Musical Tour of Summer 2025

Late June/early July was a crazy fortnight of music for our family. Last summer might have featured numerous BIG summer concerts (The Killers kicked it off followed by Stevie Nicks, Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam, and finally Coldplay) but the lunacy (or dare I say, delight) was spread over a few months.

This summer I attended 4 concerts in 9 days and David did 2 in a week. Here’s how it shook out… 

Summer concert season kicked off with Sally and I going to see Dua Lipa at Wembley Park in London (not possible to get tickets in Dublin!). This was a Christmas present from David and we’d been looking forward to it for months. We of course added in some friend time while there - Saturday having a picnic and fun water play at the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain with Yasemin, Rich, Theon, and Ophelia; and Sunday a walk, paddle-boats, and lovely lunch with Maya, Boaz, and Tamara. London was in the midst of the type of heat wave that depressingly kills numerous geriatrics and we spent a lot of time crammed into the tube. Nevertheless, our very Bohemian little Airbnb had an A/C unit for the bedroom and Sally and I feel pretty comfortable in London these days and we had an absolute blast. 

For the concert we wore bespoke cute outfits picked out months in advance, glitter makeup, and face jewels. We drank water like it was going out of style. Dua Lipa was awesome (basically one big dance party) and really fun the way she interacted with the crowd (taking selfies with the front row), and my almost 50-year-old self loved that she wrapped up exactly at the time they said she would. I also have to say how impressed I was by Wembley’s efficiency in moving people - we were back in our beds within 70 minutes of the concert ending, with seemingly most of the 70K+ people taking the tube.

Two weird coincidences unrelated to music about our trip I want to remember. First, the same woman was on our metro car on the way to and from the concert. Seriously, what are the chances? Second, after the fact I found out that Rebecca’s son, Cal, was in London the same wekeend with his cousin and uncle (Adam). They took photos at the Abbey Road crosswalk (of Beatles fame), which we passed several times a day because it was just around the corner from our Airbnb. 

While we were in London, my all-time favorite musician Brandi Carlile played in Dublin. What are the chances. So David and I flew to Manchester the following Wednesday night to see her perform there instead (Susanne stayed with Sally, obviously). Manchester was a lovely town with very nice people, though we saw very little of it except for a couple outdoor meals at the pedestrianized area near our hotel. The concert venue (Opera House) was literally around the corner from the hotel, and it was all lovely and convenient (except the Manchester airport is such a dump!). We also saw the full city block-sized Oasis store, presumably opened (or at least enlarged) in advanced of their about-to-kick-off 2025 reunion tour.

Brandi and her band were so graceful and charismatic, as always. Our seats were very high up but we could see really well because it was such a small venue, and the acoustics were fantastic. She seemed to be in top form and the crowd appropriately adored her. For the first song of the finale, Brandi and the twins came out on a little side stage (like they have at opera houses) and did a completely acoustic song, which everyone was perfectly quiet for so we could hear them super well. Perfection.

Then on Friday morning I came downstairs to a surprise - Rebecca Blanchard in our kitchen! As a surprise she and David had planned this trip for her to come see Justin Timberlake with me in Dublin, since we’d previously seen him together back in Feb. 2014 in DC. I was thoroughly shocked and so delighted to have her here for the weekend (see the Blog about Susanne’s visit for more details). In addition to what is featured in the other blog, she got to celebrate the last day of school with Olivia, me, Sally, Holly, and Norah with a picnic and swim at the Forty Foot (well, Sandycove but I showed her the Forty Foot); go to Pride Parade with David, Sally, and me; and enjoy a lot of music!

Saturday night we headed off to Malahide after an early dinner at the local. The perfect weather continued and it was a gorgeous night for a concert (though a bit toasty on the DART, not gonna lie). We had “golden circle” tickets so managed to be about 5 people from the stage. Justin Timberlake was electric - he and his band (The Tennessee Kids, I think?) were super high energy. His voice still hit all the gorgeous notes and his dance moves were on point. He really connected with the crowd and I swear we made eye contact at one point. Swoon.

The journey home was pretty brutal - took over 2 hours and, as the text of the girl smushed in front of me on the DART home said, “What a fucking shitshow this transport is from Malahide. I swear Dublin couldn’t plan a fucking tea party.” (And yes I was reading her messages - sorry, not sorry)

Nevertheless, when Sunday evening rolled around we hopped back on the DART and headed back to Malahide to see Alanis Morissette. Admittedly I haven’t really kept up with her career since the ‘90s, but wow, what a model human. I’d like to learn more about her, but looks like she’s used her voice not only for singing but also for social/political good. She had a beautiful energy, and ranged between happily bopping around and belting out the more soulful songs while staring off into space and twisting her hands. It is hard to describe how engaging it was. She also invited a guest to come sing the beginning of “Ironic” with her (obviously they’d vetted this guest a bit; she said this is a new thing she’s doing) and the pure joy of that woman and the crowd’s joy for her was a delight. Other than that, though, Alanis was an interesting contrast to the others I’ve just seen as she did not otherwise interact with the crowd really at all. That night we left at the encore and it only took about an hour to get home (couldn’t have done that for JT, though!).

To wrap it all up, David saw Simple Minds at the Trinity summer series with Doug and Garnet on the following Tuesday and had a fantastic time. Though he did comment at the average age and gender of the crowd (I’ll leave that for you to guess).

Finally, a brief mention that “concerts” actually commenced with the UCD Faculty and Staff choir performing at UCD Family Festival day. A bunch of friends came to support us and it was really fun. My favorite was our last song, “Pink Pony Club.”