Shows in Ireland

"Wow! I love Ireland. I would LOVE to live here".  "We haven't even made it to any other countries yet" said my cousin Alec. :)) It has been 4 days since I have been on my "Sounds of Crow" Tour and it hasbeen so AMAZING hanging out, meeting people, making new friends, and playing shows. On Wed. Feb 1st we flew out of Minneapolis.. and landed in Dublin Thursday morning. From there.. we took a bus ride into the city in search of Rory's House.. (Our CouchSurfing Host). After getting off the bus we realized we got off the bus a little early and had to do some walking. At first we were quite lost and my bag was quite heavy walking around Dublin. After fining a Information Center got a Dublin map.. along with asking a few locals for some help with directions. We ended up finding Rory's house.

            That Evening I had a show @ the Brick Alley Cafe "Songs from a Cafe". Thanks to Rory's Great navigation skills we were able to find the place with no problem. Brick Alley is very quaint place and can fit about 30 people and was pretty much loaded with as many people that could fit in there. I was very excited to play my first show in such an intimate setting. The people were very attentive towards the other artist.. and as a songwriter I always like a crowd of good listeners. So as we were sitting there listening to the other artist.. Alec leaned over as said' "Is that the girl that sings with Damion Rice?" I wasn't really sure.. so I broke out my iPhone .. got the Cafe's Wifi password and Googled Imaged Damion Rice "Nine Crimes". Sure enough it was her.. so Alec went up right away introduced himself and chatted with her for a bit. She was there to support her friend Raevennan Husbandes. Rae is an artist from the UK and a phenomenal song writer with a beautiful voice!! (If you have a minute check her out! Its worth it.. She could very well be your new favorite artist.) http://www.reverbnation.com/raevennanhusbandes. After Rae, it was my turn to play.  I played. I conquered! It was a great set! I had a great reaction from the crowd and got a lot of positive feed back. After I was finished the host of the event invited up the girl that sang with Damion to sing a song. She introduced her as Lisa Hannigan. As soon as I heard the name.. I was in shock I couldn't believe it. Two years ago I went to a sold out David Grey concert at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis. Lisa Hannigan was the opener and I instantly fell in love with her music. I shook her hand and bought her CD. Two years later her I am on my first day of my "Sounds of Crow" European Tour and I happen to be sitting across the table from her in this tiny cafe, and unofficially opening up for her! Check out her performance I took a video of her on my I phone. she is AMAZING! Click here! Afterwords we ended up hanging out for a bit with Rae and Lisa afterword and snapped some photos. 
I signed a CD of mine saying "Lisa, I <3 U". Did I mention I was a huge Fan! What are the chances? What a great way to start the tour. I could have gone home at this point and been happy with the way my tour went! :)) After the show Alec and I ended up going out and hanging out at some Irish bars and hung out with some new friends we met online through CouchSurfering.com.
         The following morning Alec and I woke up to packed up and made out way Cork, Ireland. A two hour bus ride later we were in the wonderful city of Cork. We had arranged before we left the states to stay at the Bru Bar Hostel, Friday, Feb. 3rd and Saturday, Feb.4th. Friday night I played at the Crane Lane Theater, which was only a five minute walk from out hostel, and according to another musician I met on the bus .. the prime place to play in Cork for Songwriters. It was a very cool setting, nice stage, a great sound system and a great engineer. We ended up recording the audio.. and I plan to release Joel Kachel "Live @ Crane Lane Theatre" once we get back. We also ended up meeting a large group of people from the US that also found out about our event through CouchSurfers.com. A few of these new friend were from MN and it was a girl from Minnesota's 21st birthday. I played and sand "Happy Birthday" and told everyone I wrote it... (they didn't believe me). One guy I ment was even from my home town back in the States. What a crazy small world!
           Saturday night we played at the Bru Bar. I must say this was quiet the party. On top of that there was another birthday that night. This time it was a party of Irish men dressed as Smurfs celebrating a 50th birthday party. It was hilarious. Tonight I had Alec come up and play a a few songs with me on the Ukulele. We mentioned to the bartender that he would be playing with me.. and she convinced Alec and I to dress up for out last set. She brought in a grass skirt along with a flower top for him to wear to add to the whole Ukulele beach theme. I ended up leaving my main clothes bag including my swim suit in Dublin at Rory's so I could lighten my load. Lucky Alec had his. Unfortunately.. Alec is a little smaller then me in the waste.. and the swim trunks didn't quite close all the way. It was quite a scene! We had a great time! I hope I can make it back to Cork sooner then later! What a great town! 




      Sunday morning Alec and I checked out of the Bru Bar Hostel at 11am.. hopped back on the bus andmade our trek back to Dublin for our last two shows/appearances in Ireland on Balcony TV and The Mercantile's "Sunday Roast". For Balcony TV we were filmed on a Building top in Dublin over looking the City. 

                                                                                                                                                                                       

     
     The video is of me performing "Burn" written my myself and my good friend Alaska, Chris Snyder. The video should be up on YouTube this Wednesday. (Feb. 8th, 2012) After Balcony.. we walked to The Mercantile which happened to be less then a block away. Couldn't have worked out any better. This performance for the "Sunday Roast" included me opening solo followed 4 other bands. Thanks to Alec making an Event page on CouchSurfering.com, we were able to get 15-20 people there that were there to see me perform from different countries including Romania, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Norway. Not including all the other people there to support the other bands. I would say there was a good 50-60 people there.  It was so great to have so many people there to support the love of music on a Sunday night!

            This was the end of our time in Ireland! What a great time! I can wait to come back! Next time I would like to stay longer and take a trip out the the west coast and see the country side. Thanks to All the venues, artist, and people who made this experience so amazing! That night we crashed one more time at Rory's and headed for Amsterdam in the Morning!