The Academy

Went there on Wednesday to see Marina and the Diamonds. I am not a big fan, at least until I saw this girl live. I felt in love with her songs! The venue was wisely organised, the room was small, so you’d easily see the stage from every angle. Also, the balcony was quite capacious. The prices were sky high, I left two jackets in the clock room and I been charged 4 euros for the pleasure of not carrying it around. Its a ver good place for gigs, I will defenetly comeback for more.

Went to it one night for shits and giggles the nightclub is horrible the floors are dirty and the acts were boring the atmosphere was strange fights could breakout in seconds horrible place truly.

Went to see King Kong Company last week in the Academy (excellent by the way, if you ever get a chance to see em!). I hadn’t been here since the days it was Spirit Nightclub, a long time ago. I hadn’t realised what a really great venue this is. I like a small music venue that still has the feel of a bigger one. It’s got an intimate feel, but still great viewing from all angles, especially if you stand up on the balcony looking down.
One thing I did not realise til I went upstairs — there are two bars people! One downstairs which was craaaazy packed, and one upstairs which had nearly no one at it. Hmm maybe I shouldn’t be telling more people…
One thing that let it down was the toilets — they are tiny and there were queues all the way down the skinny little hallway. Not great.
Besides that though, sound enough staff, and nice vibe. I’ll defo be back.

I personally found this venue difficult to find the first time I was here as nobody knows where it is so you can’t ask for directions! But it’s a good venue, nice staff and the size is decent. Probably my favourite Dublin venue anyway

The Academy is a decent venue for gigs, not too big not too small but I wouldn’t even consider the nightclub part of it. Just not for me.
The door staff is always friendly and they have recently added a smoking area to the upstairs section. The frustrating thing though is their bar staff! They are so slow, you could re-​heel their shoes whilst they are walking.
We got upstairs to the bar 10 to 9pm with the main act scheduled to play at 9pm. It was 9.15pm when we finally got served! We completely missed the first 2 songs, not cool if it’s only a 70minute set.
Yes, it was busy just before the band was due to start but the 2 staff was just slow, every movement was slow, completely avoiding eye contact with everyone waiting to be served. Very disappointing!

Awesome gig venue !!! esp for cosy intimate gigs… very poor for club nights !!! — depenidng whats on… they used to have an indie night on saturdays which was ok ! now they have a dance/​house music night etc. so it chops and changes all the time hard to write a review its more of whatever cup of tea you fancy. when the night changes the music and crowd and such change with it ! mainly on sat nights anyway …

Ótima casa de shows com ambiente aconchegante! Programação de alto nível, estrutura de som e luz de primeira e funcionários atenciosos.

I went to a few college events here and found this club to be pretty small but good. The music is the usual chart stuff, but they have a nice seating area. The dance floor is not that big though, but the stage is good and we’ve had a good number of live events here.
The toilets are ok, the bar staff were quick to serve drinks and the music was good. Overall, a decent enough club but not my top pick.

Sigh. I have come to realize there is nothing sadder than watching old men in mosh pits trying to relive their lost punk rock roots. However, if it has come to this, it must mean the music is so loud it has caused brain damage and the vibe is so incredible they may actually believe themselves to be 14 again.
The Academy seems to be the perfect prescription for this. I have to admit, I have only been there once, and it was for the same reason as the 40 year old moshing men, to see one of my all time favorite bands. The music was so loud I swear I have permanent hearing damage, which is always how one should feel after a punk rock show. It is small enough to get see the band from pretty much anywhere in the club, which is nice.
The bathrooms are nicer than almost any bathrooms I have used during my misspent youth, which as someone older than 24 is nice.
I will definitely go back for more eardrum rupturing fun. Next time however, I will stay away from the guys recapturing their hoodlum days.

I’ve been here a couple of times and still have no idea where the bouncy house goes or what days it is up… regardless of if it is there, this club is a lot of fun and has great music.
I think the price to get in varies by night and time, but drinks are always pretty cheap when compared to other clubs.

The Acadamy serves its purpose as well as can be expected as a music venue.
The cloakroom is downstairs, but we needed to ask as there didn’t seem to be any obvious signs, but we may have missed them.
The toilets were fine, all seats appeared to be in place (it seems to be a thing with music venues that there is at least one toilet with no seat in the ladies) and were fully stock with paper (hurrah). But there was the customary blocked toilet (another thing I find with music venues…) you guessed it, I’m not a regular night club or gig goer.
The bar staff were effecient, but it wasn’t a packed gig. We were drinking cider and found that the cider deteriorated after a barrel change (my partner was at the bar ordering the second round when the barrel was changed), but they can’t do anything about a bad barrel.

So this is where the cool kids hang out nowadays. I remember when it was spirit, hell I remember when it was hotpress HQ… which all points out that I’m too old to go here… and that’s probably right!
My time at the academy was really to see a friend’s gig, however a last minute line-​up shuffle and the fact that the venue want all bands out by 10 means that I missed half of my mate’s gig despite being early. This can’t have been helped by the confusion I experienced at the door about whether or not I was going to the boxing — and confusion that such a venue had boxing, and whether one of the bands was called boxing!
But less about that and more about the venue — we were downstairs in what must be Academy 2 if all the signs are anything to go by. The bar was shit. I apparently cleared them out of bulmers by having one small bottle. The barman seemed mostly interested in pointing out problems. «Do you want ice? we don’t have ice» etc. A friend trekked to the bar upstairs to bring me back a pint and it tasted fairly horrible. Toilets, while not awful, certainly didn’t meet the golden toilet brush standard. When you flush it makes a noise like a departing sea-​liner — somewhat alarming!
All in all I think the cool kids can keep this place!

I’ve been to a number of gigs at this venue now, both downstairs and upstairs in the «vip» area (right!!) … overall its nice, the only issue is the complete lack of places to park your bum if you need to! … theres a good sound system and the place is really perfect to get up close and personal with up and coming bands. Thumbs up!

The Academy is the one venue when it comes to seeing acts that are not yet ready for the O2, so you’ll find some fairly big names playing on one of the two floors. Thrown in is a smaller bar/​club for some socialising in between shows. I do not like the setting (and the fact that pint prizes vary depending on artists and pre-​sales), but with the closure of the Ambassador all rock bands that I like have stop over here when visiting Dublin. The Academy also hosts the monthly «First Friday”-event of Phantom 105.2.

Recently went to the Bootleg Beatles at this venue. The venue itself is a pretty decent place to see a band. I stood behind the sounddesk and has a good view of the band, and not far from the bar. Bar prices were reasonable as venues go. The negative part of the experience was gaining entry. My friend and I did not have tickets and were not surprised to have to join a long queue. What I did not expect was it didn’t matter whether you had a ticket or not, you still had to queue. I thought this to be very messy and resulted in our standing in the freezing cold for nearly an hour. I’m sure the management could come up with a better system.
Still, a nice, intimate venue, the band were great too.

If you like the game Pac Man, Academy 2 is the place for you.
It’s a bunch of hipsters walking around in the dark, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.
If the music doesn’t make you crazy it makes for great social observation.
There was Lonely Drunk Guy who kept trying to bum fags from my friends. I told him, «You’re drunk. Go away.» But once LDG latches on he will find you even in the ladies bathroom.
Yes, he went there.
It got good when Tripped Out Girl asked me if I knew where she could get pills. Being decent and truthful I told her no, but I was tempted to send her in the direction of LDG. If they met, LDG probably would have left me alone. But, LDG and TOG could have hooked-​up and reproduced, shattering the foundation of society. As I was feeling generous, this didn’t happen and you can thank me for that.
When Moby Wanna-​Be asked my friend if she knew where he could score some E I knew it was time to hit the road.
Also, don’t come here if you are looking to hook up, or maybe if you are. The lines of sexuality are blurred like a Monet painting. I was sitting at a booth with two girls who looked like they were really into one another, then bam. One of the girls got up and started dancing/​practically having sex with nerdy-​overweight-​I-​wear-​glasses-​and-​watch-​p0rn-​in-​my-​mums-​basement guy.
It was probably the pills on her part, but I thought she was doing pretty good with her girlfriend.
This place gets two stars because we got in free on a Saturday night, it’s normally 8 euro. And, the drinks were all 3 euro. Pretty decent. Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll be back, especially if I have to pay.

Academy two is like the Academy’s cooler, more rebellious little sister. It’s a tiny little place with a tiny little bar and a really low ceiling. Said ceiling is held up by twelve pillars with the stations of the cross on said pillars, which is weird, but is a throwback to when The Academy was known as Spirit and House music was pumped through the little sweatbox that is now Academy 2. Nowadays you’re more likely to see indie and up-​and-​coming acts in Academy 2.
I went to see Manchester Orchestra here a few weeks back and although the crowd wasn’t that into it, the gig and the venue were great. You’d want to try and get to the front though because it is very hard to see stuff on stage from the back.
Sucks to be short.

Yeah so, The Academy. When did that all happen, eh?
The Academy on Middle Abbey St used to be renowned knack-​box Spirit, which specialised in the bad trance so beloved of Dublin’s soccer jersey-​with-​Fred Perry masses.
Then, pretty much overnight, it had transformed itself into into a hip indie club. And they have some pretty good acts — Eagles of Death Metal are playing on the 25^th of next month.
I had cause to go to a sort of Spirit revival at the The Academy recently. After paying € 10, my companion and I were greeted with a scene very much reminiscent of Spirit: half empty dancefloors, with howyas occupying the half that was full. We stayed two minutes, and then it was off to the Twisted Pepper with us.
So, Spirit is not that terribly missed.
One of the things that goes against The Academy as a live music venue, though, is that the main room is vast. Not in terms of square feet, but in cubic feet, if you get my drift.
I’ll elaborate. The dancefloor of the main room is a nice big size, but the ceiling is really high, so the room seems absolutely cavernous. If a band is playing and the room is in any way empty, even if it is over half-​filled, it can still seem very empty and echo-​y.
It’s still fairly good though, definitely worth a night out there.
If you do go there, stick to the main floor. Upstairs is alright in that it has a bar and a few booths, but nothing really of note. Not up to much in «VIP Area» terms. And downstairs, when it is open (is it ever open?) — I wouldn’t really rate, either. So yeah, stick to the main room.
One thing I like about The Academy though, is that, as a non-​smoker, the smoking area (or lack there of) is singularly unappealing, so your smoker friends won’t have much of an impetus to stand out there all night missing all the good songs. Who’d want to stand out on Abbey St (and you’re on the street itself so you can’t bring your drink out) and have all the beggars and derelicts buzzing around you? So if you are a chain-​smoker, perhaps The Academy is not for you.
Otherwise, it’s pretty decent.

Impressive, intimate concert venue in the centre of Dublin 1. The Academy’s main venue can accommodate up to 650 people over two levels — downstairs is for the plebs and upstairs for VIPs — what I wouldn’t do to be up there with the beautiful people…
As far as I’m concerned, The Academy is the perfect sized venue to catch a gig by a band of relatively mid-​range fame. Possibly your new fave band that no one else has discovered yet, or a golden oldie that has resurfaced one too many times for most of its die-​hard fans. It ain’t no Croker, that’s for sure, and there’d be a queue the length of Ireland and deathly jostling matches if a band of the likes of U2 were to attempt to play a date there.
A wide range of bands finds its way to the Academy’s main stage, including The Cribs, Amanda Palmer, Asher Roth and Beatles tribute bands.
While attending a gig at this venue watch out for psycho crazy women who will threaten to batter you if you accidentally trip them over with your mad dancing style, and also for ‘close dancers’ — you know, the ones who decide that your dancing space is their dancing space… ewww!

Formerly known as Spirit, The Academy is one of Dublin’s best dancing spots with four floors of nightclub, the music tends to be electronic, dancefloor euphoria etc. Known acts like Mika, Lilly Allen have played the Academy as well as other well-​known celebritys. The club does have a reputation for drugs unfortunately so caution has to be exercised when leaving the club in the early hours and minding your drinks. However don’t let this spoil a good night out as this applies to everywhere realistically.