Review: Guiness Amplify at De Barra’s, Clonakilty

To the side of the stage of De Barra’s in Clonakilty, Co Cork, hangs a sign urging patrons to ‘Switch off mobile phones, please.’ It’s an instruction in keeping with the proprieties of a ‘listening’ venue, a mecca for folk music aficionados.

The sign could be seen at the edges of the screens of the many mobile users who attended the secret Guinness Amplify gig on Saturday: hoards of enthusiastic youngsters descended on the West Cork venue to witness an impressively assembled line-up, which featured windswept Dingle rockers Walking On Cars, folk blues hero-in-waiting George Ezra, and indie-pop poster boys Bastille.

Rock gigs are by no means a new experience for the venue, yet one or two local veterans fought a desperate rearguard action. A robust gentleman at the back shushed and called for quiet during Bastille’s more delicate moments. When it was put to him that he was swimming against the tide, he jutted out his chest and observed that tougher situations than this had been surmounted.