Nutty Irishmen, Indeed

Seanchai & the Unity Squad/Rogue's March/The Ruffians/Black 47//The Nutty Irishman//10/1/05

I hate holidays started by corporations for the sole purpose of commercialism, like Valentine's Day. So you can only imagine how I feel about this newest of holidays, Halfway to St. Patrick's Day. So far, there have been 3 separate dates for it this year--and the attendant concerts. One on 9/16, 9/17, and this one, 10/1. Celebrate Halfway but drink responsibly all night long! read the Guinness ad @ Rocky's. Not only did Guinness sponsor the Green 17 Tour "17 cities celebrating the revelry of St. Patrick's Day" (starring Flogging Molly) in March, now there's a Halfway to Green 17 tourlet, starring Flogging Molly.

I know I said I was never going to shows like this again and you can only imagine how much I wanna spend my Saturday at a bar called The Nutty Irishman on Bayshore, Lawn Guyland for Halfway to St. Patrick's Day. The bar's schedule, with its ubiquitous leprechaun mascot, is chock full of stupid tribute bands and beer pong. They've probably never had real music out there. And there's a clock counting down days and hours to St. Pat's. I was thinking that if people go to Halfway events, that's what makes it stay. It's just so much leftover craic. (Apologies to Leftover Crack.) But it's also a benefit for the Suffolk County Firefighters Emerald Society and as Frank pointed out during one of my many protestations, "These are your bands." (Well, most of 'em.) When I saw the lineup I figured Leo The Firefighter is the one to thank for that. Still, please refer to the part about the Halfway angle and "Coney Island, Baby." But I guess I doth protest too much because I felt my arm being twisted. 'Course it's the one that's already been dislocated so it didn't have far to go. 'Course after agreeing do I get word that there's a lot of good shit in the city that night. Then again, at least now I'm off the hook for choosing one and wondering what I'm missing with the other shows, and feeling guilty for missing them.

At least I wised up this time. I did not bring a camera. I was thinking bring it but don't use it, but you know me; I would. And it may be Halfway to St. Patrick's Day but I don't even have the pix back from the real St. Pat's. Seanchai's on at 12:30 in the afternoon and that's another reason for going. They need us. I wish I could say that that's the earliest in the day that I've ever seen them but I've seen 'em at 2AM @ the Blackthorne; I kinda count that as the previous night. It was a gorgeous day out and thanks to Frank being 20 minutes late to pick me up, I got to enjoy some of it. We drove off, listening to Neil Young falling off the edge of the earth and seeing the bluebird and wondering if she's going to carry him home. We had to pull over at Exit 39 because the car was overheating. He popped the hood and smoke was coming out. Uhm, that can't be good. He didn't have anti-freeze and that supposedly was a problem. I don't know why, since it wasn't cold out and I don't know how anti-freeze could've helped.

I was calm about it and that worried me, though I couldn't decide what I wanted to happen more: we get towed back to Queens and I go back to sleep, we make it to the show, or I die in a car explosion. (Not that I wanted to die, it's just, well, you know what I mean.) Frank gets a shirt out of the trunk and starts wiping at stuff under the hood and then sludge spouts out. I jump out of the car in case it blows up. Then I realize that standing at the side of the road isn't going to help me escape the fireball that the car may become. A schoolbus with a sign taped in the window goes by. The sign says 47. This is a sign, except I don't know if it's good or a bad. I tell myself to go back to the car and get the cellphone, in case the car blows up. This way I can call for help. But the car may blow up. But in case we need to call someone.... I get the phone and Frank says something about if we only had bottled water. I have a smidge of soda left. Maybe we could use that to cool down the overheating car parts? We limp into the Hess station at Exit 40 and while Frank goes to buy anti-freeze, I start crying. We get a little lost and figure Chris is first waking up and thinking he has to be somewhere. And if we got lost Chris must've, also. We get in and Seanchai has already started.

Seanchai: 1, Us: how many years have we been traveling to see them? Yeah, they finally beat us to their own gig. The place is a sprawling club and the stage is in front of a window. With the curtains open and dried tears on my contacts they were in a shadow. Rachel didn't have the console. Chris said he knew everyone was interested in the big game and would keep us updated throughout the set. Mets: 2, Rockies: 1. At least there was a buffet. Terry asked me what made the corned beef & cabbage Irish and not Jewish. So I explained to the Irish hip-hop band's Polish drummer that the food's Irish because we're in an Irish club and if it were Jewish, the cabbage would be in cole slaw.

Joe said that the new album is due out in January but didn't say what year. Every year at the Rock Revue he'd say the new Rogue's March album is out in the fall and at gigs toward the end of the year he'd say it'll be out for St. Pat's. "It's a little known fact that it's a little known fact that I'm here to inform you--" That this is the to Christmas that we've been all year so you're going to do "Amsterdam Mistress"? No, it's that Johnny Cash was born up the block and they did "Folsom Prison." But when they did "Amsterdam Mistress" he said that this is the closest we've been to Xmas and St. Pat's. And that he hopes West Ham beats the Yankees.

Dan was kinda back in the Ruffians, not on bass but on backup vocals. In addition to the new bass player there was a guy on violin and Joe M. was on pipes. I'm not a big fan of superfluous band members and I know they're an Irish rock band, but they don't need 7 members. They encouraged us to drink a lot, dance a lot, and take our clothes off. Well, 2 outta 3 ain't bad. In the middle of a waltz Dan's pants end up around his ankles. He pointed out that it was easier when he was on bass because the bass covered everything. They said that the raffle was for Dan's knickers but with him in it. Dammit! Oh, well. It's for a good cause. The "show us your tits" line in "Wild Rover" is now "rise up your shirts." Sean: So, what did you think? Me: Your set's so much better when my face isn't all bloody. Him: Oh, God, that was the worst. That just did it for me. I felt so bad. You probably couldn't tell. (I know now that it was wrong to stay but I would've felt worse if I missed the show on top of what happened.) Me: It's a great line-up. Him: Yeah, with the violin. (Actually, I meant the whole bill but I just agreed with him anyway.)

Some drunk guy started yelling, "Black 47's gonna tear this place up!" all through the stepdancers' performance. ("Those in the front need to stand back because they may kick you!" chirped the instructor.) I forgot his name but he was at Coney Island last year. He kept grabbing me and kissing me. I wanted to kick his ass but what was the point, he was drunk. "I saw Black 47 at the Knitting Factory and they tore the place up!" I told him I went to the early show. He said he was at both. Oh. "Larry!" "Black 47's gonna tear this place up!" He stumbled and nearly knocked me over, taking out my pint in the process. "I see you on the Internet." Huh? "There's pictures from shows and there you are!" (Phew. Had me worried there for a sec. Wait a minute.) I figured I should hit the can ahead of time (where there's a flyer for 2 stars from The Real World and Road Rules for beer pong being filmed for Spike TV). Back outside, someone said, "He's knocked over 3 people's drinks already."

Seeing Black 47 on a stage in a physical venue and with an enthusiastic (read: drunk) crowd was better than the Coney Island show, though the band was pretty much nailed to the floor. I don't know why I never noticed that before. The set felt like it was missing a song or 2; I could've sworn they always did 14-15 songs plus the encores. This time there were 12. I was thinking that if I noticed that and it's that obvious, then it's probably true. Whaddaya know, an old setlist up in the cube has 15 songs. (Well, 14 but "3 Birds" is always followed by "Desperate.") Gail was giving out stickers with a shamrock and leprechaun that said "I Got Sham-rocked At The Nutty Irishman." Some people had beads. Sean and Dan joined them for "Funky Ceili" and I was so tempted to get onstage with them. It was killing me. And then Larry called Hurley onstage for "Gloria/I Fought The Law." I don't bring my camera and this happens. Eh, so what. Though I wanted to get onstage and jump off. But I figured P2 would have me over his shoulder and out the door in a second. I'd only do that stuff with the Spunk Lads. Much to their dismay. And it would probably start everyone else doing it. And I know the band wouldn't want me to do it so I didn't. The same old all around but for a good cause.

We got back at 9:15 and I figured it would be too late to go to Freddy's. Besides, there's supposedly 3 new Seanchai songs. I left at 10 and got to 51/Lex to find out that late nights and weekend there's no downtown 6 @ 51/Lex. So.... Oh, right. It's Saturday. So I had to go up to 59th and then to the downtown 4/5 where the 6 was stopping. Time was ticking and the 4 came pretty quick and I got on, assuming it was going local to make up for the lack of 6 and relieved that the train came quick and it was express. So at 14th I had to go back uptown. One step forward and two steps back. But I got there just in time. I realized that the 3 songs could've been done only in rehearsal. But they did "Who Stole Ya Soul?" and I should've known that a new Seanchai song could be an old one, updated. Though after "Irish Catholic Bhoy" they did "Viva Che" (Chris: Gracias! Somos Seanchai y.... la Squad Unidad!) and there was an extended remix of "Bogside Girl." Well, not really a remix since it sounds the same but it ended in an instro verse. Whatta you know, 3 new songs after all.

Yeah, I don't think Blogger posts are supposed to be this long but fuck it. I only have one regular reader.