Let's Get This Party Started Right!

The 6th (or 7th) Annual Unrepentant Gathering//Rocky Sullivan's//3/16/06
Eire Og, Seanchai and the Unity Squad

They made a weekend of it, leading up to their opening stint for the Pogues, but everyone knows that the night to see Seanchai is 3/16. Re: the Pogues, Chris says they have potential and he predicts big things for them. And they did Straight To Hell, "for the member of the Pogues who won't be there." They haven't held an Unrepentant Gathering @ Rocky's since 2003, so I skipped Seanchai the week before in order to psych up for this one. I also didn't realize they were numbering 'em, and both #s were mentioned. Heard it was packed the Saturday before and I was told, "With all due respect, when it comes to followers of Seanchai you are an old woman. You don't fit in there." Please. With all due respect, I never fit in there.

I wanted to get there late enough that the show would've at least started by the time I got there but early enough that it wouldn't be packed. Oreo was letting me comb him, but at the 2nd hiss I knew when I was beaten. So I stayed to hear Hockey Monkey on The Loop and then I left. I guess I was more wound up for it than I thought, because my stomach was bothering me and I almost got off the train @ Woodhaven to go back. But at Woodhaven, a woman stood in the doorway and said, "Police! Get off the train!"

All of us? Now what?

But the woman in the 2-seater facing the door, across from me, says, "Me?"

"Yes, you," the undercover officer answers.

What?!

"You've got to be kidding me. What did I do?"

"Get off the train, ma'am, and I'll tell you."

On the platform is another undercover guy, a ticket pad in his hand. The maintanence crew continued changing the lights in the fixtures and didn't even turn around. All the while the woman in question kept up her string of disbelieving utterences. What the hell could she have done? "Ma'am, step away from the train and I'll tell you what you did."

I didn't mean to be nosey, but what the hell could this middle-age woman, who probably just got off work @ 8:30 at nite and was sitting there blotting her pizza, have done?

"You were taking up 2 seats on the train."

"Oh, I don't believe this. I never heard anything about this...."

OK, that's probably not the way to go since we've all heard about it. If it were me, I'd be cursing my head off. I gotta hand it to her, she seemed to keep her calm as the officer asked her for ID with her DOB on it and the other one prepared to write up the ticket. Thing is, I never saw the cops on the train. They were probably on the next car over, just waiting to bust someone. And I was sitting like that the other day, after I picked up my Voice and couldn't fall asleep on the train. The car wasn't crowded so I spread out and read the paper. And I just happened to be looking down, at my mirror to see how bad my zit was, so I don't know exactly what this woman did, whether it was her bag on the next seat or legs out so that she could blot her pizza or maybe both, because she was just sitting so normally and the car was pretty much empty and if someone came on the train and went in her direction to sit, she would've moved. She didn't look unreasonable.

So before the train left the guy in the 2-seater facing the door to my immediate right puts his leg across the next seat, spreads out the paper, and starts reading. Totally oblivious to the fact that if he'd gotten on the train a stop earlier, he could've been busted. Holy shit. Had the cops turned around instead of writing this woman up, they could've busted 2 people. The guy across from me had his knees miles apart. Then the guy reading the paper grabbed his crotch and laid the paper across his lap and I wondered if he was going to whip it out. Taking up 2 seats is an issue and exposing yourself isn't? And where were the cops busting the seat-hoggers during the strike, when peeps on the LIRR made others stand so their packages and tote bags could sit and were offended if you asked them to move it? By Jackson Heights I was really upset. That was so unfair. They don't go after the homeless, huddled under blankets in the last seat of the E train. Or the bums who stink so bad they clear out half the car. If that's not taking up more than 1 seat, I don't know what is. Of course they don't go after them because they're homeless and can't pay a ticket. On the E train across from me is a guy sitting diagonally, listening to his Pod, clearly taking up more than 1 seat, and a guy in the 2-seater, guitar cases around him and a small suitcase. Pretty much taking up the whole area. Thankfully the 6 was there when I got off the escalator, because if I had to stand around smelling that station I'd literally get sick, not just a figure of speech. After I crossed 28th to get to Rocky's, I heard a man muttering under his breath. I turn around to see this guy pretty much on my heels. All I heard was Goddamn and I don't know if I was making a big deal out of how close he was because I was so upset to begin with or what. I hurried up Lex and he followed. Coincidence?

Of course the bar was packed to the rafters and Heather asked me if I had a ticket. Uhhh. If we needed tix, wouldn't that have been announced? Oh, wait, look who we're talking about, here. It's just that I remember the whole ticket thing from 2003 (Chris: tix onsale starting X day. Me, on X day: I need to buy a ticket. Bartender: yeah, right. Chris, Friday: tix onsale X day. Me, on X day: I need to buy a ticket. Bartender: laughs. Repeat over & over. 'Course now that I think about it, maybe they just didn't want me there) and figured tickets were not going to happen. Ever. If there was somebody following me, this would be the safest place to be. He wouldn't find me in there, even though at that point, parting the ocean of male bodies to even step inside was the last thing I wanted to do. I had to take my coat off in the hallway, where all the moving air was, there was no room to move my arms horizontally and I thought that this was just like Continenthell, except there's no stage diving or crowd surfing. So, acutally, it's a walk in the park. One that I was overdressed for in jeans and a T; sweat was rolling down my face just pushing thru the crowd to get near the stage. I finally got to see Mike rock the stripes and plaid. Kilts were definitely the way to go. He had armloads of beads to give out. "The crass commercialization and Americanization of a holiday," he explains. Yeah, but you bought 'em all! Nobody told you to!

First up was Eire Og, live'n'direct from Glasgow, with what Chuck Eddy so eloquently refers to as "ancient folk ballads about dead soldiers." A night like this is the only time when an acoustic band could ruin your hearing--because the crowd is just that loud. I thought I was loud, but that's because sometimes I'm the only one singing. On Fields of Athenrye, I was positively drowned out. It was the weirdest sensation; it felt like all these voices could levitate me. "Bands like this wonder why they don't get any airplay. It's because their songs are 2 hours long," Bill told me. He overheated, like, an hour B4 Chris started and he asked me to get his bag from under the juke and that's where all the cool air was. He did have the idea of yelling that there was a mouse, but I didn't know if he just wanted to see everybody freak or if he thought they'd leave. 'Cause even if there was a mouse, nobody'd leave.

It was one of the rare occaisions there that you could stand in front of the stage there like at a regular venue and not be a total weirdo. It was also one of those rare occaisions where there were sound problems and Chris just let it roll off his back. 'Course if you don't have anybody doing sound there's really no one to blame. 'Course this happened on Irish Catholic Boy. I was thinking it was just me because when do I ever stand that close to the stage so maybe it does sound different up front, but if you stood in the wrong spot it was hard to hear and if you moved a little, you could hear fine. Like rabbit ears, if you move the wrong floor board the TV goes out. It was a plug that fell out of a monitor and they were good to go by the latest new song (not sure what title they're going with for it). Though it might've been because it was early in the weekend and spirits were still high, Chris let the music do the talking (Wake Up Irishman {they haven't done that one in ages}, Saoirse, 30 Years On, Time To Go {also haven't done in ages}). And even tho I said I wasn't taking many pix that weekend the lighting was terrible and I tried different different flash settings. As always, nobody had a speaking part that nite but we all had singing parts and Celtic anthems made for a nice segue into Enjoy Yourself (It's later than you think). "You're going to be singing a lot this weekend," Chris said, "but remember to enjoy yourself." I thought 50 Pints Of Stout was coming because he kinda segued into it when he announced the Pogues show and they haven't done that one in ages, not to mention 'twas the season, but they didn't. Oh! Almost forgot! It is Wednesday after all, but they did do one of their ancient trad numbers, originally written in the Mother Tongue, and loosely translated, it says If You Wanna Be Hip-Hop (Stop acting like a rockstar). "I won't kid myself, I know a lot of you didn't come here to hear this hip-hop shit...." Uhm, I did. And if it were shit I wouldn't be there.

I got in at about a quarter to 3 and had every intention of taking a shower, but not only did I fall asleep with my contacts in, I fell asleep with my bra on and on top of Oreo's laser pointer. That can't be good for the ole skeleton.

Also, sorry 4 the crappy pix, but they're the most recent ones I have. I've come to realize that even tho Fuji film is cheap, you do get what you pay for. This might be the one instance where not clicking on 'em to enlarge is better. Weird, but I spelled Saoirse correctly right off the bat but I misspelled "occaision." Go fig.
***
So, yeah, I wasn't going to even review the show. But as for the other big musical stuff going on that weekend that I could've covered--Stereolab, That Chick From Rilo Kiley, the start of SXSW, the Arctic Donkeys...if that interests you, go read Brooklynvegan. I assume my readers aren't and don't. That doesn't interest me, either. So we're kinda stuck with each other, aren't we?