Finger Diaries Entry - Dun Mhuire
The following article was featured in the March edition of Sound System eMagazine on www.kilkennymusic.com.
Take one kilkenny progressive metal band, a roadtrip to Wexford town on Paddys Day, a huge venue, some bad organisers, 200 wrestling music fans, turn up the heat and wait to explode.
It’s the one day of the year when everyone in the world wants to be Irish, and we celebrate it by drinking more than any of them. Itchy Trigger Finger are on the road again, this time to the Dun Mhuire Theatre in Wexford town.
The venue is huge, an old theatre, ITF set up their gear with all the other bands and run through a sound check. An organiser announces that the are two rules; no drinking on stage and no swearing, not very Irish or in the Paddys day spirit.
Afterwards I take a stroll with Pam in search of coffee. Local scumbags show their curiousity with my mohawk by pulling on it and speaking some unknown dialect. We make our way back through the 200+ people queueing outside, just as Chained Angel take to the stage.
Chained Angel couldn’t try to be Iron Maiden any harder, unless of course they got a Zombie mascot, tonight they don’t. As they jump around on stage the crowd warms up by literally wrestling each other. People are jumping all over the place, one kid actually suplexes another as people fling each other around in crazy circle pits.
Back in the Itchy Trigger Finger dressing room, yes they have a dressing room, the lads are warming up. They’re on third, this has been agreed. There was alot of confusion earlier between bands, organisers and sound engineers about the lineup, but it was finally agreed they were on third. The second band thrundle through Metallica cover after Metallica cover, I go outside for a smoke to watch scumbags starting fights with kids, for no reason. The halls of the theatre are full of drunk kids, the toilets are a mess of puke, empty beer cans and kids sniffing aerosol.
Itchy Trigger Finger take to the stage to set up, we’re half way through changing the drumkit from right handed to left handed when one of the organisers storms up and starts shouting at everyone. He rants about the lineup and that some other band are on now. He screams at people and fires abuse, people are getting out of his way when he turns and shouts at Itchy Trigger Finger. Not today pal.
Itchy Trigger Finger have come along way in the past year, they’ve changed lineup and discovered their own sound, they’ve played countless gigs in an effort to spread their music and have thrived to create something different as they struggled through numerous recording difficulties. One thing is for sure, they are sick of badly organised gigs, assholes on powertrips who care more about the €9 cover charge than what the kids are doing once they’re inside, and being treated like amateurs.
What follows is a heated argument, I tell the guy to stop shouting, he shouts so I shout, I tell him it’s his bad communication, his lack of giving a shit, his asshole need to shout at people who have done nothing wrong, in an effort to point the finger at somebody else, incase he messed up and most importantly, I tell him not to shout at Itchy Trigger Finger. He storms off stage and the conversation continues in the dressing room, as the other band stumble through a 20 minute set which leaves everyone wondering what all the fuss was about.
Finally after many apologies and bad attempts at explainations from organisers, if they can be called organisers, ITF decide to continue on. They take to the stage and begin to set up, again. The smiles are gone and this time they’re gonna send a message.
The John McClane speech from Die Hard intro blasts through the PA, the curtains fly back and ITF erupt into their newest song, ‘the Narcisscist’. The 12 minute song hammers a message straight to the organisers and crowd, frontman Jimmy Trigger calls over the microphone, “I’m sorry but you’re not gonna hear any Metallica covers here, so just shut the fuck up and listen. You might learn something.”
Jimmy throws himself viciously around the stage, Pams dreads are flying, Robbie rips through guitar solos, Daw pummels his kit and ITF drive through ‘God Said’ and ‘What have we done now’. I’m minus a camera tonight and I’ve never been more sorry. I’ve been on the road with ITF over a year now and I’ve never witnessed them more intense and angry, they are sick of being pushed around.
The final band of the night have been standing side stage watching, they’ve decided they no longer want to go on stage so Itchy Trigger Finger will have an extra 20 minutes.
The Wrong Side of Misery is over 11 minutes long, the song itself is split into three chapters, the title song of ITF’s upcoming E.P, and it is nothing short of brilliant. They finish off with Perfect Reality, the riff heavy song drives the crowd into one final vicious circle pit.
ITF have faced both financial and technical difficulties throughout the recording process and have made it to this final stretch a different band. They have found their own sound and their way of sending their message. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “if you’re not on the ITF train, it’ll just go through you”, tonight we saw the first casualties.
We leave the Dun Mhuire theatre as organisers hang their heads and offer faint apologies. Itchy Trigger Finger don’t want apologies, they want people to listen, and they want the respect they deserve at this stage. Next time they play in Wexford town, they’ll get both.
