Temple Bar rocked by collective sonic attack of 150 bands

FOR all the blather were constantly subjected to about the Irish rock music industry - usually from sad politicians trying to convince us they're "with it" - we've been a tad tawdry in the "International Music Festival" stakes.

We finally got it together this year, thanks to the largesse of a beer company, when our humble little rive gauche area of Temple Bar was rocked to its foundations by the collective sonic attack of 150 bands.

The Heineken Green Energy International Music Festival which ran from Friday to yesterday, attracted hordes of music industry people from around the world, all of whom were trying to justify their lavish expense claims by discovering the next U2.

To this end every possible venue in the area, from The Furnace to Fitzsimons's to Eamonn Dorans, was coming down with new Irish bands which had approximately 30 minutes to display their musical wares and hopefully begin their descent into the pit of rock'n'roll stardom.

The word on the well looked after streets is that anything up to 10 new Irish bands will be signed up by record companies as a result of their amplified exertions this weekend.

That's good news for them, good news for those of us that are paid to write rubbish about them once they've become famous, and good news for the politicians who will have a new set of names to drop when they have another sporadic fit of contemporary cultural awareness.

To decrease the frightfully uncool "business" aspect of the festival, there were also some top drawer bands on display, to remind us of the point of it all. In the Point Depot on Friday night Orbital (who are very popular with the young people) did their swirly, trancy thing to great effect, while ageing avant garde rocker, Lou Reed, did the honours in the same venue on Saturday.

Elsewhere, you could drop in and out of venues all around town, getting a taste of either indie/rap/metal/folk/trad/ techno/acoustic/blues/jungle depending on your musical orientation/prejudices.

And if that wasn't enough, the rock'n'roll environs of the Civic Offices in Fishamble Street hosted a two day trade fair where more behind the scenes deals (publishing, promotion, booking agency, distribution deals etc) were hatched.

Remarkably, nobody had a bad word to say about the whole festival, and the ever helpful, ever smiling organisers promise to do it all again same time next year.