it all went down a little something like this:
Thursday (Evening)
went out to Old crescent rugby club to play tag rugby for our team, the flying donkeys, we beat the broad bandits 24-2, in absolutley roasting warm weather. after that exertion, twas to the bar for a few ice cold pints and well earned bbq burgers. from there headed to the hurlers for a few quiet ones which was where the night was meant to end. however we ended up going to molly's in town (still in shorts i might add, jay and silent bob would have been proud
) and falling home via supermacs way later than planned.
Friday
Into work around 10ish, only thing that did any work was my desk fan
while i wore a track between my cube and the water cooler. fecked off b4 12 to go home and pack for the train journey ahead. got the bus into town around 1, full of polish fans in full kit heading for the polish bar in town (game not on til 8, mad drinkers the lot of em, busting out the cans of dutch on the bus at that hour
), picked up dj at curragh birin, legend that he is carrying two foot longs from subway for the journey to dublin. after a bit of eating, powerade and sweating twenty yards from heuston waitin for platform clearance we finally got to dublin.
joan picked us up and dj&jimmy managed to re-enact the entire of wrestlemania 22 in the back of joan's poor micra for the entire population of dublin's quays area. quick showers and then roddy bolands was hit for spuds and beer. luvly grub in there met up with brendan and beano. beano headed off to meet his uncle liam and in a bout of insane generousity, joan said she'd drive the four of us to the rds in her micra. apologies in adavance brendan, i hope you didn't suffer any internal injuries having to sit between jimmy&dj in our little experiment to defy the laws of physics but we got there eventually. as luck would have it, guns n roses were just hittin the stage as we walked in and the gig went something like this:
Welcome To The Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Live And Let Die
Richard Solo
Richard & Robin Solo ("Beautiful")
Out Ta Get Me
Dizzy Solo
The Blues
Bumblefoot Solo
You Could Be Mine
Robin Solo ("Finlandia")
Sweet Child O' Mine
November Rain
Better
Madagascar
My Michelle (with Sebastian Bach)
Patience,
Nightrain
Encores:
Band introduction, Robin Solo,
Paradise City
I thought they did an absolutely class show, only gripe was one or two solos too many but then again axl rose kept having to go offstage to take oxygen so they were better than silence!! the new songs sounded very good and the old stuff rocked my pants off. getting to see metal's dumbest man seb bach onstage was a nice bonus too.
after exiting stage right, we headed back towards home (rathmines) but made a detour along route into russells of ranelagh for some much needed pints. from there we went to the barge where we drank the pants out of it til well after 3. spent a lot of the night trying to stop dj&beano throwing one of joan's d4 journo friends into the canal, met a lad i hadn't seen since junior cert and ran into some of the lads from limerick as well. walk home was good fun, beano and joan had a vey long debate en-route and i got my last pint taken off me by a very good natured garda near the residence of a certain michael mc dowell
fell into bed around 4.30-4.45 mark as the torso was cryin out for sleep.
Saturday
got up at 8 (what the fuck was i thinking!!) to head for moda to watch irelend take on the all blacks. nz scored a try after 45 secs, was already pining for me bed, but fair play to ireland they turned it around big style and nearly hung on for the elusive win. fell back up to joan's house after the game and kicked back and relaxed for a while.
headed down to toast around two for spuds and a cure with jim, barbara and joan. horrified jimmy by eating salad but made up for it by showing him an off-license that stocks every brand of oz beer he likes
had a few of them back on the couch while deciding that trinidad and tobago are the team to follow in the world cup this year. after that dragged my sleep deprieved carcass down to rathmines for a few pints. went to madisons first, quiet enough which did me grand as i was fit to pass out but a combination of lucozade and fresh air had me recovered to brave roddy's again to meet up with schlapps, kevin and brendain. schlapps and brendain sheer drunkeness was all the entertainment that was required and we left themselves, jim and barbara to ned rocketts while i headed home for zzzzzzzzzzzzz's around 3am.
Sunday
woke up very late
took it very easy watched a bit of the world cup, the dutch look a very toight outfit this time around before leaving in what we thought was plenty of time to get down to the rds to see Alice in Chains on the second stage. again joan, thanks for dropping us over to the show. as we were walking up to the rds, jimmy said he recognised the song coming from the main stage, sounded very like alice in chains. after a quick chat with my all metal-knowing friend donnacha who was on flyer duty outside, it turns out korn's needle of a singer collapsed after the gig in england the night before, which meant Alice in chains were moved to the main stage and on much early than expected. BBBBUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
we got 20 minutes of them, they were class in all fairness, the new singer sounds excellent but it was still very disappointing to have missed half their set. for any one who's a fan they played:
We Die Young
Them Bones
Man In The Box
Down In A Hole
Again
No Excuses
Rooster
Would?
After that we met up with an old mate of jimmy's from his jabil days (seems like an eternity ago that does) john and his brother. we headed back into the arena early to get a good spot for metallica but in the process had the misfortune of experiencing the "musical talents" of avenged sevenfold, who make motley crue look like mozart. anyways around 8.15, the big screen started showing the shootout in the graveyard from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and we knew what was next, The Ecstasy of Gold and then:
Creeping Death
Fuel
Wherever I May Roam
The God That Failed
The Unforgiven
Battery
Master of Puppets
The Thing That Should Not Be
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Disposable Heroes
Leper Messiah
Orion
Damage, Inc.
- - - -
Sad But True
Nothing Else Matters (with Jerry Cantrell on vocals)
One
Enter Sandman
- - - -
Whiskey In The Jar
Seek and Destroy
i have to say that metallica absolutely tore the place down, they were brilliant. last time i saw them i wasn't overly impressed, they seemed to be just going through the motions but this time it was oh so different. playing the whole of master of puppets live was unbelievable to hear, never thought i would hear the likes of orion, leper messiah and damage inc on an irish stage again, pure class. after this show, i'm really looking forward to hearing their new album later in the year, it should be a belter.
after the gig we were too knackered for beer although i did take a walk on the wild side and risk a vendor hot dog, was delicious and nutritious, depsite jimmy casting his doubts.
Monday
took it very easy, watched some soccer and farted about for the day. went out for dinner last nite with joan, went to ouzo's in ranelagh, a sea food and steak place, grub was top notch, pity they didn't serve ouzo though, was mad to try it (yeah right
)
Tuesday
got up at 7.15, headed back to limerick and am back in work