Ahmed, With Love.’s wrestling ring music event returns this September 6th.
Clash At The Quays! II: Lokomania will see musicians team up in a wrestling-style event in a ring with performances from Ahmed, With Love, Sloucho, VaticanJail, Julia Louise Knifefist, Lil Skag, Curtisy and Kibo.
Expect musical rivalries, wrestling blood-feuds, and suplex-level silliness as live music collides with the wacky world of professional wrestling. Are you ready to rumble? A sequel to the award-winning 2023 show, LOKOMANIA aims to raise all the bars set at the last show, from presentation to performances, theatrics to talent, and overall tongue-in-cheek absurdity. This is the WrestleMania of dumb wrestling-based music events!
Tickets from Dublin Fringe Festival from €18.
What Is Clash?
Clash At The Quays! II: Lokomania follows a similar structure to its predecessor: an immersive night of live performance which jumps between musical sets and professional wrestling bouts, all within a professional wrestling ring. Theatrics play a huge role throughout, as performers (both musicians and wrestlers) are encouraged to play up to the crowd and showcase their character work and goofiness through the energy and absurdity of late 90s and early 2000s WWE-style pro-wrestling.
Musicians settle their feuds in “Battle Of The Bands” style X versus Y sets within the ring, with top- tier pro-wrestling bouts from both local and international wrestling superstars filling the gap between each music set.
Be it music or wrestling (or a majestic amalgamation of the two), the performances and the show itself aim to highlight a beauty in the absurd, displaying high-level musical and physical theatre through the absurdist lens of tongue-in-cheek, often self-aware theatrics we come to expect from the art of professional wrestling.
It is a serious piece of art which need not take itself seriously; it’s people who put their artistry, passion, heart and soul into singing songs and/or play-fighting in spandex.
The show itself spawned as the perfect chimera of my obsessions for music, performance theatre and professional wrestling, as well as the obvious (and not-so-obvious) overlaps they all have. The level of storytelling and physical work and overall artistry that goes into pro-wrestling is just as admirable as the artistry of music and live performance, yet they can still be boiled down to “play- fighting in undies” and “singing little songs” respectively. There’s truly a beauty in being able to unapologetically express one’s true self through their craft without the limitations of “that’s weird” or “that’s silly” or “that’s not serious”. There’s beauty in absurdity and you need not take yourself seriously to deliver a serious piece of work.
– Ahmed, With Love.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
