Spiky, edgy for better or worse, Seoda Shows celebrates five years of cutting edge music promotion in Limerick with two gigs this weekend.
THIS weekend Seoda Shows is celebrating five years of promoting music in the city. Limerick native John Hennessy was booker for legendary Dublin venue Whelan’s. During those ten years, Whelan’s grew into the multi room nightly performance site with late clubs.
“When we started it was running Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Within about two years we were about seven nights a week, with clubs and then other rooms.”
But John’s obsession with listening to music and reading about music goes right back to his childhood. “I can’t play, can’t sing, can’t do any of those things.” While kids his age argued over who had the best skateboard, John tells of throwing a tantrum at the age of 10 because he wasn’t allowed to go to Slane Castle to see Bruce Springsteen.
“Growing up, I was living in Limerick, sharing flats with musicians. Everybody in the music industry ended up carrying a box from A to B at some point.
“When you have done those things you have a better appreciation of the nuts and bolts and the slog of it.”
After returning to Limerick, John was persuaded by friends to dust off his book of contacts and put on weekly gigs in Bourke’s Bar on Catherine Street, starting with New York’s Hamell on Trial before stepping things up a few gears in Dolan’s.
Seoda Shows booked legends Joe Jackson, Andy Irvine and Paul Brady for the city, among many others. Rusangano Family played their first gig in Dolan’s since winning The Choice Music Prize. Panty Bliss brought her show High Heels in Low Places to the Warehouse in the run up to the Marriage Equality Referendum. All these bookings came under the Seoda Shows banner.
One of John’s favourite Irish acts is Girl Band.
“Girl Band played Kasbah Social Club on New Year’s Eve a few years ago. They turned down offers of five times the amount of money for that night because we had built up a relationship with the band.”
Seoda is Irish for treasure or jewels. John adds that his shows are a performance, there for your entertainment experience from beginning to end. He pays seriously close attention as to who plays on the bill.
“I look at it as a full bill, not just a headliner. A Seoda Show opening act could be the headliner the next time or in two shows time.”
Seoda Shows is not genre specific. “I’ll put on a hip hop show or a folk artist or an electronic act. I’m interested in music that has a certain feeling to it and an energy to it. Every kind of age, once there is heart and soul in it.”
Seoda Shows tends to book left-of -field and alternative artists, acts that will intrigue and make an impact on an audience; they may not necessarily be heard on daytime radio or in the charts.
“Seoda Shows is not the airport novel. It is the one that somebody recommended to you.
“You sat beside somebody and they said ‘this is a very good book’.”
In the age of streaming music and free downloads, what role do live shows play in people’s lives when you can sit at home and have all this music for free?
Laughs
“Because it is in capital letters L-I-V-E. There is nothing like seeing an act. You, individually, are experiencing something!”
“You are actually a person. You have feelings. The lighting in a room, the atmosphere in a room, the difference from one drink to the next, the kind of day you have had, whether you fought with your partner or your mum rang you with bad news that day. You are suddenly in a room. Whatever vibe you are in. Whatever it is about, that live experience, it is incomparable.”
This weekend’s celebrations brings an early and an evening show.
Hamell On Trial with special guest Clive Barnes kick things off from 3pm.
“A lot of what Hamill is about – to me – is what Seoda Shows is about,” John comments.
“He is an alternative, spiky, punky, edgy thing for better or worse.”
Seoda Shows brings together three of the country’s finest left-of-field rockers for the late show from Cork, Dublin and Limerick respectively.
“Altered Hours is one of my favourite bands in the world. They have played with me quite a few times now.
“Over time they have just become stronger and better and have become bigger career-wise, in the meantime as well. They are getting fantastic attention internationally.”
“One of the most exciting bands I heard last year was Fontaines DC – they’ve agreed to come onboard. Cruiser are a fantastic Limerick act.
“That’s spoiling people” – laughs. “This is three individual shows rolled into one for a tenner.”
Hamell on Trial with special guest Clive Barnes play the early show at Kasbah Social Club from 3pm this Saturday February 10.
The later show features Altered Hours, Fontaines DC and Cruiser also on stage at Kasbah Social Club from 9pm this Saturday February 10.
