The Stalks @ Whelan’s

Tuesday night is New Music Night at Whelan’s. A great way to meet the new wave of bands.

Last Tuesday (October 23rd) three bands played Whelan’s: Steamboat, The Stalks and The Enemies.

The Stalks are a 4-piece, music obsessed band from Dublin. The style flows from many different genres and musical influences but with deep roots in blues, funk and soul.

”We pride ourselves on an energetic and captivating performance whilst our songs stem from a deep love and appreciation of those artists that passed on their talent, in the great music they played and performed for all.”

The name ‘The Stalks’ came from a mischievous late night out that turned into an early morning of cigar smoking in a corn field with stalks as high as your chest. The name cropped up and seemed to stick. No pun intended.

Louis Claffey and Conor Keogh started the band back in 2008 doing odd bits and pieces with various different singers, guitarists and bassists. Donal Hanway was soon to join and a bluesy/funk band immediately emerged. The band went on to do semi-regular gigs across Dublin from 21st’s to busking to battle of the bands and to pubs and clubs like Crawdaddy and Academy. After the loss of a singer due to creative differences Louis took up vocals to fill in the gap, but in early 2012 Kevin Jackson stepped up and the band was complete.

The Stalks have recently completed their studio demo and are regularly gigging around Dublin. The demo can be listened to and downloaded for free from the band’s bandpage tab on Facebook or from their Soundcloud profile.

The band members:

• Kevin Jackson – lead singer. Very powerful voice and a natural entertainer
• Louis Claffey – lead guitar. Played with his eyes closed and on his toes most of the time. A Red Bull before the set and he would have taken off.
• Donal Hanway – bass. Calm and focused
• Conor Keogh – drums. Energetic