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Dreams come true for Limerick rockers E-mail
Written by Alan Jacques   
Wednesday, 05 November 2008

LIMERICK band Walter Mitty and the Realists had a serious wake up call at ‘Indie Week Canada 2008’ after being announced as overall winners of the prestigious music industry event.
Now in its fifth year, the festival’s battle-of-the-bands, featuring hundreds of bands from Canada, America and around the world, has been won in the last two years by acts from the Treaty City.
Limerick five-piece Vesta Varro were winners of Indie Week 2007.
The extraordinary thing about Walter Mitty and the Realists winning this year’s competition, however, is that they’ve only been together in their current incarnation as a four-piece for the last six months.
And making it even more astonishing is the fact the local boys were only asked to play Indie Week on the eleventh hour when the winners of the Dublin heat cried out at the last minute.
“We were happy to just get the chance to play Indie Week to be honest. Winning it was totally unexpected, but amazing. It was a lot of work, we played every night for a week in Toronto and made sure to capitalise on that opportunity. We made lots of great contacts in the music industry over there and are hoping to get back over now as soon as possible,” frontman Niall MacTaidhg tells Alan Jacques.
“There was so many bands playing Indie Week and every genre of music from Soul to Metal was covered so I don’t know why we were chosen as the winners.
I suppose it came down to the combination of our songs and live show. We were just delighted to be a part of the whole thing and winning it was an added bonus,” says Niall.
Walter Mitty and the Realists is comprised of Niall MacTaidhg on vocals and guitar, his brother Conor MacTaidhg (guitar, percussion, vocals), Colin Bartley (double bass, bass guitar) and Pol O’Seachnasaigh (drums, percussion, vocals).
By mashing the incendiary urgency of punk rock with primal funkadelic rhythms the quartet have created a sound that is highly energetic and explosively-charged.
Hailed as one of Ireland’s best unsigned bands, the Mitty boys were picked to play Irish music festival ‘Hard Working Class Heroes’ for the last two year’s running and were even chosen by Phantom FM as one of the ‘top ten bands’ of the event.
Currently working on their debut album with Cranberries sticksman Fergal Lawler, the band can now look forward to exciting times ahead as their star is sure to rise on the strength of winning Indie Week 2008.
“It was an amazing event. There was so many cool bands playing but I do think that we were doing something completely different to anyone else. Our music and live set definitely set us apart. We love playing live. We just get up on stage and let the feeling the music gives us take us to wherever it’s going to take us. If you are up there and you are enjoying what you do and are really into it then the audience can’t help but react to that energy and enthusiasm. We just totally went for it with the live show in Toronto so at the end of the day that’s probably why we won,” the laidback singer reveals.
“It’s pretty amazing to think that two Limerick bands have won Indie Week in the last two years. It really does say a lot for the absolutely amazing talent we’ve got in this city. I’m originally from Leitrim, but have been living in Limerick for the last eight or nine years at this stage.
Hopefully I’m seen as an honorary Limerickman, but one thing I always notice is how people say that the music scene here is healthier now than its been in years, so I suppose it must be true.”
With a band as talented as Walter Mitty and the Realists in our midst you better believe it is true folks!
In recent times they have played high profile support shows with UK indie-rockers Dirty Pretty Things and experimental Icelandic outfit MuM, as well a being lauded by music critics for their “psychotic live energy.”

Don’t miss Walter Mitty and the Realists when they play Trinity Rooms this Wednesday, November 5. Admission is free. For further information log onto www.myspace.com/waltermittyandtherealists

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