Athlone's Renegades of Funk set for hometown gig on Saturday

The Athlone band Renegades of Funk, which plays tribute to the music of high-energy American rockers Rage Against The Machine, will be playing a hometown concert at The Venue on Church Street this Saturday night (October 28).

The band will be supported by Dublin's Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute act The Red Hot Copy Peppers, while Baylin-based street artist Chris Flicker will also be DJing on the night.

Renegades of Funk consists of locals David 'Dobsy' O'Brien (vocals), Conan Grehan (drums), Brian Farrell (bass) and Davey Curley (guitar).

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent, David said the band started out about two decades ago.

"We've had a couple of changes in between, but we went back to the same four (members) in the end," he said.

Rage Against The Machine, fronted by vocalist and lyricist Zack de la Rocha, was announced as an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.

"The band mixed hip-hop, punk, metal, funk, and rock in an entirely new way," said the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when making the announcement.

"They took aim at oppressive systems of power – cultural, political, and economic – and set a new standard for how to ignite a revolution through the power of music."

When asked why Rage Against The Machine had been chosen as the focus of Renegades of Funk, David replied: "It's really just because of our love of the music.

"I've been in different cover bands and original bands over the years. Myself and Davey Curley were always good friends and we bonded over the Rage Against The Machine stuff.

"We did a gig in the college with it about twenty years ago and it just kind of snowballed from there. It was more of a hobby than anything. We had been doing maybe two or three gigs a year.

"But in the last year we decided we would take it out of town and go around the country as much as we could with it. We've played in Mullingar, Dundalk, Drogheda and places like that.

"As far as tribute bands go, ours is niche enough. Rage Against The Machine mightn't be as popular as Queen or Guns'n'Roses, but anywhere that we've played it's gone down really well. We've gotten great reactions.

"But there's no gig like a hometown gig. It's always a great night when we play Athlone and anyone who sees us here tends to come back and see us again."

* Doors will open for Saturday's gig in The Venue at 8pm. Between the two bands and the DJ, the show will continue until 2am. Tickets are priced €18 and can be booked on the Eventbrite website here.