again: Pogey and Slide...and I thought The Youngers were quite a pleasant surprise. Bands I'd like to see that have been at KCIF but not 2009: Seven Nations with a symphony would be a little slice of heaven (or just being themselves), The Killdares, Wolfstone, Enter the Haggis, Eileen Ivers, The Paperboys (Westport, not KCIF), The Young Dubs w/Eric Rigler. Performers that have never played KCIF: Rathkeltair, Screaming Orphans, Needfire, Tempest, The McKassons, Peatbog Faeries, Maura O'Connell. Sure there are more...these just come to mind now. --Pat
Yes!!! to the more trad smaller stage. I love the big show stages, and especially love that we can have two - so keep those. But bring back the "Boulevard Pub Stage" (I think it lasted 1 year) to recreate a true pub scene with a circuit of trad bands and jams.
I was a little disappointed with the bands this year. Today I was listening to CD's of the Fuchsia Band and Old Blind Dogs and was reminded of their great performances. Few of this year's bands perform at this level of showmanship.
Note to Anonymous at 2:34 PM. The Boulevard Stage is what used to be the Boulevard Pub Stage. It's been there since the first Irish Fest at Crown Center in 2004. The stage outgrew the Pub part of the name, so it was dropped, I think starting with the 2007 fest.
I'll leave it to the Fest people to contemplate if they should add a pub stage, and where they'd put it if they did. But I'll point out, the atrium stage is a smaller stage. And more than once I came across unscheduled performances happening in the cottage.
Also, seems to me if you like traditional music, you should be pleased that it's popular enough to be on the large stages.
McPeake please!?
Post a Comment