With Damian Lewis and his brilliant band heading out on the Sweet Chaos UK tour this Friday, I thought this was the perfect time to return to one of my favorite adventures: following them around Ireland for three wonderfully lively, funny and memorable shows.
At the Sweet Chaos album-launch shows in June, a few people told me they had bought tickets after reading my reviews of Damian’s earlier gigs. That made me very happy—and reminded me that a concert poster can give you the date and venue, but it cannot really show you what a Damian Lewis gig feels like: the stories between the songs, the laughter and teasing with the audience, the energy of the band, and those completely unplanned moments that make every night different.
The upcoming UK venues are much like those Damian played in Ireland: small, intimate rooms where the audience is close to the stage and a real connection develops between Damian, the band and the crowd.
So, if you are still wondering whether to buy a ticket, come back to Cork, Dublin and Limerick with us first. This is what happens when Damian Lewis, a terrific band and a roomful of enthusiastic fans get together for an evening of live music!
See all Sweet Chaos UK tour dates and buy tickets here.
After the tour, Damian took to Instagram to share his own memories of the Emerald Isle. When I think about my week-long trip following Damian and the band from Cork to Dublin to Limerick, I remember so many train rides, so many hotel rooms, so many gray skies and so little sleep! And it was all WORTH IT for the fantastic music, fun chats, pints of beer and big laughs with people I adore. Ireland, you were something else!
Damian ruled on stage and off—he made time for everyone, his guests and his fans, after the gigs. He had pictures taken with them and gave autographs as well as bear hugs. The smaller venues made it easy for Damian and the band to mingle with the crowd after each gig, rather than hosting guests backstage — which, I think, made the whole experience so much fun for the fans. I met so many wonderful people on the tour, and I have to say, the Irish are truly special — so friendly, so kind, and always ready with a smile. I don’t know how many times each person thanked me for the “I was there” magnet that I gave them.
Now join me in living (or re-living) Damian’s mini Ireland Tour!
The gigs in Ireland were full of life, energy and charm. The audience was completely engaged from the start, responding to every song and story with enthusiasm. The Irish crowd is not shy, and there was plenty of playful banter, teasing, and cheeky back-and-forth between Damian and the fans. Oh, and some rugby talk too — a subject I’m completely clueless about! From what I gathered, the Irish team recently beat the Welsh team, and Damian… well, let’s just say he wasn’t exactly thrilled about that. Hahaha!
Damian was confident, charming and relaxed on stage, supported by a group of ridiculously talented musicians: Dave Archer on guitar, Will Cleasby on drums, Pete Lee on keyboards, Una Palliser on violin, tambourine and vocals, and Jack Tustin on bass. They were simply brilliant!
The set list for the Ireland tour was different from the one for the earlier UK shows. This time, they played 13 songs in total: all nine originals from Damian’s debut album, Mission Creep, plus four songs from the then-unreleased Sweet Chaos: Traffic Jam, No Man’s Land (formerly Love Bomb), Sweet Chaos and Advent. In Cork, we even got the world premiere of two of them—an absolute thrill! Looking back now, Ireland feels like a joyful preview of everything that was coming.
Here’s the set list that Lewisto heroically lifted from the stage at Cyprus Avenue for me — and got himself kicked out of the venue for it! Oh, yes, never a dull moment in our life. But more on that later…
Let me start with the support act(s). Julia-Maria, a young irish singer-songwriter from Cork opened for Damian at Cyprus Avenue in her hometown Cork and at Dolan’s Warehouse in Limerick
Let me start with the support acts. [Julia-Maria], a young Irish singer-songwriter from Cork, opened for Damian at Cyprus Avenue in her hometown and at Dolan’s Warehouse in Limerick, while Fingerz Kenny warmed up the Dublin crowd up at Whelan’s.
Julia-Maria’s music draws deeply from the roots of Irish folk, her voice has a soothing quality. Her originals are beautiful, but perhaps because I already knew it, her cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s Kathy’s Song brought tears to my eyes. I’m a fan!
Fingerz Kenny, on the other hand, is a Dublin-based musician known for his eclectic blend of genres, including jazz, blues and hip-hop. He is part of the band Bat Country with whom he opened for Damian at Whelan’s.
And on to the main act!
Because the set list was the same each night, I’ll concentrate on some favorite moments—beginning with the way Damian greeted each city.
“Hello Cork. Ireland’s real capital, right?”
Turns out, this is a local slogan in Cork — the residents love to joke that their city is actually the real capital of Ireland. And Damian, joining the fun, proudly declared that he and the band stand in solidarity with the people of Cork by drinking Murphy’s! So did Lewisto! But when the tour moved to Dublin, Damian switched allegiances — as any smart man would — and here he is showing off the custom-made Guinness glass I had engraved for him with “Damian’s very own pint” at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. Cheers, mate!
The opening song was Down on the Bowery, Damian’s first single from Mission Creep. I recorded the following at Whelan’s in Dublin, and the red light was so intense that it turned our guy into a true carrot head!
Damian then shared a story with the audience. Once, he says, he spent a whole evening trying to chat up a girl in Soho which went deep into the night. This is Soho Tango.
Time for a new song! Love Bomb, my absolute favorite new tune, is now titled No Man’s Land. Because the song uses the language of war, love and defense and Damian connected it in Limerick to the city’s Latin motto, Urbs Antiqua Fuit Studiisque Asperrima Belli, which translates as “an ancient city well studied in the arts of war.” And he added:
“We don’t want any trouble, we just came to play some music.”
In Dublin, he talked about a pub he visited with Patrick Kielty who hosted him on The Late Late Show the week before.
“Kavanagh’s The Gravediggers. What a pub. I went there last week with Paddy Kielty What a pub!”
And he thanked all who gave him a free pint 🙂
“This is Hole in My Roof.”
Damian did his homework about Cork:
“Cork — Titanic’s last port of call… I’m not sayin’ anything… but maybe they’d been on too many Murphys”
“Some of you know who my Little One is. This is My Little One. She was a bawler.”
Here is a glimpse of Damian performing “My Little One” at Dolan’s Warehouse in Limerick.
“The same beautiful woman dreamed of growing old in Paris.”
Damian then talked about Kim Philby, probably Britain’s most notorious traitor, and his former friend Nicholas Elliott, whom Damian portrayed in A Spy Among Friends. In Damian’s telling, After going to Moscow, Philby invited Elliott to meet him in Berlin. Elliott went there for sake of friendship but lost his nerve at the last minute and left behind an umbrella Philby had once given him, bearing the initials KP and NE. When Philby arrived, the umbrella was all he found. He returned to Moscow, where he drank heavily and longed for England…
“missing cricket, missing The Sunday Times, missing marmalade…”
Next on the set list was Makin’ Plans.
“You know you makin’ plans… and they go to shit…”
In Dublin, a small slip with the lyrics turned into a big laugh for us, the front row girls! See the little video below and you will catch it!
Time for a brand new song! Damian and the band were very happy to play this one for the first time for the Cork crowd.
“Maybe appropriately for Cork? I don’t know. Sweet Chaos.”
I’m far from a music expert — mostly just a fan of 80s hits, jazz, blues, and world music. But I can tell this song has a beautiful Celtic vibe, and the violin — probably my favorite instrument — adds such depth and emotion that the feeling stays long after the song ends.
Now Damian took us back to his busking days in his 20s.
“When I was a younger man… hard to imagine, I know…” 🙂
He had a motorbike, a tent, and guitar; and he rode his motorbike down through France and Spain in summers. One evening, as he was crossing the Pyrenees, he judged very badly. As a terrible storm gathered on the horizon, he decided to build his tent on the side of a mountain lake, but when he looked up, he saw a hole in his tent…
Before the final song of the night, Damian took a moment to thank the crowd for coming out. He then shared something that the brilliant Shirley Manson — lead singer of the band Garbage — often says at the end of their shows: that live music, at a certain level, is disappearing. Even a successful band like Garbage, he said, struggles to afford touring because of industry economics.
And then — another world premiere! The song is called Advent. Damian mentioned he wrote it just before Christmas, and in Dublin he elaborated a bit: it’s not that he doesn’t like Christmas (he does!), but the stress of everything that needs to get done beforehand is… well, a lot. I think most of us can totally relate to that feeling!
What a fun tune! And the harmonica is a huge bonus!
“We’ll leave you with this one ladies and gentlemen.
She Comes is the first song Damian wrote for Mission Creep. It’s a truly great song. And this particular recording from Whelan’s in Dublin ended with Damian thanking his band and the audience, giving his guitar pick to a musician fan with whom I have become fast friends, and a setlist to yours truly 🙂
Later, he signed my setlist like this! I’m still laughing about it.
And now let me tell you the backstory about this note!
The stage at Cyprus Avenue in Cork had a big barrier in front of it, keeping the crowd a safe distance away. It meant there was no chance of just reaching up and grabbing a setlist — torture for a fan like me!
But Lewisto, my brave and slightly crazy husband, can’t stand to see me disappointed. So, without hesitation, he climbed up onto the stage (yes, totally not allowed) to grab a setlist for me. Somehow, the security guards didn’t move. Then Lewisto made his fatal mistake — he went back for two more set lists for our friends. That’s when the guards suddenly remembered their job. They rushed in, all VERY serious, like he was stealing state secrets instead of pieces of paper.
Damian tried to save him, telling security that it was fine, that he knew Lewisto. But no. Lewisto was kicked out of the venue — a tragic hero, cast out for his kindness and enthusiasm.
That’s just who he is, though — always ready to sacrifice himself for others. And there they were: Damian, Lewisto, and the security guard, having a very “serious” talk about the terrible crime of loving music a little too much.
I get it, of course — the stage is full of expensive gear, and security has to protect it. Still, all Lewisto wanted was to spread the joy of music!
After Lewisto left, I gave Damian a bottle of Redbreast, a good Irish whiskey made in Cork. And Damian told me to tell Lewisto to stop being crazy 🙂
The next day, in Dublin, when Damian asked where Lewisto was, I couldn’t resist.
“He got deported.”
Hahaha. He just had to return home for work.
Damian paused, gave me his trademark grin, and replied:
“I’ll keep a set list for him.”
And he did 🙂
While there were very long lines at the merch table for t-shirts and vinyls that Damian very graciously signed for everybody, we were able to have our little precious moments with him behind the scenes.
One thing I was dying to ask Damian — and this might surprise you — was what his favorite Robert Redford movie was. I’ve always loved Redford; I grew up with his films. My cousin, who is 15 years my senior and a movie buff, introduced me to his movies. I watched All the President’s Men, Brubaker, The Sting, The Natural when I was not even a teen yet, probably I did not understand half of them, but I loved Robert Redford. And I didn’t realize just how much until he sadly passed away last month. Since then, Lewisto and I have been watching his movies non-stop as a tribute to the legendary actor, independent cinema champion, and environmental activist that he was.
Naturally, I was curious what Damian thought about his films — and I had a guess about his favorite… and, of course, I was right!
When I asked him, he responded with a question:
“Yours?”
“Three Days of the Condor.”
“That would be my second. The first would be Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
“I knew it! I even told the girls that I thought your favorite would be Butch Cassidy. But you know what? Even you can’t be as cool as Robert Redford running through the streets of NYC in his tailored jacket in Three Days of the Condor.”
“Nobody can be as cool as Robert Redford.”
How amazing that Damian even had the chance to work with him in An Unfinished Life. He shares that Redford was guarded, not easy to get to know, and adds:
“I think it showed in his acting too.”
At the end of the day, who can say I talked to Damian Lewis about the legendary Robert Redford on the stage of the legendary Dublin venue Whelan’s?
Me!
I’m this rare kind of fan — I’m a bit too curious about the man’s brain: what he thinks, what he likes, and what he absolutely doesn’t.
So I had to ask this crucial question when he stopped by our dinner table at Dolan’s — and let me tell you, Irish venues are tiny, intimate, and delightfully informal, so you literally eat in the same space as the band.
“Favorite vegetable?”
“I love some sautéed, buttered, caramelized carrots,” he said.
“And any vegetable you can’t eat?”
He pauses, makes a face, and says: “Lady fingers.”
“What’s that?”
“Okra.”
Oh my God, Damian, okra is my favorite (along with eggplant)! But hey… nobody’s perfect! And perfect or not, that’s a wrap, ladies and gentlemen — gigs number 14, 15, and 16 with Damian, and I’m still not tired of it!
Looking back, Ireland showed exactly why these intimate gigs are so special. Damian is a natural storyteller, the band is superb, and the audience is never simply watching from a distance. The jokes, conversations and unexpected moments all become part of the evening. No two shows are ever quite the same.
And now we get to do it all again—this time with Sweet Chaos fully out in the world. I hope this trip back to Ireland gives anyone still deciding a little push—and that I meet even more of you on the road in October.
Come for the songs. Come for the stories. Come for the laughter and the beautiful unpredictability of live music. Just keep your significant other away from the stage
Find your nearest Sweet Chaos show and buy tickets here.
See you somewhere on the road!
