Celebrating St. Patty on the Ides of March
It is never too early to start drinking. That seems a good mantra to apply to any day, but, in addition, to starting to celebrate St. Patty’s Day. While two days off, it didn’t keep some of our best Celtic bands from putting together a show over at the Yucca Tap Room. I can say it was a lot of fun, and a little confusing to start off.
The band that had me scratching my head a little was the Rugged Rogues. These guys certainly dressed the part with kilts and attire. They opened up with normal Celtic music, but then it went in a direction I didn’t expect. They did mostly covers of popular songs like “Ball and Chain” from Social D, but with the Celtic sound to it. I’m not sure if covers are their normal music or not in some searching around for information on them. I can certainly say a lot of people were surprised by what was heard.
Following them was the band I most know Lars for, and that’s the Bloody Rogue Bastards. They are more of a mix of bluegrass with celtic punk. This includes Ray on the standup bass and Cecilia on cello. It’s a great formula that is entertaining to watch. Like the Rumjacks a couple nights ago, they had a song that brought some ska into it too. In my follow up time seeing them, they kept up the stuff I enjoyed from the first time I saw them at the Hammy Awards. Bloody Rogue Bastards got the crowd going too.
Up third was one of the best Celtic Punk bands in the valley, Whiskey and the Barrels. If Cockswain I compare to Flogging Molly, then these guys are the Dropkick Murphys of the scene. That’s not to mention they did a cover of “I’m Shipping up to Boston.” Plus, that is not even the cover that stuck with me into this morning. That would be the cover of Sham 69’s “If the Kids Are United” near the end of the set. Easily the most energized set of the night came from Kendric and the entire group.
Last up was one of the most known folk punks in the scene, Andy Warpigs. Every show can have a different set of musician or musicians accompanying Andy, and tonight he brought a drummer. One cool thing we got out of the set was some new songs he is working on coming out this year. Plus our normal staples of songs and entertaining banter. I did enjoy the kicking of the punk rock end kicking down the cymbals and drummer collapsing on the stage. The night made for a fun night of music and a good way to start off a couple days of music for me.
