I'd booked a random hotel in the town and was delighted to find that the venue not even next door - it was attached to the hotel! The INEC is the Irish National Exhibition Centre and the gig itself took place in the hotel ballroom, which was weird. There were tables set out in long rows, like a wedding banquet, which was even weirder. I stuck my head round the door at 7pm and assumed they were going to clear it all away - but they didn't.
Got speaking to one of the bands who I know quite well from going to gigs, and he said "why didn't you come to Cork or Dublin instead? We've sold out, 800 tickets in those places - and only sold 100 tickets here." Apparently Killarney is a redneck town or as close as you'll get to one in Ireland - if it's not country and western, people don't go to see bands. (None of that is meant as an insult, no matter how much opportunity for insulting there appears to be in it). In the end I think about 200 people wandered in so it wasn't too bad, although the room probably could have held five times as many if they took the tables out.
I wasn't bothered because I had a seat on a table near the front, although I was a bit purturbed at the stage times - Sultans 11pm, POD midnight and Franks 1am - I don't do gigs past midnight, not ever!
However I did my best, all three sets were great (about 45 minutes each), I did make it through to the end of the gig (Franks sounded great, definitely couldn't fall asleep on that) and I was in bed THREE MINUTES after the last song ended, beat that for a great night out!
Sammy and Niall from the Sultans of Ping
The Power Of Dreams
The Frank And Walters
The ballroom! I was pretty much sitting at the top end of one of the tables. Apart from about 15 minutes at the end, no one got up and danced, which was nice.
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