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Uzi & Ari, Ballroom of Romance, The Lower Deck

By on Saturday, 24 January 200914 Comments | Print this post | Email
Uzi & Ari, Ballroom of Romance, The Lower Deck

The Lower Deck is a quality boozer. A world where aul’ regulars, students, couriers, GAA buffs and indie geeks collide. The place has a fair share of characters. Some of those characters spill down stairs to the basement, which admittedly, is not the best laid out venue in the Dublin. The stage is at the corner of the L-shaped room, so the bottleneck crowd at the bar get a muffled din while the side of the stage gets blasted out of it.

Three Irish bands supported Uzi & Ari at this gig organised by Ballroom of Romance. Opening the night were The Yeh Deadlies who had a nice sound and look the part, with mirrored guitarists (the guitars are all that matched) either side of the bass player clad in red pleather trousers. The have some eclectic tunes but one of them needs to take control of the stage. Then there were Land Lovers and Fiasco, Fiesta who had their moments but weren’t all that engaging. The between act DJ is on an -80′s gothic vibe, quality stuff indeed. When one punter enquires after a tune he offers to put the album on his USB key, because we’re carrying those to gigs these days? Brilliant.

Just before midnight, Uzi & Ari, who are actually five people, poured onto the stage. Worth the wait? Not really. Part Postal Service, part Thom Yorke (vocally) the band play some glitchy, twinkly indie pop from their current album, Headworms. Grand if you like that sort of thing. Maybe it was the poor sound but there wasn’t really anything of any real substance to be heard.

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  • http://thedublinista.blogspot.com Thedublinista

    I thought Fiasco,fiesta were the best of the night. The sound was pretty atrocious-the yeh deadlies sounded like an instrumental from where I was standing. Not really their fault though.

  • Norman

    That is not a venue. The sound system would be laughed at by a country 2 piece. Great atmosphere and music. Pity the venue is so rubbish.

  • http://www.ballroomofromance.com Alle

    Hi all,

    Allen from the Ballroom here.

    A few points to mention:

    1/Soundcheck was running late so the Yeah Deadlies had to go on without a soundcheck. Apologies again to them

    2/ We were only expecting a small crowd for the night and in the end had 180 punters when we were expeting 80. With the benefit of hindsite we would have cleared out more tables and booked a bigger PA. However matters aren’t helped when people insist on talking loundly throughout all the performances. Regardless of the venue and PA this is basic gig etiquette and not our responsibiliy to enforce.

  • Norman

    People talk at gigs.

    People needed to talk about how bad the music between bands was.

  • http://toofamoustogetfullydressed.blogspot.com/2009/01/bono-makes-his-new-york-times-debut.html Dave

    Regardless of the venue and PA this is basic gig etiquette and not our responsibiliy to enforce.

    Did you make any announcements at the time, letting people know that talking over the bands wouldn’t be tolerated?

  • http://www.ballroomofromance.com Allen

    Would you?

  • http://toofamoustogetfullydressed.blogspot.com/2009/01/bono-makes-his-new-york-times-debut.html Dave

    If I was promoting a gig and it was being ruined by talkers, I’d do something other than sticking my fingers in my ears, yeah.

  • http://www.myspace.com/ballroomofromance Allen

    Dave,

    As a small promoter I can tell you that it is a constant struggle keeping costs down and keeping punters in. I am not going to tell people who made the effort to come down how to behave. Did you tell anyone to keep quiet yourself?

  • http://toofamoustogetfullydressed.blogspot.com/2009/01/bono-makes-his-new-york-times-debut.html Dave

    You don’t think people will be more put off by the fact the constant talking wasn’t addressed? I’m not a promoter, and I can understand that you didn’t want to upset the talky people who’d paid into the gig, but clearly the fact that it wasn’t addressed detracted from the experience for other people (including yourself.)

    I’ve been to gigs in the past where either the artist has had to stop mid-song, or (in the case of meek opening acts) the main performer has had to come out and shame the audience into shutting up, and it’s something that needs to be done. You can’t just say “it’s not our responsibility to enforce [it],” because it quite clearly is, and you shouldn’t risk alienating the majority of gig-goers just to avoid offending an ignorant minority.

  • http://www.myspace.com/ballroomofromance Allen

    I take your point, but the truth is that most of the audience were talking during the performance This is a common problem in loads of venues, whelans, crawdaddy etc. and the only real solution in the case of the Lower Deck when crowded is a bigger PA.

  • Phil

    I went to the lower deck the other night and it was jammed. The first
    band came on, and played a few nice songs and one fella had red pants. I then drank at the bar for the rest of the night with the lads and didn’t see much else. God i haven’t seen the lads in ages it was great to see them again. They all had a really good christmas

  • http://www.myspace.com/lpxireland Leigh O’Gorman

    Talking during a set… I’ve always thought that says more about the artist playing than anything else.

  • rosinka

    I was at this gig and thought that the sound was not great due to people being loud. Having said that, I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the place and had a fantastic night.

  • snow white

    No talking at gigs??!! Jesus what next? ´Artists´and fans that take themselves this seriously need to get a grip. If I wanted to sit in reverence I´d go to mass.
    It was a Friday night for christ sake.
    I was at the gig Fiasco Fiesta were amazing sound system sucked ass.

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