This is a very special show and we are super excited about it…two incredible bands  in one venue…tickets are now on sale via tickets.ie & ticketmaster.ie

The Hot 8 Brass Band

The members of the Hot 8 were all born and raised in New Orleans; many of them began playing together in high school. In 1995 they came together and began playing traditional New Orleans brass band music professionally.

Founded by Bennie Pete, Jerome Jones, and Harry Cook in 1995, the band has played in traditional Second Line parades hosted each Sunday by a Social Aid and Pleasure Club ever since. The Hot 8 are famous for playing all day in the sun, then hopping to a club gig and playing through the night. But even more than their boundless energy, what makes the Hot 8 special are the sounds they coax from their well-loved, well-worn horns.

I t was not until after Hurricane Katrina, however, that Hot 8 became known nationwide. Featured on CNN, Nightline, in the New York Times, and most notably in Spike Lee’s Katrina documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts”, Hot 8’s work with the Finding Our Folk Tour has brought music to evacuee shelters, temporary trailer parks, and to communities throughout the US that have provided a temporary home to displaced New Orleanians.

The Hot 8 Brass Band, like all of New Orleans, has had its share of tragedy in the aftermath of Katrina. In addition to displacement caused by the storm and subsequent violence and uncertainty contained therein, drummer Dinerral Shavers was shot and killed in late 2006 while driving with his wife and child in New Orleans. In addition, two other members of the band have lost their lives due to violence on the city streets. In response to these tragic setbacks, The Hot 8 Brass Band has recommitted itself to bringing people together through their unique brand of music to celebrate, to heal and to learn. This passion for music and social outreach led to an integral role contributing to the success of the Finding Our Folk Tour.

Kings Go Forth

The American music underground is having what you might call a Kings Go Forth moment. Need proof? Over the past year, their seven inch singles set the soul blogs swooning and became instant collectors items. Legendary producer Tom Moulton called them to remix one of their songs. DJ Shadow’s playing them too. “Imaginary soul superstar” Mingering Mike is doing their album cover – the first time he has ever created art for a recording that actually exists! Then there’s the Funny or Die clip “High Five Inauguration” which features a KGF soundtrack and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. And the documentary ‘Super Noble Brothers’ about KGF founder Andy Noble and his brothers Davey and Tommy that was eight years in the making.

Kings Go Forth are based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and haven’t played a gig further away than Bloomington, Indiana. Their Luaka Bop debut album ‘The Outsiders Are Back’ won’t be out until April 20, 2010.

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The KGF rhythm section is comprised of Andy Noble on bass, Dave Wake on keyboards, guitarist Dan Flynn, percussionist Cecilio Negron, Jr. (whose parents were high school classmates of Black Wolf), and the explosive drummer Jeremy Kuzniar (who also engineered the group’s first recordings). Also on the album are vocalist Dan Fernandez and rhythm guitarist/vocalist Matt Norberg. Trombonist Dave Cusma and trumpeter Jed Groser are the mainstays of the KGF horn section. With their personnel in place, new songs came quickly for KGF. Noble found that his prolific partner didn’t need much more than the central idea to be inspired: “I had a few words and a bass line for ‘One Day’ when I brought it to Black Wolf and said, ‘This is a song about hope.’ And he wrote a lot of different verses that I could edit down to the ones on the record.”

“I may listen mostly to older music but I allow new sounds to come into my consciousness I don’t censor myself,” says Andy Noble. “Our idea was to be inspired by that music in order to create songs that sounded good to us, that were exciting to us, now. We had no idea if anyone else would like it or not.” They do, and you will.