GiggingNI.com
Von Bondies
With The Minutes;
The fact that arriving a little bit after, doors opened at eight, I was expecting to see some sort of a queue, however long or short, to wait in before happily stepping inside the venue to begin my night. So imagine my surprise when I turned the corner to see no-one standing there, but the ropes were out. This is the point I thought 'oh crap, I'm late I better not have missed the support band' before hurrying along to get inside. Upon reaching the entry, and having some slight guestlist trouble (it happens to the big names too hopefully), I was gobsmacked to see I was only the fifth person there. Surprised, disappointing and quite frankly confused, I wondered further inside. The doormen also shared the surprise and bewilderment by saying, 'are you sure the tickets didn't say nine?'!
After waiting a good half an hour to forty five minutes on the support band, The Minutes, they came onstage. The Dubliners rallied into the start of their set, playing to about twenty odd people at this time, and I was pleasantly surprised. They were a talented bunch and good fun lads, playing with the audience a few times describing how quiet they were. Playing songs like 'Ukraine' and their new single 'Black Keys', it's clear to see why they've played alongside some big names in Pigeon Detectives, Fountains of Wayne and The Strokes' Albert Hammond Jnr! If you get a chance to see these guys, don't miss out, trust me! Great set, great music and bound for good things!
Now, after waiting another forty-five odd minutes for the main event, with more people slightly filling up the Limelight, the American band appeared on stage to slight applause and sarcastic cheers. Firing out guitar riffs and alternative rock beats on a drumkit, which was very confusily placed sideways on the stage to my shock and surprise, it was good to see Von Bondies back on stage after a five-year break. Despite some slight sound problems at the start, the Von Bondies started to show why their past praise was given. And, if anyone was at the gig they will understand, the Von Bondies will certainly know they were in Belfast after heckling from a certain audience member whose one crowd chant was 'playing something we know' followed up later by 'play some snow patrol' but luckily the band joined in the banter of it all joking along with the crowd ripping into a new song shortly after to stop the banter going too far. On same ocassions it did and the security made several trips to the heckler as he was causing growing frustration to those who actually wanted to hear the Von Bondies play and didn't want to be left in the embarassment that one person caused the gig to be a shambles. But credit to the Von Bondies, they played on and my particular highlight of the night was their song 'This is Our Perfect Crime' which rounded off a decent performance overshadowed by a somewhat small audience.
