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DylanFest Friday night

Posted Saturday, July 5, 2008

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DylanFest

I went up town to get my newspapers on Friday morning to be informed in Gillen's that there was a good crowd in the town and that there were lots of cars parked.

That was a good start to the day.

Evening

On the main stage in the evening, James O'Connor and Audrey Trainor, fresh from their appearance on the Mark Paterson show on Foyle Radio earlier on, played a 20 minute set including The Hurricane.

It was well received by the crowd.

Next up came Germany's top Dylan band PetTommy and the Brokenhearts who played a set of around an hour.

It was really warming up now.

More People

There were more people in the square than there were last year and they were appreciating the music in the good weather.

PetTommy played very well and were well applauded by the crowd.

The local weather forecast had said that the rain would start around 10 o'clock but it never did.

Slow Train Band

Then it was time for Italy's top Dylan band Slow Train Band.

And what a performance they put up.

This was their only gig of the festival and they had prepared a two and a quarter hour set for it.

Trek

They had also been on a 2-day trek by camper van from Northern Italy across the top of Europe and across in the ferry from France and then up through Ireland to Moville.

They had set out early Wednesday morning and arrived in the wee small hours of Friday morning.

This was just to play at Moville's DylanFest and now they had to cut their set down to just over an hour.

Superb

However, it was well worth it.

They were quite simply superb.

They played a very upbeat version of Dylan's songs.

It worked very well.

It was a tremendous performance.

Pubs

After it was over it was a choice of Dylan music in 7 different pubs.

We chose the Caiseal Mara - and we chose wisely.

The Plea, from Ballyliffin, were playing there.

The Plea have been easily the best band around this area for a number of years.

Welcome Back

They haven't played in Moville for over a year, now, as they have got a record contract, have been making an album and have been playing mainly in London and Belfast.

It was great to see them back again.

They were at their brilliant best last night as the brothers Denis and Dermot belted them out.

So far so good then at the DylanFest.

Tonight

The weather's a bit of a worry for tonight as rain was predicted for today.

However, it hasn't rained much at all today so far ,and the prediction of rain changes to a mixture of light and dark cloud in the early evening.

So, fingers crossed for tonight.

Play List

James O'Connor and Audrey Trainor kick off with a short set followed by the German band Pet Tommy and the Brokenhearts.

And then it's the 8-piece The Phantom Engineers playing with 8,000 Watts compared to the 2,000 Watts of last year.

They were great last year and if they've improved again it should really be something to hear.

I'm looking forward to it.