Introducing the Rising '21 at Joe Lee's Bar
Joe Lee’s Bar, Church Street, Tullamore in conjunction with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has announced a series of intimate outdoor events featuring a host of local and national talent with a limited audience in attendance.
The series of events is titled Rising '21 and takes place on August 5, 6 and 7.
With all Covid safety protocols being adhered to and social distancing between groups of gig goers tickets will be sold in pods of 2, 3, 4 or 6 with allocated seating with a maximum capacity of 50 per show. Full bar service will be available with table service or by using their online ordering app which can be scanned from the qr code on each table. There will two separate concerts each day, times to be confirmed but roughly 2pm-6pm when all acts and concert goers will have to leave the premises so we can deep clean the area and allow the evening performers access and gig goers can come in for the evening show which will finish at 11pm.
There will be six concerts of different genres starting with a traditional concert on Thursday, August 5, from 2 to 6 pm with headline act Damien Mullane.
In a short space of time, Damien has a musical cv that any veteran musician would be proud of. Still only 32, he has been described as a virtuoso with an avant-garde style of playing. Damien won numerous All-Ireland titles on both accordion and melodeon and began his professional career as the accordionist in the legendary Frankie Gavin’s band De Dannan. Sean O’Meara and Conor Broderick will accompany Damien and support on the day will come from some of Offaly’s most talented traditional musicians.
Thursday night will be a real treat for fans of Simon Casey, Alex Roe and Kathy Durkin who will be joined by some of the best musicians in the business to provide a great night's entertainment. Each of Thursdays shows will feature a performance by local comedian Keith Fox.
On Friday afternoon, two local acts Gavin Ghee and Dubh Lee will perform with Jerry Fish headlining this gig. The former frontman of An Emotional Fish and host of his own arena at Electric Picnic each year will be a highlight of the festival and tickets for this show will move fast.
Friday night will feature Daithi, 49th and Main and House of 76 (featuring Dylan Delaney)
Daithi is well known for his unique approach to live electronic music.[3] His live performances are House music based, and use Synthesizers, the computer programme Ableton Live and a synthesised Fiddle. The performance is improvised, with each "track" being broken up into small loops and mixed together differently at each show. His live show has been toured around Europe, and is a mainstay at festivals in Ireland. Daithi has supported international acts such as Disclosure (band), DJ Shadow, The xx, Santigold, Macklemore and Duke Dumont.
In 2015, Daithi released a single called "Mary Keanes Introduction" a track which went viral in Ireland. The track featured Daithi's 90 year old grandmother at the start of the track, talking about how she met her husband. The track stayed at no1 in the Spotify Irish viral charts for six weeks, was featured in NME and received extensive radio play in Ireland. The track was considered the beginning of a change of direction for Daithi, moving from Pop music to Electronic dance music inspired by Irish culture and the west of Ireland.[
Also on Friday there will be local djs House of 76 playing back to back and Corkonians 49th and Main who have over two million streams on spotify of some of their jazzy house inspired tracks. Birr man Edwin Sammon made famous by his role in Bridget and Eamonn on RTE, will perform at both shows on Friday. A few good laughs are ensured.
Saturday afternoon is for the rockers with Gorilla radio kicking off the show with local band Blind Dog performing their brand of blues rock while making their fourth appearance in Joe Lee’s will be Crow Black Chicken who are renowned up and down the country as Ireland's finest exponents of blues rock. This power trio combine elements of folk and hard rock with the blues rock of bands like Led Zepplin and Lynyrd Skynrd. David Mallaghan will provide some spoken word and comedy throughout the afternoon.
To finish the festival the ultimate party band Electric Dreams will play out with one of the best 80s sets you will hear played live anywhere. Alongside Electric Dreams local performers RiRa (Scary Eire), Cormac Lally (spoken word) and The toxic Twins will rock your world to finish off what will have been one of the most diverse mini festivals in the country. The glue that will hold all this together is another local man Pat Carty (Hot Press) who will be the mc over the few days while also having a bit of banter with the acts and finding out how the lockdown affected them with not being able to perform live for over a year.
Tickets will go on sale July 23 at noon from www.leesbar.ie and proceeds from sales will go to the friends of Tullamore General Hospital and The Irish event industry Covid 19 workers group, We Are The Support appeal.
Tickets will be sold in pods of 2, 3, 4 and 6 as seating has to be prearranged and punters have to stay in their designated seat and in their pod. Temperature checks, contact tracing, table service, mask wearing will all be mandatory.
Tickets from €50 plus booking fee (for a pod of 2).