Hey there bloggers. It has been another busy week in Fanzini world and here i am again to tell you all about it. First on our list was our trip to the big city Dublin. For us simple country lads this is a big deal, actually we keep getting more and more work in Dublin which is good in a way but then you have to deal with the traffic the crowds the chaos. The lifestyle is more frantic more urgent less "lets take a moment here guys" i suppose that you get used to life in the belly of the beast after a while.
Anyway on to the work.
We were based for 2 shows each day in the Dundrum town center which is a monster of a place a cathedral for the consumer in all of us. The whole thing is a part of the Dundrum Arts Festival a local community endeavour. Cool Stuff.
Lets be honest here an insight into the Fanzini mindset if you will but we have always found it really hard to perform in shopping centers as people are not in the headspace to see shows. To be honest i dont know if that even covers it it is beyond a frame of mind thing its almost as if what we do is out of place in a venue like this for some reason that is beyond us maybe it is that shopping centers are impersonal antiseptic somehow at one remove if that makes sense. It can just be hard to generate atmosphere in some way. People are reluctant to engage. We enjoyed the two shows we did on the saturday but to be honest they were hard work to do especially in the heat. We were in with an airline promotion stand which probably did not help but we were able to get some comedy out of the situation in the show which was good.
Actually while we are at it another bit of the Fanizni philosophy here put simply good shows are all we care about for us. We want to rock the house every single time. When we dont rock the house we scratch our heads and wonder why and try to make it better next time. There is nothing worse than leaving a town after a bad gig and nothing better than knowing that you rocked the house and you audience had a great time. We are a bit Roy Keane about the whole thing pursuit of excelence and all that. It is because of this vibe that we left on the first evening a bit bit deflated all the audience participation stuff was flat in the shows despite our best efforts at cranking it.
The shopping center itself in fairness is a good looking place which is very well designed space which in itself is welcoming with lots of open spaces which encourage lounging about and a lovely millpond a relic from an older age as a centerpiece. The pond even has water display with cascading water and vatious sprinkling effects etc. all very nice. Inside it was full of shops a lot of shops, and so it was that the day was not a dead loss as i did pick up two excelent Trojan box sets Rocksteady and Rocksteady Raraties both 11 Euro brilliant.
Ronaldo also had breakfast in a really nice spot called i think Brambles in the forecourt of the center. Good coffee and friendly down to earth staff insanely expensive but good enough a three star rating.
After that it was off to Baile an Ghib for the evening show no rest for those Fanzini boys.

Dundrum Day 2
Better by far as you will see in the photos we had discussed pulling the audience stuff altogether and just putting on music and basicailly putting on a display of pure skills but the challenge of putting out a rocking show was too delicious to resist. In fairness we made other changes also like we went and performed in a different more open area in the forecourt all these decisions paid off and we pulled off a show that would have in itself made the whole two days worthwhile a cracker as it were. Happy we were!
The second show however got rained off in the middle just as we were building another whopper but it hardly made a difference nothing you can do about the weather. The summer seems to be a mucky one so far.
Following the gig we hoisted our sails and headed for home.