I'll start with March 10, which was the Dropkick Murphys concert back home. This was the birthday present for my now ex, so we went to an Irish pub nearby and had some killer food; I had boxty with melt-in-your-mouth steak, and he had reuben mac & cheese which was surprisingly good, probably because I didn't get any sauerkraut in the bites I took. I bought a shirt of course, though I had a hard time choosing because I definitely wanted a tour shirt but they had another one that had "putting the 'fun' in 'dysfunctional' since 1996 (I think that was the year)" on the back which I also wanted, but I stuck with the tour shirt.
The two opening bands were Ramshackle Army (from Australia) and Frank Turner and the Sleepless Souls. I liked both: Ramshackle Army had a great fiddle player that was super animated and really fun to watch, and Frank Turner was really engaged with the audience and even let a lady from the moshpit play the harmonica solo in one of his songs.
Obviously the Dropkick Murphys were awesome. They were awesome last year when we went, and this year I actually knew most of the words (which may or may not have been a good thing considering I can't sing to save my life, but then again it was probably too loud for anyone to hear me anyway). They also did a cover of ACDC's "Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)", which was done very well, and they also did an acoustic set, complete with what Ken Casey referred to as the "goddamn barstools," because every acoustic set needs to be done on barstools. They also did the same thing they did last year with "Kiss Me, I'm Shitfaced," where Ken Casey went out into the moshpit and sang with the crowd. Of course, he told everyone to wait until the chorus to charge him, but at this point everyone was indeed shitfaced so they kinda smushed him right from the start and he's like "You guys do not follow directions well!"
What was also cool (and kinda not at the same time) was in the middle of "Going Out in Style," some guy in the front of the moshpit was having heart trouble, so they stopped the song to make sure he was ok. Supposedly the guy was ok later, and obviously having heart issues is not a good thing, but I thought it was really classy of them to stop and personally make sure the guy was ok.
March 15 was Enter the Haggis, which was awesome aside from the ending (which I already explained). We had to drive an hour to get there, and it was at this bar/restauranty type place so it was a quaint little venue. The only issue there was the fact that supposedly it was a 21+ event without parents even though the site said all ages but the manager let us slide because we had already bought tickets, so he just gave us green wristbands in case we tried to buy alcohol or something.
I kinda ran into the same problem with this concert that I did with the Dropkick Murphys last year in the sense that I knew some of the songs but not generally the ones they played, so I got to sing along with a few and stand there awkwardly for the rest. The venue had us in a little huddle-type thing, and when the band took a drink break, they walked through us and talked to people, which was cool. (At one point, I had the opportunity to grab the bassist's ass but I didn't because I am a reasonable person. Most of the time, anyway.) Overall it was really cool and I'd definitely see them again.
Finally, Wednesday was Gaelic Storm back here, not at school but in town. I had never been in the venue, but supposedly they had recently renovated the theater and it looked really nice. I went with my honors big (she also took me to the place with the pizza elevator), and it was a blast. I had only listened to one of their albums in full but I knew other songs from video-binging on YouTube over break. The band was also super interactive with the crowd; we had to dance and clap and sing, and one guy threw his hat on stage not once but twice and the lead singer picked it up both times, wore it for a few songs and gave it back. They were all really animated (especially the drummer on the ukelele, good god I thought he was going to break it), and it was a fantastic concert.
The pièce de résistance, however, was the band coming out into the lobby after for autographs and pictures. I was actually pretty surprised how quickly the line went, but I didn't have anything for them to sign so I was a badass and got my arm signed because I am just that cool.
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| From left to right: Peter Purvis (pipes), Ryan Lacey (drums), Patrick Murphy (accordion and vocals), Jessie Burns (fiddle) and Steve Twigger (guitar and vocals). |
It was all sorts of awesome, and I left it there until Saturday morning. I only scrubbed it off because it was starting to fade out (except for Peter's, maybe he just had a really good Sharpie or something).
So basically it was all sorts of Celtic awesomeness and a lot of fun. I would so do it again. Minus the dumping.
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