An ‘Irish AmerROCKIN’ Music Summit Storms the Emerald Isle this December! Los Angeles based “Love Ghost” comes to Ireland in late December to tour with Irish band “Modernlove.”
Love Ghost is a Los Angeles based band whose lead singer FinneganBell has always been fascinated with Irish bands. From a young age Finn has sought out bands like My Bloody Valentine (he is still inspired by their shoe-gaze style), Stiff Little Fingers, The Undertones, Therapy?, and The Frames. The Frames were influenced by the stops and starts of pop and punk that The Pixies perfected, which makes Love Ghost’s catchy new single the musical grandchild of Frank Black. Finn and his Love Ghosts head to Ireland on a musical journey that reconnects him to his musical and ethnic roots.
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On Love Ghost’s latest album Lobotomy, Finnegan chose to cover the Irish folk classic “Danny Boy”, morphing the traditional folk with his band’s grunge-rock influenced style. The success of the song at the Love Ghost live shows led to a online introduction to the Irish band modernlove, and the two bands decided to do a cultural exchange. This December, Love Ghost will play on Modernlove’s home turf before modernlove tours Tinseltown to play shows with Love Ghost sometime next year. Both bands have had a fair amount of success thus far in their young careers. Love Ghost has opened for Smash Mouth, Berlin, TheTubes, Fuel, Buckcherry, The Young Dubliners, Ozomatli and Irish musician Mundy. They have played The Roxy (3 times), The Troubadour, The Whiskey, The Viper Room and nearly every other venue in Los Angeles. They have released an EP (Love Ghost Vol. 1) and a full-length album (Lobotomy). Modernlove has had success throughout Ireland and has released several singles. Elaborate on modernlove successes: seems a bit lopsided in favor of Love Ghost.
The tour will begin in late December, the journey will be the focus of a documentary co-directed by the two band’s ‘dad managers.’ Finn’s dad Dan runs a successful casting business in Los Angeles, casting commercials and documentaries for Academy Award winners. A former actor, Dan Bell had prominent roles in “Darkman” starring Liam Neeson, the Wayne’s Worldmovies, The Last Seduction, Impulse, and many others.
“I can’t wait for Love Ghost to experience playing their songs in another country to complete strangers, and to be exposed the magic that Ireland has to offer,” Dan Bell enthuses. “It will be a short but intense tour and I think the grueling pace will be good for them as they pursue their rock and roll dreams!”
Modernlove’s bassist Daniel is the son of Joe Rooney, who has had a long a varied career as an Irish character actor and comedian. His best-known acting role was that of Father Damo in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted as well as a starring role in the RTE television comedy, Killanaskully Joe currently hosts the podcast PodaRooney on which he interviews guests who are mostly involved in the entertainment industry when he is not doing stand up worldwide.
The two dads hope their years of experience will lend to a unique perspective for this project.
“I joined a band myself at the age of 20 and pursued that dream for five years,” recalls Rooney. “After releasing 3 singles on vinyl only and touring throughout Ireland and London, we threw in the towel and called it a day. I have no regrets and years later, I love seeing my son pursue the same dream. He’s a far better musician and songwriter than I ever was and I’m immensely proud of him and the rest of modernlove. I wish them all the best and I know, whatever happens, their love of music will see them through.
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The Irish AmeROCKIN Tour Dates:
Roisin Dubh, Galway 12/27, Whelan's Dublin 12/28, Cleere's Kilkenny 1/2, ChezLeFab, Limerick 1/3, Spirit Store, Dundalk 1/4, Crane Lane, Cork 1/5.
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