Fleet foxes concert in Belfast

Hiya all,

Hope everyone is keeping well. I'm writing this on Sunday the 10th of July. Not a great looking day out but not raining so not too bad. I took two days off last week (friday and Monday) to go to London for 4 days. I had a great time and had pretty good weather. Overcast here and there but much hotter than Dublin and less rain. I could not believe how many statues and memorials are in London. It seemed like every street or around every corner there was something different. I'll get back to London because the weekend before I took off no time from work and went up to Belfast to see a band play at a festival. I had originally intended on crusing around the festival before Fleet foxes played that night but I met another traveller at the hostel and Johnny and I decided to hit the pub and catch some live music. Johnny is from Chicago but he is living in Switzerland with family. The way he travels is how I dream to travel. He didn't have much money when he flew into Ireland. He planned on staying in Ireland for a few days seeing a few towns in the North before moving down to Mayo to climb Croagh Patrick barefoot. Funny enough is that Jude and I partially climbed Croagh Patrick a few months back but did not do it barefoot(which is the way to do it) and it did not get all the way to the top. So I was talking with Jude yesterday updating each other on what we were up to when I started telling him about Belfast and this guy Johnny who was climbing Croagh Patrick. Now Jude and I have decided since yesterday we will climb Croagh Patrick within the next few weeks/2 months at the most. Jude and I are two both very spiritual people so I think we will get what is intended out of climbing Croagh Patrick barefoot. Jude is also heading to Minnesota for 4 days to build this machine so he is very excited about getting back to the states after being in Ireland for the last 3 years.

Sorry went on a bit ofa banter there but always a lot to say ya know. So Johnny and I met at the hostel in Belfast. We were staying in the same room and we just started talking and instantly clicked. He knew of some pubs that we were going to be playing live music on behalf of the festival. So we went into the pub and waited for the live music. In between the live music finally starting we talked about everything. He told me about his family in Chicago and I told him about my famliy in New Jersey. We had a lot in common and obviously liked the same type of music so that was also a topic of discussion. He was also telling about this pilgrimage in Lourdes, France. If you haven't picked up on it yet I will really try and find any excuse to do something new and see something especially if it is in a new country. So he was telling me all about this pilgrimage. I'm kind of embarrassed becasue I forget the basic details of the pilgrimage but no less it is a pilgrimage and I was sold. I am waiting to hear information back from Johnny about it. So the live music ended up showing up and we had a few more before heading over to the actual festival to see the opening bands perform. Johnny was a music junkie and knew so much about music and played so many instruments I kind of felt like I wasn't worthy to talk music with him. All I knew was that I liked the band Fleet Foxes and traveling so that was the reason I was here. He went into depth about why they were a good band and gave me other such bands to listen to. I told him I never played an instrument and spent the last 3 years in college listening to country music. I assured him I was off the country music now and strictly looking for all around good music to listen to.

The first band that was performing was a band by the name of the Low Anthem. They were kind of a old school classic rock band with some folk blues tied. Johnny and I both agreed that they were a good band and I have now been listening to a lot of there music sense. The second band was the Villagers who seem to be getting a lot of recognition for there previous album but out of the 3 band I liked them significantly the least. After the Villagers came on Fleet Foxes. I had been listening to the Fleet Foxes for about a month before the festival and was very impressed with how the sounded live. Fleet Foxes and the Low Anthem had many similarities in that they were very innovative with the different instruments they used. A Low Anthem member at one point was playing a saw and on another song a different member was using the loudspeaker on two cellphones to get a reception that souded like wind blowing. It was quite amazing to see and I reckon the rest of the audience felt the same. After the concert was over Johnny and I ventured out to Fibber McGees which was the pub I first met cousin Breege at when she visited Belfast. There was live music going after the pints we had at the festival and then another at Fibber we were dancing with old ladies and moving to the Irish music. On another note even though Johnny(Russo) doesn't sound irish at all he does have irish ancestry and loves irish music. He and his family band all play instruments and play irish music at family gatherings. And wiht 49 cousins on his mums side you know there are a fair amount of people playing. Okay well the next day the festival was over and Johnny was out of the hostel real early to make his way to Mayo to climb Croagh Patrick. Before he left we exchanged emails so the pictures i have posted are courtesy of Johnny Bernie Russo. Well hope everyone enjoys. I will write another blog for London. I didn't anticipate this one going so long but once I get going it is hard for me to stop. Cheers

Bren