Arcade Fire - Marlay Park, June 2014!

Thundercats Ho · 30-06-2014 10:03am

conorhal wrote: »

I thought it was a dissapointing gig, and that was down to the crowd rather then the performers. Most seemed to be there for a picnic and a beer and didn't seem to have any real interest in the bands at all.

AdMMM wrote: »

Crowd was terrible, no matter where we stood.

Most gigs in Ireland are like that nowdays though. People going who are just there for the 'craic'
Halfway between the sound desk and the stage, the crowd were getting into the gig, but anywhere back from that was hit and miss.
The fact I could move around to find a spot I was happy with suited me, and while the crowd might have been disinterested, weren't messy or lairy, so I was happy enough tbh.

threein99 wrote: »

How did Ham Sandwich do on the big stage ?

I thought they were good. The Will Ferrell / Art Garfunkel lookalike, on trumpet, gave it socks.

MAJJ wrote: »

am pretty sure it was a Miley Cyrus picture too

Yea that was my mistake. Just assumed it was SOC, and the whole saturday night live thing she did.

JJ · 30-06-2014 10:06am

I'm hearing reports that some people had difficulty getting home. Did anyone else have problems getting home? Was there a shuttle bus service?

andreac · 30-06-2014 10:09am

Can anyone confirm if there was anything other than beer and wine to drink? Im going to Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon and I don't drink either :-(
Would like to have even a couple of drinks there. Someone thinks there was Vodka and Redbull on sale, can anyone confirm this?

Thanks.

stop · 30-06-2014 10:13am

JJ wrote: »

I'm hearing reports that some people had difficulty getting home. Did anyone else have problems getting home. Was there a shuttle bus service?

Walked to nutgrove to catch a bus (around 11:30)as far as Terenure, was pretty messy still down at nutgrove though.

I had seen signs after the gig saying DUBLIN BUS 16 <

but I ignored it thinking, well theres f all buses going to be going at this time on a Sunday night..
I later saw a convoy of 3 16C's though coming down past the yellow house jam packed - so I'm guessing they had specials on. I hadn't seen that advertised anywhere - only the Marathon Travel €10 return.

Dublin Bus should have had buses lined up to catch the crowd, and advertised it! Even if they're not the official transport partner or anything, nothing stopping them sticking a few extra buses on to cater for demand.

Gardai were out in force and not in good humour at all - they will have a different crowd to deal with next week.

Doris300 · 30-06-2014 10:32am

Was there a pit for this yes?

ringthebells · 30-06-2014 10:37am

Hadn't seen AF before and was blown away by them - sorely disappointed by the Pixies though, who were the reason I was there in the first place to be honest

Catmologen · 30-06-2014 10:39am

Overall I thought it was very good, I was surprised by Ham Sandwich and thought they gave a great performance. Thought the Pixies were excellent as usual, we were towards the front and the sound was perfect. The intensity in their performance was amazing as always. They dont do the insincere crowd appreciation thing, personally I actually think its a refreshing change from the usual bullsh1t. Re the guitar incident; at 7:30 Frank went over to the roadie on the left of the stage and was told he had 10 minutes left, the show ended at 7:40 so id say they just didn't have time to carry on once the guitar packed it in, sh1t happens.

I thought AF were very good,the stage show was great and seemed much better than on Glastonbury on Friday. The sound seemed poor between the sound stage and the main stage so we moved back to in front of the far speaker stack, sound was excellent back there and there were fewer people yapping and taking selfies so we were happy out.

Everlong1 · 30-06-2014 10:39am

Doris300 wrote: »

Was there a pit for this yes?

No, which I thought was bizarre. I've never been to a gig in Marlay Park where there was no pit.

There were loads of 16s lined up when I left which was great but as a poster mentioned earlier, no publicity about this - I was actually looking for the private coach service and took a wrong turn when I found the 16s.

Everlong1 · 30-06-2014 10:41am

Was quite impressed with opening act Tvvins - very 80's electronica vibe.

sassyj · 30-06-2014 10:48am

conorhal wrote: »

I'm glad it wasn't just me, I was beginning to wonder if I was simply turning into an old cumudgeon. The number of people that sat there nattering and drinking with Arcade Fire 'on in the background' like a largely ignored pub band was bizzare. I'll never know why peope bother to buy tickets for a gig they seem to have no interest in watching.

As for the queue for the ladies... I went for a slash after the Pixies finished and had the unique experience of queuing to get out of the loos! Thank God I've a mickey, I felt very sorry for the ladies.

Yep noticed this too. Also, some people absolutely hammered/completely out of it, some very annoying people in the crowd.

AnnaSophia · 30-06-2014 10:59am

sassyj wrote: »

Yep noticed this too. Also, some people absolutely hammered/completely out of it, some very annoying people in the crowd.

I think that was possibly the worst crowd I've seen at a gig. Where we were standing seemed to become a pathway for everyone going to the bar, and my god, 95% of them barged through without saying excuse me or apologising, just manhandling us to get through. One guy in his forties nearly knocked my sister over and didn't even acknowledge it until my seventeen year old brother stopped him and told him to apologise :P that was during Arcade Fire's set, it was worse during the Pixies. People chatting away, having a grand oul catch up until Here Comes Your Man was played! Everyone sang along to that, but as soon as it was over, back to the obnoxious behaviour.
I think the worst part was, everyone there was old enough to know better. It just seemed like people were there to drink and chat to their friends, as opposed to actually watching the show in front of them. Why spend 60 quid on a ticket to spend most of the night queuing at the bar?! I will never understand people

Fuzzy_Dunlop · 30-06-2014 11:04am

I thought it was great anyway.

Experienced the chatty annoying crowd early on but was very easy to move close to the front where it was a much better atmosphere.

Xenji · 30-06-2014 11:07am

JJ wrote: »

I'm hearing reports that some people had difficulty getting home. Did anyone else have problems getting home? Was there a shuttle bus service?

Saw about a dozen buses all out of service and a couple going nowhere near the city centre, ended up having to go into a pub and get them to call a taxi which took over an hour to come, the driver said it was the worst he had seen a gig at Marley and we were passing crowds still walking home well after one in the morning.

Wheeker · 30-06-2014 11:13am

nm wrote: »

From reading this it sounds like if you'd seen AF before it was just average but if you had never seen them before it was great

lbj666 wrote: »

ya so
Picnic 2005
Olympia after neon bible came out where tickets were going black market for silly money
2 x phoenix park gigs
1st Oxegen
O2 after the suburbs came out
Oxegen where no one came to watch and went to guetta or fatboy slim insted
Picnic 2011
Today

Thats 9 gigs am i missing one?

Don't really understand some of the comments here really

. Going by the above this was the 6th time I've seen them & I thought they were absolutely fantastic!

Having said that, it's still pretty hard to beat that legendary Electric Picnic gig in 2005 & The Olympia gig was amazing to see them in a relatively small venue. However Phoenix Park was a real disappointment for me.

Last night I thought the sound was pretty good & it was a really balanced set. There's no doubt the new album is fairly "Disco/Electronic" (huge LCD Soundsystem influence), but live I thought it really took off.

I was slightly surprised by how quiet the crowd were, I was expecting a lot more energy. As said before, there always seems to be a lot of "Event Junkies" just there to be there

. However I still seemed to be a magnet for drunken eedjits to come barging into me & then stand there leaning on me

Overall though really enjoyed it......

munkee · 30-06-2014 11:17am

AdMMM wrote: »

Crowd was terrible, no matter where we stood. It seems as if a lot of people just went there knowing the bare minimum of AF songs, and only wanted to say that they were there... which is fine, each to their own. It really puts a dampener on the mood as a whole though. Instead of people appreciating the music, they're talking through songs they don't recognise. It really is a shame from a genuine fans point of view.

We were about 20 people back from the front of the stage. Atmosphere was pretty good, but spoilt by a group of drunk morons talking through every song, and other drunk morons barging through the crowd trying to get to the front, or just generally stumbling around, falling over. One drunken couple was just lurching around into everyone, oblivious to the performance right in front of them.

A girl in front of me was nearly taken out by some idiot pushing to the front, and another girl lost her sunglasses, knocked off her head by, yes, another drunken fool.

There were a few occasions where I was fully expecting a fight to start. I didn't foresee that at an AF gig.

Larbre34 · 30-06-2014 11:30am

I agree about the event junkies and the fair weather fans. I went with a group who were big fans of both main acts so we really got into the show amongst ourselves not too far from the stage and had a great time, but the amount of people who shouldve saved themselves €60+ was shocking.

I think its down to the size of the venue, 40,000 capacity is huge and 33,000 turned up, whereas a small venue, even The Point, would have die-hards only and hence a more intense atmosphere. The fact it wasnt fully dark during the gig as well meant the atmosphere didnt intensify.

The public transport was a disaster, trying to get 16 out from town in mid-afternoon was a waste of time, and had to walk to Rathfarnham village to pick up a taxi, and that was 2 hours after the gig. Anyone know how the taxi marshalling on Stonemasons Way worked out?

JohnTheGreat · 30-06-2014 11:31am

Went to the gig last night, loved it. I'm a big enough arcade fire fan so I enjoyed the whole set. The Sinead o Connor but was great.

I gotta say tho, getting home was a nightmare. We saw the huge que for the bus(only one? That I saw) so we decided to walk and flag down a taxi. Turns out everybody else had the same idea. When couldn't get a taxi, we went to the pub nearby.. Which was cool cos I wanted a pint anyway. They closed at 12.30 or so, so it was a night of trying to halio a cab for us. When we finally got a cab, I must have saw about 100 people try to flag us down. Gotta say that was very poorly organised.

Thundercats Ho · 30-06-2014 11:37am

Larbre34 wrote: »

40,000 capacity is huge and 33,000 turned up,

Where did you see the attendance figures?

keith16 · 30-06-2014 11:40am

JohnTheGreat wrote: »

When we finally got a cab, I must have saw about 100 people try to flag us down. Gotta say that was very poorly organised.

Yeah, Marlay park really is shocking when it comes to logistics. No info available anywhere about where to park, would there be extra buses etc...all the info about the venue on ticketmaster or MCD is like "coming soon!"

loveisdivine · 30-06-2014 11:41am

My first time seeing Arcade Fire and I loved it.

We drove and it was actually great, parking on site was free

We left right after the last song and we were back in Swords on the Northside for 11.20

My only negative about the whole gig (except for the usual people talking etc) was the plastic cup holder things they were giving out with beers, it seemed like an incredibly bad idea enviromentally speaking. Are they biodegradable? Most importantly, the rings for holding the beers could easily injure or trap an animal, I'm sure they go round picking up rubbish straight away but there is no way to guarantee that some won't make it into the surrounding park.

Yes, I know the cardboard ones break, but the solution is not to create more plastic litter that could very easily harm the local wildlife.

iguana · 30-06-2014 11:47am

Thought the Pixies were disappointing, the venue really didn't suit them. AF were fantastic but we had to move around the crowd a few times in order to find a spot where the people around us were actually into the gig rather than drinking, chatting and using their phones to take selfies/film the gig. The latter I find really confusing. Who the hell is going to want to watch a crappy phone video of a gig? What's the point other than being a tit?

conorhal · 30-06-2014 11:49am

Wheeker wrote: »

Don't really understand some of the comments here really. Going by the above this was the 6th time I've seen them & I thought they were absolutely fantastic!

Having said that, it's still pretty hard to beat that legendary Electric Picnic gig in 2005 & The Olympia gig was amazing to see them in a relatively small venue. However Phoenix Park was a real disappointment for me.

Last night I thought the sound was pretty good & it was a really balanced set. There's no doubt the new album is fairly "Disco/Electronic" (huge LCD Soundsystem influence), but live I thought it really took off.

I was slightly surprised by how quiet the crowd were, I was expecting a lot more energy. As said before, there always seems to be a lot of "Event Junkies" just there to be there. However I still seemed to be a magnet for drunken eedjits to come barging into me & then stand there leaning on me

Overall though really enjoyed it......

The fault like I said was the crowd not the bands, The Pixies gave it socks as they usually do. I made sure that I was down the front for that one, because you need the sonic boom!
Arcade fire also brought it I thought. I wasn't that gone on the electro pop tun that was Reflektor, but as usual when it comes to live gigs AF have few equals and so even songs I wasn't mad about sound brilliant.

When it comes to seeing them in the future, I think I'm done with the 'mini festival open air gigs'. They attract large crowds that don't seem to have much interest in the music and that just kills the atmosphere. As does a venue that has possibly the worst transport links in Dublin. It hurt my buzz to have to nervously clock watch at the end of the gig to ensure I had time to make the 35 minute walk to the Luas to catch the last one going at 11.15 because it was either that or a VERY long walk home.

_Puma_ · 30-06-2014 12:00pm

Made it in for the start of Ham Sandwich, was impressed and crowd seemed interested and plenty of interaction. The fella on Brass gave it socks!

When Pixies started we moved closer because I kept noticing the din of people having conversations all around us. Not an easy feet considering Blacks vocals! Sound was a a bit better closer up but still noticed a lot of people milling through the crowd to the bar during the set which was disappointing.

Was no crowd interaction but to be honest it was no loss with most people around me uninterested. Think at one stage Black left out the vocals for the chorus of Here comes your man and you could barely hear the crowd joining in. Saying all that I was still impressed by them, got a few goosebumps for the classics and Tame was immense! Blacks line about his guitar dying at the start of Debaser was disappointing(ie I didn't buy it) but cant say I blame them for finishing it there.

Moved back again for Arcade fire and it was the same story with people chatting away during the set. The Gf mentioned at one stage it was like being at a giant bbq rather than a concert. Jacks and bars were still really busy about 10 mins into the set. Enjoyed AF's set but we decided to call it a day and try to get out onto the motorway sharpish about 2 songs into the encore. Could still hear Wake up on the way out to the car when they were finishing and it sounded big!

Was straight out the car park before the crowd so we managed to miss all the congestion, back in Galway in 2h10m and in bed by 1 which was good going.

pm1977x · 30-06-2014 12:01pm

They really need to rethink the transport issue, although 'rethink' implies that they gave it any thought at all in the first place!

We caught the last half hour of the gig from our car and it sounded great, picked our son up and when we eventually got going drove past thousands of people ranging from sober to zombie-like drunk wandering the roads in search of a way home. There was at least a hundred people down by the roundabout to the M50 (many of whom appeared to be hitchiking) and even 2 future Darwin Award winners walking the hard shoulder ON the M50!

Also, on the 'event junkies' problem, there must be a few posters on here who are guilty of going and chatting away all night, is it you're just going to meet mates, for a piss-up or what - care to explain it to the rest of us? I disagree with the poster who says you get die-hard fans at the 02 as it's smaller - have been at gigs in The Village or Vicar Street and there's always clumps of these chatters trying their best to talk over the band :mad:

jill_valentine · 30-06-2014 12:05pm

We were some of the last home via the Marathon bus service, which had gone from Custom House Quay. They were sending empty buses back into town, while there were still hundreds of people wandering around outside the venue a few hundred feet away. I'm convinced this was purely because their bus drop off was poorly indicated and none of the staff could give directions to it - as we were walking up to it, we met hordes of people coming in the opposite direction looking for taxis, apparently oblivious. The bus park was in from the road a fair bit so you wouldn't happen to see it unless you knew what you were looking for.

horseburger · 30-06-2014 12:06pm

keith16 wrote: »

Yeah, Marlay park really is shocking when it comes to logistics. No info available anywhere about where to park, would there be extra buses etc...all the info about the venue on ticketmaster or MCD is like "coming soon!"

On the page on MCD's site that had the details for the Arcade Fire gig, they included this link below, with details of the public transport information for Marlay Park, indicating the routes for travelling by car, the Dublin Buses that served the area and also details about the Marathon Coaches shuttle bus service, and advised that pre booking the shuttle bus was the best way to ensure that people got back into town,

http://www.mcd.ie/marlayinfo.pdf

It is also included on the page for the Arctic Monkeys gig

http://www.mcd.ie/home/fn.php?c=7554271&ar=arcticmonkeys

Wellyd · 30-06-2014 12:08pm

Did anybody park for the concert last night? I'm heading to KOL on Friday and my boyfriend is driving so we're trying to figure out the best option for where to park.

threein99 · 30-06-2014 12:08pm

andreac wrote: »

Can anyone confirm if there was anything other than beer and wine to drink? Im going to Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon and I don't drink either :-(
Would like to have even a couple of drinks there. Someone thinks there was Vodka and Redbull on sale, can anyone confirm this?

Thanks.

Easy solution to this, smuggle in hip flasks

seklly · 30-06-2014 12:09pm

Took a few of us 3 hours to walk home from the gig, 1 taxi stopped and picked up some of the girls in our group but the driver told them that a lot of them aren't stopping for groups of lads because of the recent car jackings. Plenty of taxis with lights on just ignored us, my feet are sore!!

iguana · 30-06-2014 12:15pm

I was very surprised by the lack of taxis about after the gig. I expected to see hundreds of them. We were heading for Stillorgan so walked toward a 75 stop but it was 25 mins away so when we saw an empty taxi we grabbed that instead. Glad we did as my 1 year old was just starting to get a bit panicky a couple of minutes before we got in.

Arcade Fire - Marlay Park, June 2014!

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