A flavour of The Electric Picnic comes to Limerick this week with Jerry Fish and the Electric Side Show,
a cast of carnival entertainers featuring The Strypes and Paddy Dennehy.
FROM stadium rocker with Emotional Fish, cabaret schmoozer with The Mugbug Club and now, carnival ringmaster with his most adventurous project yet, The Electric Sideshow, Jerry Fish has always been the inventive, alternative act on the fringe. It has always been about the music for Jerry Fish but The Electric Sideshow is more than a rockin’ band. It is an ethos, a not-so-holy communion of like-minded spirits where the audience is just as much a part of the show. In short, it is great fun. And more than all that you have special guests performing as well, The Strypes and Paddy Dennehy. You wouldn’t wanna miss it.
The Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow is Jerry Fish – MC / Vox, RSAG – Drums, John Colbert – Bass, Grum – Guitar, and crew of beautiful dancers and performers.
Jerry told Limerick Post, “For the last few years I have been focusing on my live show and I have been given a stage at Electric Picnic for the last three years with bands that are on the fringe.”
Inspired by fringe element like Shangri-La and Unfairground at Glastonbury and Lost Vagueness and Salty Dog at Electric Picnic the show brings street theatre, circus, fringe bands, mayhem and chaos together in a hot-Chili melting pot to do its own thing. And it involves the audience with many dressing up for the shows.
“I wanted to create a festival within a theatre space, especially for people who may have too many commitments to go to an outdoor festival.”
And like any great festival, The Electric Sideshow is a time for you to forget who other people think you are and take yourself to where everyone is expressing themselves and embrace the alternative.
“It’s an alternative lifestyle on the fringe and when we get it together we will have a manifesto and a book of bendy rules,” laughs the frontman responsible for wonderful Irish anthems ‘Celebrate’, ‘Back to Before’ and ‘True Friends’.
Along with the circus performers, burlesque dancers and conjurors, there will be live sets from Paddy Dennehy and The Red Herring, an hour long set from Elton John’s favourite rockers The Strypes and of course, a headlining set from Jerry Fish and The Electric Sideshow.
Navan’s finest The Strypes are on the crest of a wave at the moment. From an appearance on the Late Late Toy Show as kids ,to signing a worldwide management deal with Elton John’s company Rocket Music, the quartet – with only guitarist Josh barely out of his teen years – released their second album ‘Little Victories’ during the Summer.
Jerry Fish included the band on his Electric Picnic Sideshow in September. “The Strypes are sincerely making rock ’n’ roll. They really want to do this. I’m definitely a fan. It keeps me fit when I have to follow a band like that.”
Jerry Fish is more than 25 years playing in bands, happy to be an alternative act on the fringe. For Jerry it is all about the music and the fun.
He sums it up: “Carnival was invented so that you could be an anarchist for a day, you would get away with it for a day. With wars we are involved with now, it has gone so complicated. We don’t see the full story and everyone is smart enough that we don’t trust everything we are hearing. The Electric Sideshow is the real escapism with rock bands that have some sincerity – it feels that sometimes, that it is a revolution.”
Jerry Fish & The Electric Side Show featuring The Strypes and Paddy DEnnehy & The Red Herring happens this Thursday December 10. www.dolans.ie
