Last weekend was the October bank holiday weekend, which coincides with the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. As it is a well established tradition at this stage, it duly rained for most of the time but I suppose we just expect it by now so it doesn’t really put a damper on proceedings. On the jazz front, we ended up in the Metropole Hotel on Sunday night, the highlight of which was a great performance by the Roaring Forties (yes, them again, it’s getting embarrassing, we’re practically groupies) in the Rhythm Room, plenty of fun on the dance floor and some great swing jazz. Unfortunately, none of us had a camera that evening so no pictures of same.

I missed People Under The Stairs and Giant Panda on Sunday as even I can’t be in two places at the same time, so the musical highlight of my weekend was seeing the Cuban Brothers at the Savoy on Monday night instead. I was delighted when I first heard that the Cuban Brothers were coming back to Cork and I rushed out and bought some tickets as soon as I could just in case they were all snapped up. Sadly, the turnout on the night was disappointing, not terrible or anything but it definitely suffered from being scheduled at the end of a long weekend with most of us having to get up for work the following morning. Nevertheless, it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the night and at least there was plenty of room to dance.

One of the first things that hit me when we arrived, apart from the huge empty dance floor except for one steadfast diehard - pink fluffy hat girl, you know who you are and you had some pretty good moves out there as well - and the rather quirky yet cute couple who were having a lot of fun prancing about the place, was the excellent dance music coming from the club’s speakers. Clemente of the Cuban Brothers had already taken to the decks and was pumping out some gorgeous choons, really delicious tracks most of which seemed to be some kind of fiendish fusion between a seventies disco break and a modern house beat finished with a subtle hint of Latin magic... so good you could almost taste it!

Eventually the rest of gang, Miguel, Archerio and Kengo San, took to the stage and that’s when the fun really began. Loud yellow suits, dazzling red jackets with matching shorts and argyle socks (yikes!), crazy purple jumpsuits, novelty thongs, roller skates, break dancing, audience participation and other bizarre stuff. For me, the entire night was one of the funniest most outrageous gigs I’ve been too, all of it taking place against a backdrop of some incredible music. In fairness, these guys have played at private parties with the Hoff and now you can’t get cooler than that, can you?

I tried to take some decent photos on the night but as you can’t really use a flash and as most digital cameras are not very good in low light conditions (unless you have a snazzy one like Donal) the results were pretty mixed and not great overall. That said, hopefully they show some flavour of the night including the slow but steady rate at which Miguel’s clothing seem to disappear until he was literally running around the Savoy bollox naked singing on top of the bar, dancing butt naked with the all too willing Cork girls and generally acting the langer, in a fun way of course. I suppose we should have seen it coming as he spent most of the evening grasping his crotch and encouraging the girlies at the front of the stage to have a feel as well, who of course duly obliged. Even so, I’d wager the full frontal still took most of us by surprise!

Overall, I’d have to say that the Cuban Brothers are one of a select few acts where I would recommend you to take whatever steps are necessary to go see them if they ever end up end up playing at a venue near you. The other two acts currently on this favoured list of mine would be Senor Coconut and the Roaring Forties. Any of these groups will practically guarantee you a great fun filled night out!

The Cuban Brothers Senor Coconut The Roaring Forties Guinness Cork Jazz Festival The Savoy

Labels: Bands, Comedy, DJs, House

# Forged from the fiery depths by Pure Cork Boy.