Bands out, builders in as venues close
Acts seeking to strut their stuff on a stage in Dublin in the coming weeks face a limited choice due to the temporary closure of some key venues.
Both the Temple Bar Music Centre and Whelan’s are currently undergoing extensive refurbishment, while the Point Theatre is set to close at the end of this month for a massive overhaul which will see it doubling its capacity.
When the Temple Bar Music Centre re-opens in mid-to-late September, it will have both a new look and new owners. The revamp of the building will increase the venue capacity to 750 people with the dividing wall between the venue and the bar disappearing, an extended balcony, a relocated sound desk, new seating system and a brand new PA.
Long-standing venue owner Paddy Dunning will be joined at the helm of the decade-old Temple Bar fixture by POD Concerts boss John Reynolds and ex-Rí-Rá co-owner Eoin Foyle.
The most popular venue on Wexford Street also has the builders in at present. When Whelan’s re-opens in mid- September, the tidy-up will see a small bump in the main room’s capacity to 450 people.
The major change, however, is the creation of a new 120-capacity venue on the first floor where the band dressing- rooms, upstairs toilets and offices are currently located.
At the front of the building, the bar will be extended and the smoking area moved to the first floor, while new dressing-rooms are being built on a second-floor level with direct access to the stage. The changes will make the common sight of bands pushing their way through a crowded bar en route to their dressing-rooms after a show a thing of the past.
The most significant venue transformation in the capital city will get under way next month. The Point will close its doors for 14 months after the European super bantamweight bout between Bernard Dunne and Kiko Martinez on August 25the. When the venue re-opens, it will do so as a 14,000-capacity Roman-style amphitheatre.
The new Point will be part of the €800 million Point Village development which involves a giant shopping centre, hotel, car park and cinema complex.
Will the Point be all seater then? Or will it still have a floor? If it does, what’s the betting it’ll be divided into gold, frankincense and pauper sections?
I’m gonna miss the spectre of bands charging through Whelans into their little room upstairs. It added to the venues charm. Hopefully it won’t lose its allure with the makeover.
I was always fond of the TBMC for some strange reason. Nice to see new blood involved.
Comment by Brautigan | August 10, 2007 at 10:15 ami think the Point will be very like the MEN in Manchester - multi-configuration which means it will be theatre or all-standing (with banks of seats as now) depending on who is playing
I’m sure the bands won’t miss that bizarre ritual where they walk thru the front bar of Whelan’s!
It will be interesting to see how the POD Concerts buy-in impacts on other promoters (like our friends in Dun Laoghaire) using the venue.
Comment by Jim Carroll | August 10, 2007 at 10:17 amNever thought of that. There was a spell there not so long ago when MCD put on some their finest gigs there - Sigur Ros, Godspeed You! Black Emporer, Beta Band, Ministry etc. Quite a few back in the Humanitat event days (or whatever Darragh’s thing was called).
It was always a handy venue for them to fall back on too. Ahh well, that’s competition I suppose. What goes around etc..
Comment by Brautigan | August 10, 2007 at 10:29 amDarragh Purcell’s thing was called Humanitat alright (or was it Humanzi?). My favourite memory was seeing Flaming Lips and Cornelius in the Olympia and watching poor old Dave “Fab” Fanning get boo’d off by the audience when he came to introduce the Lips.
Comment by Jim Carroll | August 10, 2007 at 10:32 am“watching poor old Dave “Fab” Fanning get boo’d off by the audience”,
That’s nearly as good as the time Electric Eddy snapped at a Beat on the Street after we’d been pelting him with lumps of chalkboard for about 20 minutes.
Comment by Matt Vinyl | August 10, 2007 at 11:17 amWas that part of those Transmissions series of gigs? Good God they were unreal. I remember sitting downstairs with about ten other people watching Can Solo Projects live thinking it didn’t get any better than this. There was more people on stage than in the audience!
Comment by Brautigan | August 10, 2007 at 11:20 amThe thoughts of a new sound system in the Music Centre has me worried - it can’t get much better than what’s there already. Last year I saw many, many great gigs - Boredoms, Broken Social Scene, Black Mountain/Pink Mountaintops/Blood Meridian and they all sounded absolutely amazing.
Comment by Neilo | August 10, 2007 at 11:29 amThe Point overhaul sounds like it’s going to be brilliant.
Brautigan - yes, that was the festival alright. Great gigs but poxy turnout.
matt - whatever happened to Electric Eddy? Oh no, we’re turning into blogorrah….
Neilo - when did Broken Social Scene play in the TBMC last year? I thought their last Dublin show was in Vicar St and it was AMAZING!
Comment by Jim Carroll | August 10, 2007 at 11:32 amBroken Social Scene played the Music Centre in Feb (the 14th I think it was)…
They played the Warwick in Galway on May 17th, Vicar Street on May 18th and then the Electric Picnic on the Saturday later in the year (the exact same time and set as Arcade Fire had played the year before).
Another Canadian multi-piece who played Ireland 4 times in one year.
Comment by Pedro | August 10, 2007 at 11:58 amThanks Pedro!
Comment by Jim Carroll | August 10, 2007 at 11:59 amBSS played their first ROI show in TBMC in Feb 2006. They then returned in May to play VS probabaly because they were due to play ATP in the UK that weekend.
Then they played EP in LS.
Comment by Ian | August 10, 2007 at 12:02 pmTo be honest - I prefer BSS than AF.
BSS have 3 fantastic records under their belts (with a 4th to come from their gang leader Kevin Drew). I am not impressed by Neon Bible - I admit Funeral is pretty damn tasty but I’d easily take a Broken Social Scene gig over an Arcade Fire one.
Comment by Pedro | August 10, 2007 at 12:07 pmI respectfully disagree. You Forgot It In People is an amazing record but I’m not keen on Feel Good Lost and the last album was a bit patchy I thought.
Comment by Ian | August 10, 2007 at 12:22 pmFeel Good Lost is a tough listen at first but it is a definite grower.
Comment by Pedro | August 10, 2007 at 12:29 pmI quite like the selft titled release.
BSS are a band who need to be seen live to truly appreciate.
A near 3 hour set in Vicar Street last year (no support act and stage time was bang-on) was incredible.
If I remember correctly - Mr. Carroll gave the last record a 5 star album of the week in the Ticket last year.
I was into BSS long before you guys were.
Comment by Brautigan | August 10, 2007 at 12:32 pmi did indeed - a five out of five review for the last album in december 2005. good memory. or are u stalking me, pedro?
Comment by Jim Carroll | August 10, 2007 at 12:33 pmI keep clippings if your work Jim.
I have scrap-books of your articles and reviews. I’m holding out that you still might make something of yourself.
You’re a commodity and the scrapbooks are my golden ticket.
Comment by Pedro | August 10, 2007 at 12:38 pm“I was into BSS long before you guys were.”
Bullshit, I was in the gyno’s office when Kevin Drew’s mother was getting her first sonogram. The shit he was playing as a fetus was amazing. Much better than his current output.
Comment by Ian | August 10, 2007 at 12:40 pmPedro - i’m calling the guards
Ian - I see a tshirt in all of this….
Comment by Jim Carroll | August 10, 2007 at 12:42 pmIt was a Saturday in February - that’s all I remember about the BSS gig in TBMC. Wiped the floor with the unforgivable tripe that was CYHSY gig in the Village a few weeks before. Dr Dog as a support band makes me cry.
I went to ATP a few months later and missed BSS joined onstage by Dinosaur Jr. mainman J. Mascis (on May 16th no less). Gutted. Met BSS afterwards and got hammered and then Murph from Dinosaur Jr helped me find my bag that I drunkenly lost.
What’s going to happen in the absence of the Point?
Comment by Neilo | August 10, 2007 at 12:59 pmneilo - well, there’s that that tent yoke in the phoenix park and the RDS.
Comment by Jim Carroll | August 10, 2007 at 1:03 pmGood burn there Jim, I suppose I should have been more specific - in the absence of the Point and the limited number of gigs that can be put on the Phoeno and the RDS due to Dublin City Council restrictions, will the National Stadium become the venue of choice for the next 12-14 months?
Comment by Neilo | August 10, 2007 at 1:38 pmGod I hope not. I have never been to a gig there where there’s been a decent sound. Same applies for the Ambassador really, though Godspeed’s engineer somehow pulled one out of the bag the last time they played there a few years ago.
Any word on the gigs at the Museum of Modern Art yet, or are POD waiting to get the Picnic out of the way first?
Comment by Brautigan | August 10, 2007 at 2:27 pmhahaha, Pedro=Neilo?!
Comment by Bobby | August 10, 2007 at 8:27 pmbobby - have been having a few problems today with comments due to the arcade fire madness and only getting around to cleaning up stuff now. That comment was from Neilo alright - who is definitely not Pedro.
Comment by Jim Carroll | August 10, 2007 at 8:30 pmIt happened to me yesterday aswell.
Comment by Pedro | August 10, 2007 at 11:35 pmLuckily Jim knows who everyone is who posts on this so no-one can be sneaky and use someone else’s name.
I liked Whelans the way it was too…although it always was a bit cramped on a Saturday night.
But tell me this: what kind of gigs could they have in mind for a room with a capacity of 120?
The “Roman-style” Point sounds intriguing to say the least. For some reason, I’m picturing a coliseum with rows reaching nose-bleeding heights. Binoculars provided, etc.
But seriously, if it becomes an all-seater, won’t that have a huge impact on what kind of bands can and can’t play there?
Comment by Kim Fowley | August 13, 2007 at 12:22 amkim - see comment no 2 above about seats in the Point. And remember that Roman-style means room on the floor for the Christians, lions and Ian Brown fans. It wont be all-seater because that doesnt make gigonomic sense
Comment by Jim Carroll | August 13, 2007 at 8:47 amIt does.
Though I think they will most likely go the way of La Zenith in Paris, which is amphitheatre-style and roughly the same size of the Point.
I was there earlier in the summer and was impressed at their use of space and acoustics in what is basically a warehouse. There was a big open space right at the front of the stage where those inclined to mosh could do so safely out of range of the more retiring types up in the rows of seats.
Comment by Kim Fowley | August 13, 2007 at 8:41 pmIm really disappointed whelans is gettin refurbished- its gonna lose all its charm. Itll be a better music venue sure but the atmosphere and charm- gone
Comment by Nicola | September 10, 2007 at 4:16 pmcant wait for the new point! Sounds frickin fantastic- hopefully the terrible sound system can be eradicated..
as for BBS- one of my fav bands by far. A hundred times better than Arcade Fire! check out kevin drews myspace profile for a amusing pic of him with my sister!