The SFX nostalgia thread

[John Kimble]

Inspired by the my tribe thread and the references to the Dublin metal scene in the 90s, please feel free to share your memories of this iconic venue. The first gig I ever attended outside of Cork was Korn in the SFX in 1996. I was relatively young at the time, 16, and was absolutely in awe of the place. This was well before Korn became huge, so there was a huge mix of metal fans, loads of black metal tees from what I can remember as well as the obvious big bands of the day, such as Slayer, Machine Head, etc. I was fairly naive as well, and was completely taken aback at the local scrotes, some who seemed as young as 10, trying to sell drugs outside!! I just checked the Wikipedia page, the list of some of the bands who played over the years is phenomenal.

ABC[7]
Accept[8]
Alanis Morissette[9]
Alice in Chains[10]
An Emotional Fish[11]
Anthrax[12][13][14]
Ash[15]
Big Audio Dynamite[16]
Billy Bragg[17]
Björk[18]
The Black Crowes[19]
Bush[20]
Chumbawamba[21]
The Clash[22]
Counting Crows[23]
The Cramps[24]
The Damned[25]
Def Leppard[26]
Deftones[27]
Depeche Mode[28]
Dio[29]
Dokken[30]
Echo and the Bunnymen[31] (May, 1983)[32]
EMF[33]
Fear Factory
Foo Fighters[34]
Fugazi[35][36]
Green Day[37]
The House of Love
Iron Maiden[38]
James[39]
Jethro Tull 25th Anniversary Tour
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts[40]
The Jesus and Mary Chain[41]
Judas Priest[42]
Kerbdog[43]
Korn[44]
Machine Head[45]
Madness[46]
Mama's Boys[47]
Manowar[48]
Marillion[49]
Megadeth[50]
meat loaf
Metallica[51][52][53]
The Mission[54]
Moby[55]
My Bloody Valentine[56]
New Order[57](January, 1986)[32]
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds[58]
Nine Inch Nails[59]
The Offspring[60]
Ozzy Osbourne[61]
Pantera[62]
Paradise Lost[63]
Phish[64]
Placebo[65]
The Pogues[66]
Poison[67]
Portishead[68]
The Pretenders[69]
Queensrÿche[70]
Ratt[71]
R.E.M.[72]
Red Hot Chili Peppers[73][74]
Rollins Band[75]
Rory Gallagher[76]
Sepultura[77][78]
Silverfish[79]
Simple Minds[80]
Sinéad O'Connor[81]
Siouxsie and the Banshees[82]
Slayer[83]
The Smashing Pumpkins[84][85]
The Smiths[86]
Soul Asylum[87]
Stone Temple Pilots[88]
Suede[89]
The Sugarcubes[90]
Therapy?[91]
Thin Lizzy[92]
Tool[93]
Type O Negative[94]
U2[95]
Ultravox[96]
The Verve[97]
The Wedding Present[98]
Whitesnake[99]
The Wonder Stuff[100]
ZZ Top[101]

I was lucky to catch a good few gigs there, but my greatest regret is missing Type O Negative.

[Emphyrio]

My one and only time in there was Deftones when I just turned 18. Drank a bottle of vodka for the first time, lost a shoe during the gig, mangled the box off some young wan. Great night. Walked to the train station the next morning in the rain with a plastic bag over my foot in place of said missing shoe, all the while one of the lads was puking green every 50 yards.

By all accounts the shoe made it back to Limerick.

[Eoin McLove]

Great memories from the SFX. I imagine if I went to a gig there as an adult I'd have a different opinion but as a teenager I had a great time seeing bands there throughout the 90s. My first gig there, and second ever gig,  was Therapy? and Kerbdog in '93. I remember getting a bootlegged 'Face The Strange' t-shirt outside that I wore into the ground over the following years. I also saw Machine Head/Meshuggah/MBJ, Korn, Deftones, Type O, Tool, The Offspring,  Fear Factory and maybe a couple more that are evading me right now.  Good memories!

[Kurt Cocaine]

I saw Pantera & Gruntruck and Sepultura or Pantera with Paradise Lost as support there. Dodgy as fuck outside but then again McGonagle's was too.


Here's gigs from the SFX with dates....

https://www.setlist.fm/venue/sfx-hall-dublin-ireland-53d20fa5.html

[Juggz]

My first gig there was Judas Priest and Annihilator on the Painkiller tour which incredibily, when you look back now at the regard Painkiller is held in, was very poorly attended. Others I remember... Pantera touring Vulgar Display... with Gruntruck (I think), Placebo, Anthrax in 96 was a great, great gig, Slayer in the late 90's or early 2000s with Fu Manchu. I think the last gig I saw there was the Happy Mondays, notable for some dope releasing a powder extinguisher over everybody at the end, resulting in having to take an impromptu shower with bottled water on Dorset Street afterwards to wash that shit out of my hair and off my clothes. The SFX was always second place to the Top Hat for me. The Top Hat seemed to get most of that size gig from about 88 on, when I started going to gigs, for a few years and I never really warmed to the SFX. I probably saw other gigs there but the mid to late 90's Metal wasteland was when the SFX really had the bulk of gigs I'm aware of, which I had no interest in, and the early to mid 80's of course, when I was too young.

[Carnage]

I was at that Korn gig, my abiding memory is that the toilets were flooded, which was fun. Saw Paradise Lost play there to a nearly empty room (Draconian Times tour). Terrible support band, Paranoia I think they were called. Saw Fear Factory there a couple of times, Demanufacture tour they were class. Will Haven supported them on one occasion, dull as dishwater. Cubanate another time, they were interesting.

[Pentagrimes]

Only ever saw Deftones and Foo Fighters there. Which is probably why I have absolutely no great attachment to the place at all.

Woah hang on, The Cramps played Dublin?!

[Paul keohane]

Only ever there twice,Fear Factory  in 95 and Slayer in 2000.Was only 16 at FF, so it was a pretty big deal at the time coming up from Cork.Cant remember a whole lot about the place,Iconic venue for sure,the list of artists is impressive alright.

When did it close?,must have been 2001/02?

[John Kimble]

Saw Fear Factory there a couple of times, Demanufacture tour they were class. Will Haven supported them on one occasion, dull as dishwater. Cubanate another time, they were interesting.

My recollection was that Will Haven absolutely destroyed that night, they were class!! Dunno if I'd have described Cubanate as interesting though. Certainly the crowd didn't appreciate them.

[Eoin McLove]

I remember the disappointment of seeing Fu Manchu supporting Slayer. The word on the street was that Brinskill Bomb-Beat were playing and I was into them at the time (though they are probably best off left in the past!) so I was doubly disappointed to have to endure Fu Manchu's fuzzy rubbish.

Either that or Tool was the last gig I saw there but I remember going to a metal club (Valhalla?) there one night.  Bag of cans,  ear-splitting volume,  ten stupid cunts trying to make the empty hall look busy.  Not the best night out I've ever had 

[Paul keohane]

Fu Manchu was a right odd support,i can remember i couldn't wait until they finished!

Slayer came into Fibbers after,got a bit starstruck 

[mickO)))]

Where was the SFX? I think one of the venues was in Dún Laoghaire maybe the Top Hat?

I was too young to have ever been in either I may be wrong but I don't think venues like this exist in Ireland anymore where in 10 - 15 years time people will be talking about the good old days in such and such a venue where they saw this band or that band.

Even for me my venue was probably the Voodoo Lounge during the golden years of 2005 - 2010 when they had the pizza slices and to a lesser extent TBMC before it was changed. It felt like I was going to a gig there nearly every month and I saw some great bands. It still doesn't feel to me they way you hear some people describing SFX or McGonagle's either on here or the old forum. What I would give to have been around in those days.

[John Kimble]

What was that Tool gig like? Aenima was one of my go-to albums at the time, why on earth did I not go? Yeah, that choice of Fu Manchu as support was odd as fuck. Was never into that genre anyway so can't really say if they were particularly disastrous that night or not...

[Eoin McLove]

Maybe Fu Manchu were good that night but I hate that upbeat fuzzy garage rock crap so it did nothing for me.

The Tool gig was alright.  I dunno,  it was good but not hugely memorable. Not a classic.

[John Kimble]

Where was the SFX?

Had to google it, Sherrard Street Upper by all accounts. I work in Dublin now so fairly familiar with the area but I hadn't a clue where it was back then. Just remember walking up O'Connell Street on the way with a bag of cans. Also, thought the name SFX was really class at the time but was then informed that it was just short for Saint Francis Xavier community hall or something like that! Not quite as cool.