The venue was Club Head Bang Bang @ The Greyhound Bar, the day a scorching hot Sunday with a definite smell of teen spirit in the air!

Rock For Experience, the annual Samhlaiocht event which gives young up and coming bands a chance to perform in front of a live audience, showcased a healthy collaboration of Kerry's finest punks, rockers and metal heads!

Fifteen bands played to an audience in excess of 300. The day began with an atmosphere of tense anticipation as bands nervously waited for the sound check. With equipment strewn all over and amps screaming for attention the bands mingled with one another adding to the excitement. As the sound check finished, the fans started to arrive and the atmosphere switched from tense anticipation to one of electric expectancy.

Adding to the atmosphere was a series of colourful backdrops that the individual bands created for the event ensuring that the gig was a feast for the eyes as well as the ears! Fear of the South decided to use some old garden materials to make their huge creative piece while The Montagues created an equally fabulous piece. Nephilim's colourful work of art was a truly amazing offering and came complete with the band's logo. Titus Groan's backdrop even became a "Wall of Fame" when band member Ciaran Concannon invited just about everyone present to write or draw on it.

Despite the high standard of previous year's performers, this years' line up was a quantum leap forward with the individual bands seemingly egging one another on to extraordinary heights. It was wonderfully fulfilling to see the improvement in some Rock For Experience regulars with bands like End of Fox, Sypher, Blank and Trench showing a maturity that belies their tender years. In fact Trench played at Rock For Experience despite being shattered from gigging the night before in Cork!

Then of came Stupid Betty who are currently recording an EP and Brick Ribbon whose EP has just been released. Well worth checking them out on Bebo!

Chaos Theory, who also played at the Cork gig with Trench, and Fear of the South put on head slamming performances that had fans wired to the max, dancing like lunatics and generally having a house raising time, much to the dread of the organisers, but well worth it in the end.

To see the fans filing out at the end of the gig, tired, rocked out but relishing coming back again next year made the whole event wonderfully worth while and all the emails received this week thanking me for organising the event is icing on the cake!

None of it would have been possible without the generous support of Kerry Group, Samhlaiocht's main corporate sponsor and the help and support of the following dedicated individuals Keith, Treasa and Ailbhe from Club Head Bang Bang, Aidan O'Connor from The Greyhound Bar, David McMahon the Sound Engineer, Ivan O'Connor from Stupid Betty and our wonderful Compere for the evening, Joe O'Brien.