Ireland’s premier boutique festival, Electric Picnic happens this weekend and will include many acts from Limerick. While the bigger acts like Roxy Music and LCD Soundsystem will command most attention over the weekend, the nature of Electric Picnic has always been a kind of journey of discovering new artists that you might not otherwise get to see and no doubt The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra, The Rubber Bandits et al will use their gigs to raise their profiles and win new fans.
The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra are the quirky musical collective led by songwriter David Blake who have just released their excellent debut album, ‘Lowering the tone’. Like the Bandits, The BPLO are also no strangers to the picnic, David Blake told the Limerick Post, “Yeah we played there in 2008, we were in the Body & Soul Arena in this strangely designed yoke, a little pod stage that looked like that it was covered in smarties. It was tiny and we looked huge all trying to squash in on a tiny little stage”.
This year The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra will again find themselves in unusual surroundings playing in the Mindfield Comedy and Spoken word stages. David explains, “I was involved in The Leviathan (political cabaret and debate) area before and also Ann my sister, who is in the band is part of the Choke Comedy Improv gang so basically in that context we were chatting to the guy organising the Mindfield area, he came along to see us and said he wanted us there.” With so many of Limerick’s creative types on hand David’s ambition for the gig is “to get twelve people up on stage, we have a couple of mates playing brass and whatever, the songs are all straight forward enough so they should be able to join in.” BPLO be on the spoken word stage at Electric Picnic and will play Dolans on Friday September 10.
The Rubber Bandits will play two shows at Electric Picnic this year playing in the comedy tent on Saturday, 4.30pm and making a return again this year to the much expanded ‘Little Big Arena’ for a no holds barred, audio visual extravaganza on Friday night playing all their hits with a few new surprises. A production involving 20 crew members will bring a show described by the band as “Monsters of Rock meets Kilfenora Céile Band” and if that wasn’t enough, special guests will be You Tube phenomenon, Crystal Swing who we are assured are going to be an integral part of the Bandit’s show “a sort of a ying and yang situation”, explains manager Joe Clarke, “the ying of The Rubber Bandits harsh, unyielding force contrasting with the yang of Crystal Swing representing the positive dreams and aspirations of a generation”. Whatever happens it is a certainty that if you find yourself in Stradbally, Co. Laois at the Electric Picnic at 12.30am on Friday night you will not want to miss this show.
Electric Picnic Line-Up:
Friday – The Rubber Bandits; Saturday – Donnacha Toomey, The Roots Factory, Choke Comedy Improv, Size2Shoes; Sunday – The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra, Nick Carswell& The Elective Orchestra, Karl Spain
