Kings of Leon - Slane Castle - 28 May 2011 - *No tickets sales/swaps*

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Cliche Guevara wrote: »

however the lack of crowd interaction was somewhat disappointing, for me it felt a somewhat by the numbers performance.

yep, i wasnt at the gig, seen them twice before. They are average live, crowd interaction is terrible, "Hello *insert gig location, you are an amazing crowd, we will never forget this gig for the rest of our lives"

Cliche Guevara wrote: »

They claimed that no one will be able to follow KoL as there is nobody bigger than them,

ROFL! what about U2, ACDC, MUSE! (on second thoughts, MUSE prob wouldnt sell 80k tickets)

MonTheBiffy

Minstrel27 wrote: »

OMG. I never knew they were so awesome. They drink lots and smoke pot. That's me sold. What other drugs do they do? I hope it is something rock n roll like heroin. Silly me, it couldn't be anything else. Those guys are badass

Glad you agree;)

jack31

all in all an enjoyable gig; KOL definitely has the potential to rock the huge crowds, no doubt about it. I enjoyed all the support bands too, except for Thin Lizzy. Don't really get why everyone gets so excited about them and puts them up as the biggest music act in Irish history Elbow was grand but maybe not the best band to open for that crowd.

With regards to the audience: it seems to be a pretty general thing here during the gigs in IRL; loads of drunk idiots who only come for the crack and are not really into music; maybe sell less alcohol and things will improve

Imo the security was pretty ****e; seen plenty of incidents where drunk lads were spoiling other people's experience and the security fellas just stood around helplessly not doing anything. Kick a few troublemakers out of the venue and things will improve straight away.

Getting in and out was grand; of course it took us a while to walk back to the car parks but for that size of the crowd it was very well organised.

generally a nice weekend; definitely up for the next Slane gig if sth. good plays.

Furious-Red

Ultimate Chin wrote: »

Then these 85000 really need to see some good live bands

Couldnt agree more, perfect example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZZljh746Dw

jill_valentine wrote: »

They do not give the slightest f*ck about anything beyond the paycheck at the end of the gig, and it shows. I've seen them a few times, and each performance has been more insultingly disinterested than the last.

They don't put anything into their live performances. Not for a single second. They've phoned in every set I've seen out of them, and by all accounts this time was no different. If you're a Kings of Leon fan that's fine, but they absolutely don't measure up to any of the great live bands from any era including this one.

Same , i seen them Oxegen 07-09 and i felt 2008 was a great performance but after 09 it should they could not give a **** about anything bar the money. They bored the crap out of me and i wished i had left

Mc Love

Really enjoyed the gig and it was my first time in Slane too.
The amount of people that were wasted was unbelievable, and this was before 4pm - falling all over the place!
Thought the atmosphere was great and KOL were very good. Was in front of the middle speaker - didnt notice any sound issues although some have said it was bad in places.
Missed Thin Lizzy as I was stuck in the queue for the bar! That was shambolic at best.

After the gig, we were sat on a bus for an hour and a half almost because every road out of Slane was blocked and not even moving. Asked the Gardai what was going on, they hadnt a clue blaming the problems on volume, and that the radio's have gone "quiet"

ghostdancer

jack31 wrote: »

With regards to the audience: it seems to be a pretty general thing here during the gigs in IRL; loads of drunk idiots who only come for the crack and are not really into music; maybe sell less alcohol and things will improve

not really.
maybe gigs by the type of bands that are on TodayFM during the day that Beyonce fans like despite hating "all that rocker crap", eg, KOL.

most gigs i go to, the crowd is perfectly fine. when you have bands that are well known by the 18-21 crowd for their radio singles, and little else, is when the gigs tend to be full of twats there to get hammered on a day out and hear the few songs they know.
i'd imagine many of the people there to see KOL wouldn't have a clue about White Lies or Mona, and might haev heard an Elbow song on an ad, so just get pissed all day waiting for Sex On Fire to be played.

roberb

Amazing night. Have been a few times so knew getting home would be the worst part. Waited for the crowds to die down a bit then did the long long walk to the buses. Its always a pain in thae arse but dont think there is any other way to do it. But if i didnt know about it i think i would have been very pissed off! Its the best venue in Ireland by far - much better than Punchestown.

flas

ghostdancer wrote: »

not really.
maybe gigs by the type of bands that are on TodayFM during the day that Beyonce fans like despite hating "all that rocker crap", eg, KOL.

most gigs i go to, the crowd is perfectly fine. when you have bands that are well known by the 18-21 crowd for their radio singles, and little else, is when the gigs tend to be full of twats there to get hammered on a day out and hear the few songs they know.
i'd imagine many of the people there to see KOL wouldn't have a clue about White Lies or Mona, and might haev heard an Elbow song on an ad, so just get pissed all day waiting for Sex On Fire to be played.

this is the problem, a lot of the crowd there were just there for **** like sex on fire, which is as far away from a typical kings of leon song that could possibly get. people act like idiots in crowds of that size, its like a herd mentality. but to be honest, i seen a lot lot worse over one week benicassim than i have ever seen at 5 years of oxegen, lot more drugs too! when people hear kings of leon now they think use somebody, and not songs like lucifer or dusty or trani, which is just ignorant on their part!

jack31

ghostdancer wrote: »

not really.
maybe gigs by the type of bands that are on TodayFM during the day that Beyonce fans like despite hating "all that rocker crap", eg, KOL.

most gigs i go to, the crowd is perfectly fine. when you have bands that are well known by the 18-21 crowd for their radio singles, and little else, is when the gigs tend to be full of twats there to get hammered on a day out and hear the few songs they know.
i'd imagine many of the people there to see KOL wouldn't have a clue about White Lies or Mona, and might haev heard an Elbow song on an ad, so just get pissed all day waiting for Sex On Fire to be played.

maybe you're right but i went to see Roger Waters on Tue. in O2 and it seemed pretty bad over there too. For a change it was the 40 year olds + causing trouble and getting on my nerves. and don't tell me it's the odd ones who came in to hear another brick in the wall or comfortably numb some folks should just get it through to their heads and start controlling the amount of alcohol they consume on the night; of course the hosts wanna make money wherever possible which i understand but some restrictions would certainly help. on top of that you get the pretty useless security who doesn't do anything except for giving an evil glance once in a while

still don't wanna moan around cause except for a few minus points it was a very good night; cheers :cool:

Chuky Dandy

Music = Great
Atmosphere = Great apart from the usual few nobs
Getting in = A disorganised nightmare
Getting out = A disorganised nightmare
Q for beer = Way too long

I thought Thin Lizzy, Elbow and KOL all put on great performances, the atmosphere was great, but as usual the organisation let it down.
There were 4 or 5 checkpoints going into the gig which really slowed things down. It took 2.5 hrs to get from Drogheda to Slane, most of that time spent walking or standing in queues. 1 checkpoint was at the entrance to a small laneway and involved separating the men from the women. The men seemed to get through the checkpoint quicker but then had to wait for any women they were with to get through as well, which created a total bottleneck and a massive hold-up. When we eventually got to the checkpoint where they were scanning tickets, we discovered there only 4 people scanning tickets, yes you read correctly, 4!!!!! 80,000 people and only 4 scanners!
The q for beer was a bit better organised but still took way too long, I think they just needed more bars.
Managed to get reasonably close to the stage and still had a good bit of room. Saw more drunk people outside before the gig (just before 1st checkpoint where people had to finish all their drink before they could go any further) than inside at the gig. Maybe that's because people sobered up by the time they'd finished queueing for beer.
Love Elbow, thought they were brilliant in the O2 recently, but don't think they were really suited to coming on before Kings of Leon. Lizzy were class, "Black Rose" was amazing, the lads haven't lost it.
What was the story with the screens? Why did they have 3 small screens either side instead of 1 big one either side? They were crap, especially for anyone far back.
Kings of Leon put on a great show, was afraid they would just play all the stuff from the last 2 albums, but they had a good mixture. Not many bands would play 29 songs in 1 gig. I was won over when they played "Happy Alone" from 1st album. They could do with interacting with crowd a bit more, but knew beforehand what to expect there. Only song missing was "Ragoo", very underrated tune.
Getting home wasn't as bad as getting in, but I think we got lucky. By chance we found out that a Bus Park that said "Private Coaches Only" actually had Bus Eireann buses too, even though there were no signs stating this. So we got out a lot quicker than we came in, and the bus driver took a quicker, alternative route to Drogheda. We passed lots of confused lost-looking people on the way home.
All in all, good music, but not really worth the hassle and probably won't be coming back.

here.from.day.1

dedon wrote: »

elbow are a totally different band to KOL. I don't really expect a KOL fan to be able to understand Elbow's music to be honest.

Stick to the simple radio pop like KOL and leave Elbow to us. Cheers.

Im not much of a KOL fan these days, but dear god get over yourself.

Gunslinger92

dedon wrote: »

.

To be honest most of the people there would be happy if the concert was a fella taking a dump on stage for two hours, they would have though it was class. Just the type of person that is a KOL fan.

They are not really into music or art etc they are just into having a drunkin laugh or following what is popular.

2 words for you mate, piss off

twowheelsonly

Chuky Dandy wrote: »

Music = Great
Atmosphere = Great apart from the usual few nobs
Getting in = A disorganised nightmare
Getting out = A disorganised nightmare
Q for beer = Way too long

. 1 checkpoint was at the entrance to a small laneway and involved separating the men from the women. The men seemed to get through the checkpoint quicker but then had to wait for any women they were with to get through as well, which created a total bottleneck and a massive hold-up. When we eventually got to the checkpoint where they were scanning tickets, we discovered there only 4 people scanning tickets, yes you read correctly, 4!!!!! 80,000 people and only 4 scanners!
The q for beer was a bit better organised but still took way too long, I think they just needed more bars.

I normally wouldn't respond to to these posts but I have to with such a major inaccuracy.. (apologies for isolating the points I want to address BTW)
It sounds like the gate that you went into was the 'Blue' entrance on top of the hill. There was 6 scanners on that entrance, and for a while 8. At no point (other than when it was closing down gradually) was there 4 or less. There was also an overflow entrance for this gate slightly further along the road for when it got really busy.
There are also two other major entrances to the Arena and the total number of scanners was closer to 40 than to 4. Kinda makes the dramatic exclamation marks redundant!!!!!
This gate was busy, close to but not exceedingly so. Also, I'm sure that once you reached the scanner you spent less than a second with him/her before being waved through.


Also on pretty much that subject....

I spent a number of hours at this point with a megaphone, 5 yards in front of the scanners, telling people to have their tickets ready for scanning - out of envelopes, out of handbags, pockets etc. Still hundreds of people arrive at the scanner and have to go digging for it... " Hang on there a minute, I know I have them somewhere..." often spending 30 seconds or longer at a point that they should be spending 1-2 seconds at most.
Worse again are those arriving with no tickets and telling a sob story, most of whom are just trying to blag their way in. Then there's those that arrive at the head of the queue and declare that they're just waiting here for their friends to bring out their ticket... Why couldn't you collect it some time in the last 6 months or meet them outside instead of holding up 200 people behind you!!! A lot of these people are full of drink as well so all reasoning goes out the window while they stand there and argue that they should just be left wait there.
In an ideal world each person would have their own single ticket, show it to the scanner and be gone. In fairness at this stage a lot of people are wide to this and do so, pity the ones in front of them aren't!

nextbestintown

Well thats the last time i go. I'm sure Lord Henry is worried made another few million out of drunken clowns.

Was at Oasis in 09 and really thought the mess would have been sorted. Not so. At least i only had a 15 min walk to be driven home and not waiting on a flaming bus... nice one.

The level of scumbaggery was on a par with Oasis which suprised me. Drinking is all well and good, but if you can't drink without falling around like a drunken prostitute (every second woman there) then don't bother.

Nobody wants to see men urinating against a fence and certain don't need to see woman pissing in full view o crowds. Such a bunch of animals Irish people are.... I blame Ray D'arcy.

Anyway, Kings of Leon... ha ha. This sex is on Fire - WTF!!! I'd write a better one when i was 9.

julyjane

We had no problem getting in or out, in fairness. We hired a minibus and came up the N2 from Dublin. When we got somewhere to park, the driver turned the bus around so it would be facing for home. We were about 2 miles from Slane bridge but we had been told to expect a long walk so can't complain about that. It didn't feel like 2 miles either.

When we got back to the bus he drove straight out with little or no delays.

Shortage of toilets aside, I found the whole thing very well managed.

kegg

Anyway, Kings of Leon... ha ha. This sex is on Fire - WTF!!! I'd write a better one when i was 9.[/QUOTE]
Why the hell did you go to the gig then??????:rolleyes:

Chuky Dandy

twowheelsonly wrote: »

I normally wouldn't respond to to these posts but I have to with such a major inaccuracy.. (apologies for isolating the points I want to address BTW)
It sounds like the gate that you went into was the 'Blue' entrance on top of the hill. There was 6 scanners on that entrance, and for a while 8. At no point (other than when it was closing down gradually) was there 4 or less. There was also an overflow entrance for this gate slightly further along the road for when it got really busy......

Well I don't know how many scanners were at the other entrances, but 5 of my friends are pretty sure they only saw 4 scanners in use at our entrance, maybe there were 2 others that we didn't see. OK, so there weren't 80,000 going through this 1 entrance but when I was going in, there were thousands of people trying to get through, and 4 - 6 scanners was way too little. I've been to Oxegen a couple of times and there's never been problems like that, I've always managed to get in with the minimum of queuing. I appreciate there's not much ye can do about the idiots that can't find their tickets. Also, the people working there were working as efficiently as possible, the problem is the overall organisation of getting people in and out. Maybe the entrances and laneways into the venue need to be totally re-designed.

Miguel_Sanchez

Chuky Dandy wrote: »

Well I don't know how many scanners were at the other entrances, but 5 of my friends are pretty sure they only saw 4 scanners in use at our entrance, maybe there were 2 others that we didn't see. OK, so there weren't 80,000 going through this 1 entrance but when I was going in, there were thousands of people trying to get through, and 4 - 6 scanners was way too little. I've been to Oxegen a couple of times and there's never been problems like that, I've always managed to get in with the minimum of queuing. I appreciate there's not much ye can do about the idiots that can't find their tickets. Also, the people working there were working as efficiently as possible, the problem is the overall organisation of getting people in and out. Maybe the entrances and laneways into the venue need to be totally re-designed.

The same volume of people don't arrive at the same time for Oxegen so I don't think they're really comparible.

aka accounts 2010

dedon wrote: »

People that went the the Slane this year are not really festival goers. A good few friends of mine went and they never go to concerts or festivals. They just went because it was the KOL.

To be honest most of the people there would be happy if the concert was a fella taking a dump on stage for two hours, they would have though it was class. Just the type of person that is a KOL fan.

They are not really into music or art etc they are just into having a drunkin laugh or following what is popular.

Hold on a second buddy. Who the hell are you to make such a judgement. I go to Glasto, Oxegen and Picnic every year and have done so for the past 6/7 years. I also attend Slane most years (I missed 2009) and must say the crowd at Slane are as good as any festival crowd. Are you saying that people won't go to Oxegen this year purely to see Black Eyed Peas, The Script, Beyonce, Jessie J and Bruno Mars while knowing NOTHING at all about the Foo Fighters, Coldplay, The Strokes, MCR, Artic Monkeys and Beady Eye for example.

I'm a big KoL fan but I enjoy a huge variety of music and bands. I would never class myself, to use your own words as "just following what is popular"..I spent all morning waiting for a wristband for the pit so I could get close to KoL but also because I think Mona and The White Lies are excellent live and I've always been a huge Lizzy fan. There were thousands like me who did the same and I would class them all as passionate music fans who know there stuff. People who were in the pit all day had hardly any alcohol due to the fact or being searched on the way into the pit and wanting to retain there position.

Yes, there were a minority at Slane who were just there for drink and because the wanted to hear "use somebody" and "sex on fire" but the same is true for EVERY single concert / festival in the world.

Don't make a statement about a MINORITY and try and turn it into the majority.

BrianD

Wasn't at Slane this year but have attended and worked at a view of them. First one was Queen in 1986 where the crowds allowed in the venue were bigger than they are now (about 10,000 more).

When the sun shines it's hard to beat Slane Castle as an outdoor venue - natural amphitheatre, the castle and the backdrop of the trees and hill behind the stage.

On the downside, anybody who thinks that getting out of Slane is going to be easy needs to be realistic. It just ain't. You've 4 roads to move people primarily in private cars or buses that can hold up to 80-100 people. They might be N roads but the capacity isn't there so getting home is always going to take hours. That's the disadvantage of putting a large number of people into the countryside.

In regard to queuing and the drunken yobs. That's an Irish problem. Drunken people don't queue well, follow stewards instruction and then they generally disrupt everybody's enjoyment of the event. But sure isn't that what "having the craic" is all about? It's also the reason why foreign festivals seem better - they don't have the drunken Irish at them.

ned rierson

nextbestintown wrote: »

Nobody wants to see men urinating against a fence and certain don't need to see woman pissing in full view o crowds. Such a bunch of animals Irish people are.... I blame Ray D'arcy.

I jumped over the wall many moons ago to see Queen and landed on top of a girl having a number 2. Whats worse, when we got to our feet we recognised each other from our local. Didnt drink in there for ages after that.

BrianD

ned rierson wrote: »

I jumped over the wall many moons ago to see Queen and landed on top of a girl having a number 2. Whats worse, when we got to our feet we recognised each other from our local. Didnt drink in there for ages after that.

I recall the toilets at Queen ... the gents was a trench dug in a square surrounded by 8x4 nailed to posts. Not too sure how the ladies worked so I'm not surprised she went into the trees!

95,000 people and not a portaloo to be seen!

However, the concert had to stop when a fight broke out up the front. No progress there.

Table Top Joe

roberb wrote: »

Its the best venue in Ireland by far

Wow...what do you say to that??:eek:

jack31

nextbestintown wrote: »

Well thats the last time i go. I'm sure Lord Henry is worried made another few million out of drunken clowns.

Was at Oasis in 09 and really thought the mess would have been sorted. Not so. At least i only had a 15 min walk to be driven home and not waiting on a flaming bus... nice one.

The level of scumbaggery was on a par with Oasis which suprised me. Drinking is all well and good, but if you can't drink without falling around like a drunken prostitute (every second woman there) then don't bother.

Nobody wants to see men urinating against a fence and certain don't need to see woman pissing in full view o crowds. Such a bunch of animals Irish people are.... I blame Ray D'arcy.

Anyway, Kings of Leon... ha ha. This sex is on Fire - WTF!!! I'd write a better one when i was 9.

a lot of truth in what you wrote man; harsh as it may seem unfortunately it doesn't just boil down to that particular event. i've almost always had some incidents during concerts in IRL, maybe except for the Olympia theater sitting ones and radiohead 08 in malahide.

i only go because of the bands; too bad you can't enjoy it the way you want to as there'll always be some drunken, arrogant feckers who spoil your night. with the crowd on sat. i felt i couldn't connect to anyone there; just a bunch of drunken and brainless primitives; reflects irish society to a big extent.

Mc Love

Must have spent a fortune on the fireworks though. Nice way to end the concert

MonTheBiffy

Lads theres any awful lot of rubbish being talked in this thread (and I wouldn't exclude myself from that). Can we get a few things straight first.

If you weren't there please don't go on about how poorly it was organised. Even if you've seen it in the past, every year is different. In my opinion it could have been better but could have been a hell of a lot worse too.

Kings of Leon are unique. Like every act is unique (in some way at least :rolleyes: ) They connect to the crowd with their music. They let it do the talking. If its not your cup of tea so be it, don't hate them for it. We can't all be AC/DC or Foo Fighters.

Saying most people were there for Sex on Fire and Use Somebody is BS frankly. I'll admit I became a fan after I heard Sex on Fire 8,000 times, but I instantly recognised the quality of the first 3 albums. I love every single track from those 3 albums, like the majority of Slane.

Yes there were scumbags and people just on the beer. This is 21st century Ireland, and it was in Leinster, what did ye expect? Top hats and monocles? God help any of ye that go to Oxegen where people have been raped, seriously assaulted, robbed and a lot of people stumble around drunk of their arses 24/7.

Can we just agree to disagree? Not everybody had fun, loads had a blast. KOL arn't for everybody (though why would you go otherwise?) Slane is a logistical nightmare and I'd hate to try run it because no matter how much you improve it on the years before, you'll be criticised.

All in all there are more important things to worry about, but if you enjoy b**ching about concerts, I look foreward to hearing from you next year.;)

sc000by

Table Top Joe wrote: »

Wow...what do you say to that??:eek:

Perhaps it was his first gig - nothing to compare it to - yet!

Ally Dick

I was at Queen. It was a muck bath. I saw a bloke walking out after the gig wearing nothing but a black plastic bag around his waist

Ally Dick

flas wrote: »

to be fair i was at roger waters on monday and tuesday night in the o2 and there was far more scumbags at that than at slane yesterday. people get drunk at gigs, it happens...

I was at Roger too and noticed the same thing. I can't figure out the urge to go out and get catatonic drunk. Whatever about doing it after the show, it's ridiculous to get so drunk that you don't have a clue where you are, during the show

Ally Dick

Kings Of Leon are Lynyrd Skynyrd lite