Electric Picnic!

So finally I am able to write about my Irish music festival experience. It proved to be quite the experience and I loved every second of it! Meghan and I got to Stradbally Estate in County Laois on early Friday afternoon. We (well mainly she) set up the tent and it proved to be a bit more work than we expected.

There she is with the finished product!

Friday proved to be great music-wise. Started the day off with some little known bands but that were pretty good. We saw Shouting at Planes, The Lost Brothers, Willy Mason, Foster the People, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, M. Ward, Santigold, Sinead O'Connor, Interpol and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes! See? Pretty darn good and that's only some of the people that were playing that day! My favourite? I'd say Santigold and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. Santigold had some awesome backup dancers and she was just having so much fun on stage! It was definitely infectious. And then of course Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes are just amazing musicians (I mean comon there's TEN of them!)

Then on Saturday started with Le Galaxie (who I've been wanting to see for such a long time), Adebisi Shank, Toots and the Maytals, OMD, Lykke Li, Health, Arcade Fire, The Chemical Brothers and Public Enemy. Those were the acts that I caught. I know it seems like less but I pretty much watched the whole sets for people on this day rather than bouncing around like crazy. I wanted to absorb the artists as much as I could. Ha. OH also I had my first ferris wheel ride! The thing spun around and it made me super sick... and made me feel old because I was like, "Oh no... I can't take spinny rides anymore." 

Sunday was interesting because usually the music selection dies down at festivals on the last day (from what I've seen anyway) but it was crazy good! I watched Favourite Sons, Oh Land, Japanese Popstars, the Go! Team, The Drums, The Family Stone, Beirut and Pulp. I missed Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and James V McMorrow but hopefully I'll get to see them some other time. I spent Sunday night in a caravan... my first time ever in a caravan! It was very cramped but at least I wasn't freezing like Saturday night. Haha. 

Overall, it was a super fun weekend with some super awesome music. I wish I could come every year. It kind of reminded me of Coachella with its sense of hippiness and happy people... but I was surrounded by Irish folk. I wasn't a minority just because I'm Asian, but because I'm from the US as well! Haha. Interesting experience overall. And now for some photos!

Ms. Sinead O'Connor!

Foster the People! So so good!

Santigold with her awesome dancers

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Toots and the Maytals!

OMD... yes I know I'm a crazy 80s kid haha

Lykke Li

Wuhoo!

Arcade Fire :)

My hand was shaking too much from excitement haha

Public Enemy... meheh

The Family Stone

The Go! Team

Beirut!!!! SOO SOOO GOOD

The Drum :)

Ahhhh Pulp... hahhha

Let's go backwards shall we?

For those of you who are new to my style of blogging because I'm so bad at keeping up with blogging and life I recount backwards. Only seems natural since those are the memories that are freshest. Also the most recent memories are the true Irish shenanigans. The tales to come later are ones from home...

So it's now July and mostly what I've been up to is writing and stressing out about my thesis. Which will basically be the tune that I will be singing for the next two months. Ah well. C'est la vie... Just a small step towards the career goal right?

ANYWHO onto more fun things... GIGS!

The most recent gig that I went to was the absolutely fabulous Janelle Monae. She was absolutely amazing. The show itself was an amazing treat. I've always said the best shows not only have the artist at their very best but a true entertaining bit as well. Treat for the eyes as well as the ears if you will. Because of this until now the Green Day/Jimmy Eat World double headliner that I went to with a bunch of my friends during undergrad and the Jason Mraz/Makepeace brothers/Bushwalla show I went to that had the undertones of magic involved with Justin Willman (formerly known as Justin Kredible) are the two best gigs I have been to... bar Janelle Monae. She had the same kind of theme as in her music video for "Tightrope" which was very cool. I didn't get any really great photos as my camera ran out battery but this is what I've got:

The ever so fabulous Janelle Monae

A couple days before that we went to "Live at the Marquee" in Cork City and what a freaking cool venue! Basically it's a huge tent but still outdoors and definitely felt like I was at a festival or something. We saw the great Fleet Foxes and they were fanTAStic. They are all so talented and it was great to see them display their talents live!

The guy in the beanie is my favourite...

While I was in California I went to Soul Slam, basically Prince vs. Michael Jackson night, and had an absolute blast as well. No photos from that night as I was busy dancing up a storm with my fantastical sister whilst her awesome DJ boyfriend laid down some great tunes.

BUT the night before I left for California Meghan and I went to watch The Tallest Man on Earth. Contrary to popular belief he most definitely is not the tallest man on Earth but he is absolutely a FANTASTIC musician and ... get this he's Swedish! When he sings he sounds pretty darn American but then he talks and it's like "Oh what the deuce....?" One of my favourite songs of his is "King of Spain" .. give it a listen. Pretty good stuff.

So ends post #1 about the six week hiatus I took from the blog. The food that made me gain the weight I lost will be next!