First of all The Hub is a wonderful venue,the ideal size really for a band like the Rats. Hadn't been here before so was surprised it seemed so large.Last night it was packed to the rafters, really buzzing with what seemed like more than the 1900 official capacity. I was so proud that the Rats got such an enthusiastic reception in my home county. Audience was a good mixture of excited veterans and younger folks.

After a prolonged delay the gig finally started. There seemed to be some sort of tech problems but it was almost 30 minutes between the final Rats  self promo video (in my opinion needless) and the show actually starting. weirdly they started with Rat Trap, Geldof sort of rapping his way through the song, but his voice was strong and not too croaky. Next up was Eva Braun, followed by Neon Heart as Geldof ad libbed and dramatised the internal dynamics of a lost night out on the town, recalling how 50 years ago they played the song in Moran's Hotel on Gardiner St in Dublin. She's Gonna Do you in saw Bob doing some humorous whip lashing mimes in the 'she'll dominate you' parts, and quipping to someone in the audience 'that guy knows what I'm talking about' when he saw the guy laugh. I wish they would just do the 4 minute version of this but unfortunately Geldof insists on dragging this out for well over ten minutes. Mondays sounded great, helped by what seemed  like a stronger vocal performance, less croaky than some I've heard from him in recent years.

Someone's Looking at You, Like Clockwork and Diamond Smiles followed but as usual Diamond Smiles was ruined by endless na na naing at the end. You and Me Against the World went down very well in terms of audience reaction and willingness to chant Geldof's basically flat shouted 'chorus'. Not really a fan of that song. Much better was Monster Monkeys, probably the only worthwhile Citizens era worth doing live. Missing tonight was Looking After no 1, Mary of the Fourth Form and Joey's on the street Again. Another song i'm not to keen on was The Boomtown Rats, which while it gets the audience into a sort of football crowd chant frenzy, is far from classic Rats material. But overall it was a wonderful night. It just seems so strange that the band can pack out a small city in the south east of ireland but couldn't do a 50th anniversity gig in Dublin. The whole night amounted to a lot more than i expected so to be honest i feel quite emotional about it now as I write this. Surely the Rats could play  towns like Waterford, Limerick and Galway off the back of this. Geldof is a remarkable performer. nearly 75 and he just launches into the whole thing in a relentless fashion, exorcising his inner demons through the thing he does best and likes most - music. Who'd have thought that a January night in kilkenny after all the proper 50 Anniversary gigs were completed could have been so good. I might just be seeing things through my own Kilkenny bias but jesus the town and surrounding area did the band proud. As usual Darren was from kilkenny, some random audience member was accused of putting something in Bobs drink  etc and Geldof quipped in mock horror about some of the audience being older than him. I observed a few groups who had travelled over from the UK who seemed to be happy customers after the gig. Had a quick chat with Mark Rat on the merch stall which  seemed to be doing good business. This art of surfacing is all but dead.

Support was the impressive three piece The Savage Hearts, the drummer was formerly with the Strypes. My brother said that kilkenny turned out to see a proper rock star/band and i totally agree with him.I think the nearly 30 minute promo film before the band come on stage is way too long and they could easlly fit in 4 or 5 other songs if they dropped this and cut back on the DS na na nas and the drawn out Close As You'll ever be. This was an unexpected delight thanks to the great venue, fantastic audience and needless to say the band itself.