Venues in the West?

Electrolite

Hi all,

I am a music fan and a regular concert-goer. After living in Dublin for many years, I moved to the West.

I was wondering how users rate the venues in the West when it comes to attending events.

All words of wisdom welcome; words of non-wisdom will also be gratefully accepted.

Thanks.

PhiliousPhogg

The obvious place to go is the Roisin Dubh in Galway. Any act on tour round Ireland will most likely play there. It's along the same lines as Whelans, and at least as big, but with a more mature and arty crowd I'd say. Theres quite an eclectic range too, as there is trad, electronic, roots from time to time. Lovely pub feel to it and big smoking area for the banter .

The other pubs in Galway (of which there are a gazillion) only have local bands and cover bands and you'll encounter many a drunken gob****e singing sweet home alabama and spilling their pint on you.

The Black Box is a great venue for bigger events, these will be oneoffs and will be advertised (such as in the Arts festival). It was built specially for Macnas who have offices there but never have events. It's about the size of Vicar St, not as good though. The town hall is a seated theatre about the size of a cinema theatre. It's mostly theatre there, but some more toned down musicians like Jack L or Rodrigo Y Gabriela would play there.

Outside of Galway I wouldn't know much. I think Sligo has a bit of an arts scene. People in the West tend to like the Saw Doctors and Mundy etc so don't get your expectations up if your up around Ros or Mayo!

StevieG

There's some great stuff happening down in Limerick too, though someone from there may have better details

Here is a great website well worth checking

http://cheebah.typepad.com/

Bren_M.Records

In Limerick try Bakers Place or Dolans

CarefulNow

The TF in Castlebar is being redeveloped at the moment and there probably will be fairly big bands playing there in the future.