Summer Festival Season is here!

Now that Memorial Day 2006 has past us by, we can officially greet the unofficial start of summer! Summer means plenty of Irish festivals to keep us busy (and plenty of corn dogs and funnel cakes to fill our stomachs). Come out and see us at a festival; you won't be disappointed.

The calendar has been updated!

Yeah, I know... I'm a giant slacker. The St. Patrick's Month bug hit pretty hard this year, and my desire to do web page maintenance outside of the time I was playing wasn't very high. When I went to check the web page today and realized that there were absolutely no gigs listed on it, I didn't want people to think the band had broken up. So now the page has the most current information available! Fado is the next gig on April 8th. Don't miss it!

In other news, we did several more performance with the McNulty School of Irish Dance in Jefferson, Menomonie, and Stoughton. The performance in Menomonie was held in a really neat old renovated theatre (built circa 1890). Davey imagined that Lincoln was shot in a theatre that looked very much like this one. The performance in Stoughton was in a beautiful opera house and was also quite enjoyable. Alas, no pictures, as I forgot the camera.

We spent St. Patrick's Day at Mickey Finn's Microbrewery in Libertyville. The place was packed, and we really got the crowd into us. It's always very satisfying when that happens, (even if the majority of the crowd is drunk).

Anyways, we'll try to keep you a bit more updated as spring and festival season kicks into full gear. We're playing at a great lineup of festivals this year, including Donnybrook in the Park in Hanover, the Saline Celtic Fest, and a repeat performance at the Kalamazoo Irish Fest. Stay tuned!

Celebrating the New Year

We spent New Year's Eve at Moher in Chicago's Edgebrook neighborhood. It was a laid-back but enjoyable evening. Practically every member of the band had friends come out to see us, and several of them got up and made some music with us. Andy's friends Andi and Al came and did a couple of numbers on their own, Andi sang with Liz on a song. Dan came up and did his usual James Connelly poem / song, and Al played guitar to a few tune sets. Meg and a few of our friends also came out to hang out. Great craic, all around.


The whole band. Andy is doing something wacky.


Andi and Al.


Andy, Andi, and Al. Got that straight?

Site Improvements

We've updated the web page to look more like the blog. Additionally, there were some rendering problems with FireFox browsers which are now fixed. I may be doing some tweaking over the next few weeks, but hopefully this is pretty stable.

Don't forget to come to Moher on New Year's Eve. We'll be there!

No Ballydoyle tonight

In case you were wondering, we are not playing at Ballydoyle tonight. Sorry for not getting that updated sooner on the web. I will go yell at myself now...

Live at T.J. Maloney's Pub

So we had our first gig at T.J. Maloney's Authentic Irish Pub in Merrillville last night. I've always wondered what exactly makes an Irish pub "authentic," especially the ones that make the claim in their title. So I've put a lot of thought into this and have come up with the stunning conclusion that it's impossible for a pub to be truly an authentic Irish pub unless it is actually a pub in Ireland. Of course, applying this conclusion to music, this means that Donnybrook is not an authentic Irish band, since none of us live or have ever lived in Ireland. So last night's fun was inauthentic Irish music in an inauthentic bar. Who could ask for anything more?

Despite the inauthenticity on both sides of the equation, T.J. Maloney's does a fine job in getting the feel of an Irish pub. The decorations are excellent, wood covers the establishment, the staff is friendly, and patrons seem to appreciate a good pint and good music. We like to think that we added quite a bit to the atmosphere, despite a somewhat rocky start. We had some trouble with the house sound equipment (it's always difficult in a place you've never played before) and as a result had to play our first set without monitors. That was clearly a mistake as we soon learned it was nearly impossible to hear each other. We reverted to our own sound system for the rest of the evening and sounded so much better. Despite the somewhat rocky debut, we enjoyed playing there and hope that they have us back soon!

My friend Michelle and her boyfriend Bob came out to see us play, and they were gracious enough to take some pictures.


The whole lot of us from the front. Liz is in the back there mucking about with something.


Me peeking my furry little head out from behind the mixing console. Did you notice that I now sport a full beard?

Ballydoyle moved up one week

We're playing at Ballydoyle on October 21st (this Friday) instead of October 28th. I realize that the calendar says something different, and I will work on getting that fixed.

What a Night at Fado

So we played at Fado this past weekend. My aunt and uncle from Austin were visiting Chicago to see one of their friends run in the marathon on Sunday, so they stopped by the pub to see us play. It started off as a fairly typical night, with a good, attentive crowd that seemed to enjoy us sincerely. After the second set, which ended around midnight, the pub really emptied out. My relatives headed back to their hotel, things quieted down, and we thought that it would be an easy, quiet, possibly shorter last set.

Well, our good friend Declan came in at some point. He didn't bring his accordion, but he did bring a lot of friends and enthusiasm. When we started up our final set, it was as if people came out of the wood work. Everyone lost their inhibition to dance, and the floor became packed! Men were dancing around in big groups circles with arms linked, and some were swinging each other around in head locks. We even had a fellow dancing very wildly with one of his friends while holding a tray of about 10 shots in the other. We honestly thought that the shots would come careening into us, but fortunately he was relieved of the tray before long.

When we stopped, everyone shouted for more. So the frenzy continued for another 20 minutes of solid tunes. Andy and I found ourselves alternating on the piano while the other carried the tune. This is a good way to go if you're in it for the long haul. Andy's take on situations like this one is to play as long as you can so that you outlast the dancing masses. It's sort of a healthy competition, really, and I think we won.

As we were tearing down and carrying equipment out the door, I noticed three separate areas of broken glass. They weren't just a case of your average broken pint glass, either. The glass was practically pulverized. I have to admit, I've never seen a night at Fado quite as wild as this one.

Read Andy's take on the gig.