THE DIVINE COMEDY LIVE
The HQ Club, Dublin
July 1999
(Bear with the images as they load, it's worth it ! )
On the 15 th July The Divine Comedy played the HQ club in Dublin, it was a bit of a warm up for the following night when they lent their support to REM at Lansdown Rd.
I flew off to Dublin to take in the whole experience.
Generation Sex .....Death of a supernaturalist ....Something for the weekend ....Everybody knows ....thrillseeker ....Europop ....Sweden ....In and out ....National express ....The pop singers fear of the pollen count ....Someone ....All mine .....Here comes the flood ....Lucy ....Songs of love ....Tonight we fly (all followed by a very long encore)
The HQ club in Dublin is an unique venue, the building itself houses an Irish music hall of fame along with a coktail bar and the upstairs live music arena which boasts that the audience is never more than 10 metres from the stage. The seating is mainly around tables and you are treated to waitress service from the bar throughout the performance.
We arrived at the venue very early and spent a bit too much time in the bar where the cocktail of the day packed a big punch ! I had been told that the band often spend a bit of time in the bar before gigs so was kinda hoping that we may get to share their air :-)
The first treat of the evening wasn't too hard to come by, it was while wondering around the back following directions to the ladies that I could here the band warming up upstairs. The stairs were within view with only a set of double doors and a lack of courage in the way, luckily with the encouragment from a member of the crew I soon found my way up the satirs and into the music arena where I was able to enjoy the sound check completely unchallenged, it was very informal, as it would be I suppose, there were only a few people there and plenty of food strewn across the frount tables, I did get to have a chat with Bryan who was a bit unimpressed by this web site stuff saying that 'everbody's doing Divine Comedy web sites now'.
Later on as the crowd grew outside we stayed with the cocktails and Neil and Orla joined Bryan and a few others in the bar, they all looked very relaxed and we hadn't been bothering them (copeing with the cocktails was taking up a lot of my attention), but we did get to say hello to Niel and Orla and grabed a quick piccie, I know Neil is shy but it looks to me that he enjoys being recognised and the 'pop star' type of attention, he was very obliging anyway.
We were seated at a table on the frount row just slightly off centre, in frount was the stage, no barriers or anything. Three young ladies were also sat around the table that we were sat at, it was great to chat and get to know fellow fans and particually local ones ( Hi Lisa)
The support was faily brief but very talented, and before long on came The Divine Comedy:-
The atmosphere was electric, the band quickly launched into Generation Sex ....Death of a supernaturalist .... Something for the weekend ( "how about a F**K" asks Neil)....Everybody knows ....Thrillseeker ....Europop ( another one dragged into the 1999's) ....Sweden ....In and out ....National Express ( yes everyone was dancing in the aisles)....The pop singers fear of the pollen count ....Someone ....All mine ( so, Neil gave Tom Jones advice on singing?).....Here comes the flood ....Lucy ....Songs of love ....Tonight we fly , the next song on the set list was Sunrise but it seemed that Neil got a bit carried away with a very long encore and I think that every other Divine Comedy song was played other than the one on the list , during Don't Look Down Neil Launch himself forward into the small crowd and alowed himslef to be grabed and groped ( I wish) he handed over the microphone to the group of us who sang ....' .....the wind thats blowing dies a quick and painless death, the air gets clammy and we hold each others breath, we get the feeling that we're not alone in this, then a god who realy ought not to exist...'
Neil was enjoying himself so much he had to be dragged off
The audience were left knowing they had witnessed something very special, a truely magical performance by the Divine Comedy, the people of Dublin, the venue and a very intimate performance by the band all added up to night to remember.
(The next evening at Lansdown Rd stadium)
The performance the next evening supporting REM was of course truely professional, we had been spoilt the night before ..... say no more.
Thanks to Sally Pugh for the improved quality of the pic's
