Butch Cassidy Sound System DJ-set @ Ri-Ra, 18th Nov.

My third weekend in Dublin, and I still feel like I don't have a clue regarding which places are great, and which places I should stay away from all together. With last week's excellent concert fresh in mind (Kid Koala & Four Tet), my belief that Quality places were plentiful, and musical treats were in abundance was still strong. After seeing a poster in The Globe (great place, more on that later..) that Butch Cassidy Sound System(BCSS) were playing in the Globe's basement, Rí Rá (aparently meaning party in Gaelic, but not to be confused with craic which means fun...???), I was convinced that this was something I had to see.

I have some previous knowledge about BCSS from before as a producer, and his trademark sound of fast, sort-of-skippy western style dub, mixed with a bit of everything, was appealing to me, given that the setting was right. I noticed that on the given night, BCSS would be playing a DJ-set. I have varying experiences with producers playing DJ-sets, and tend to get disappointed due to high expectations. My fingers were crossed that this would not be the case now.

The club in itself looked nice. An intimate basement with rooms half-divided, and a small DJ-box conveniently located on the dancefloor, but with possibilities for the DJ to see everything happening in the club. A friendly staff, and an apparently cool crowd gave the club a comfortable atmosphere. We arrived early because we heard that there might be a massive que after 12pm, but the club was still half-empty when we came. The DJ started out great, playing one of my all-time favourites when I walked in the door, Sly Stone - If You Want Me To Stay, which always puts me in a nice, mellow mood. After some nice, chilled funk-soul classics, the DJ quickly switched to a more hip hop-oriented direction. Still a good selection, with many of the quality classics being spun. But the DJ never moved on from there, unfortunately. After hearing De La Soul - Hey, How you doin', Del The Funky Homosapien - Mr. Dobolina, A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It? and many more, I got a bit fed up, and I was eagerly awaitng a more interesting turn of events musically. All a bit predictable, really... The people there turned out to be more reserved than I've seen in Dublin until now as well, so at 1.30 we decided to call it a night. We stopped by the top floor on the way out, but the sound was bad and the music was weird, so we decided to call it a night.

I will definitely try out this place again on a different night, but with lower expectations than the ones this night, which kind of ruined it a bit.