We’re gonna need a bigger party

Up until recently we’ve been having a surprisingly nice and sunny summer here in Ireland and it’s brought with it a few good parties, with more to come, so it seemed like a good time to make a post about it all. I’ve been getting out of Dublin a little bit recently which included hitting up a couple of excellent parties both down south and out west.

Ireland’s licensing laws are notoriously archaic and you are lucky if you can ever get to stay dancing past 3 o’clock so the recent Night Falls party down in Galway was a welcome respite from such restraints. Located in the upstairs of a restaurant; a small room holding no more than 80 or so people played host to Neville Watson and a couple of other local spinners a couple of weeks back. While I’m sure the legality of the party could be called into question it didn’t bother anyone and we stayed on till 5am – the party was still going when we left – and Neville completely killed it with a set of new and old acid house bangers. It felt more like a house party and it really kicked off during Neville’s set. The small room and capacity crowd meant that the whole room was literally dripping sweat. The way it should be, really. I’m not sure how regular these parties occur but keep an eye out for them if you can. I hadn’t gone clubbing in Galway in a good 7 years and it was great to hit up a new party with different folk. It’s a real shame that these late night gigs are so few and far between.

Last weekend it was Cork’s turn for the entertainment. While this ran to normal opening times the Sunday Times, The Real World and It’s Music crews hosted a party in a secret location down by the coast. Ironically enough it was just around the time the weather changed so the plan to have it outdoors over looking the sea was scrapped but we still had the back room of the pub – which had a nice conservatory overlooking the great scenery – to keep us busy. With a 100 capacity the nice, friendly vibe that permeated the Galway party was here too. There was a great smattering of eclectic choices supplied by the Djs, touching on Disco, funk, Northern Soul and house and for the last few hours the place really went off. The cool setting again made for a welcome change to the usual club environs, though I’m not sure what the locals out the front thought of it all. Maybe not much going on the pub closing us off from the bar and serving us through the kitchen for the last few hours!

Back in Dublin, I’d hardly been out partying this summer, the last time being the Rahaan gig of which Gmos’ fantabulous warm up set you can find here. Before heading down to Cork last weekend, on the Friday night Steffi – co-manager of the Klakson label and panorama bar resident – rolled into town. While the likes of Prosumer, Ben Klock and Marcel Dettman are more well known from the big group of residents from Berghain/Panorama, Steffi showed that she can more than hold her own delivering a cracking set of old and new house and techno, effortlessly flitting between the two. She impressed me much more than either Dettman or Klock the few times I’ve seen them and hopefully her stock will continue to rise. The gig was slightly tainted by the embarrassing shenanigans of the promoters who insisted on prancing around the stage like a particularly pathetic pair of hangers-on, which even induced some irritance from Steffi herself, as they at least once caused her record to skip (she gets extra ISM kudos points for using 100% vinyl too) but overall it didn’t take away from a killer set. If she rolls into your town, check her out!

But that’s enough about the past, now onto a few other upcoming happenings. We got a bank holiday weekend coming up at the end of the month in Ireland and this coming one looks set to be particularly hectic. On the Friday (30th) I’m undecided to hit up Soundstream in the Button Factory or Kink in Kennedys. I’m not a fan of The Button Factory (the Steffi gig was also here, the first time I’d been in the venue this year I think) where Soundstream is on and Kennedys (hosting Kink) can be a brilliant venue if it kicks off, so I think that’ll be a last minute decision.

Saturday night sees my boys from Lunar Disko hit their 4th birthday party which is no mean feat in Dublin’s notoriously fickle clubbing world. This time around they are bringing over a pretty hefty double header in the shape of Rude 66 and Marco Passarani. I warmed up for Passarani on his last visit and he delivered the goods and more that night, but I’m really pumped for the return of Rude 66. Their last visit to Dublin was one of the best live sets I’ve caught in years, hauling over the hardware for a raw as hell set of live electro. Things don’t stop there as Lunar are gonna roll things over into Sunday afternoon with a boat party in the afternoon, with myself and a few other Lunar regulars spinning the musaks. Hopefully this gives a few out-of-towners some notice to get their asses up for the weekend, it’s gonna be long and messy. If you are interested, you can sign this list which gets you into the Lunar birthday and then onto the boat the next day for a mere ten euros! I can guarantee there will be no sharks.

While I’m here I’m gonna hoodwink in a little bit more Lunar action. After giving us the debut bit of wax from Submersible Machines, they are bringing things back home for the debut 12 by Irish new kid Automatic Tasty. In a short while the Wicklow based chap has built up a sterling reputation for his live sets where he seemingly hauls most of his studio out on stage (I’ve yet to see him but going on the pics it’s a lot of hardware!), rocking out a mixture of electro, house and techno. He’s also got an upcoming 12″ on D1 Recordings which will hopefully also be dropping soon (and should be a step up from the label’s lacklustre 50th release). Before these 12’s drop you can get a, er, taste of what the guy is about from this free album he put out not too long ago. Definitely one to watch…