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Ballroom of Romance Number 10, Lower Deck, Portobello, 31/01/2003
Taking place in the lower deck of the Lower Deck bar in Portobello, the Ballroom of Romance has quickly established itself as one of the most consistantly entertaining nights in a city full of tepid pay to play shows and fustratingly hit-and-miss gigs. The concept is simple; three or four acts that complement each other; €6 in, and a free cd with a song from each act included. The well designed cd's are a very welcome idea, and, along with the record stall, provide the regular crowd with a directory of the best of the dublin independent scene. why don't more promoters do this?
...
After a short delay, the wexford dublin quirk rock group Stoat take to the stage. Extensively played by pirate radio in dublin, their last two singles have sold very well, to much acclaim, and have quickly jumped to the top of the underground pack banging at the door of the irish mainstream. Their excellent humour soaked songs and onstage personas shroud an excellent songwriting core, with original melodies and ingenous changes both in tempo and chords belying their throwaway style. with songs like 'gillette man', and a fantastic cover of 'girls just wanna have fun', stoat are the perfect antidote to the po-faced posturing that seems to stalk every corner of the dublin music lanscape. the people sitting beside me sangalong with almost every song, laughing at the jokes and grinning from ear to ear, a refreshing sight to counter the standard stand-with-pint-nod-to-music-clap-at-end-of-song stance at so many other. fittingly, the night was endined by a hilarious ramshakle jam session where various members of the audience and bands got up and sang and rapped and generally made an arse of themselves for the benefit of the whooping crowd.
roll on Ballroom 11.
[Stoat review-of-review: 'their excellent humour soaked songs and onstage personas shroud an excellent songwriting core' - at last! a reviewer gets it! 10 out of 10]
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