This is not a confession. Really.
So it’s well-known that every rock snob secretly enjoys at least one non-rock genre, preferably something cheesy and embarrassing that his/her parents listen to. In my case, though, I don’t think it’s too bad — I just really, really like Irish music. I’m not talking about the Dropkick Murphies here (although I do like “Shippin’ off to Boston” an awful lot), I’m talking about old dudes with lilting accents singing about Danny Boy and whatnot. Yes, I am serious. I’m talking about this:
So yeah, I’m real hip, right? You’re going to stop taking my recommendations now? Hear me out, though. These bands, the ones who play at places like Shenanigans, Off The Boat and Malone and the Lads and the rest, they’re talented musicians as well as being oral historians. These people are passing along their families’ folklore, the traditions of generations of guys with fiddles and drums and flutes and what-have-you. You also have to look at the level of rhythmic complexity, which is always sometimes I look at in a band — it’s why I love breakcore, but it’s also why I love the Rankin Family. The bodhran, the drum used in Irish music, allows for some really virtuosic technique, involving rapidly alternating between hitting the drum head and it’s wooden frame. I actually have a bodhran, although I never got good at playing it.
So yeah, I am not embarrassed to recommend that you all go to Shenanigans and listen to music performed by people who could have voted for Eisenhower. They’re keeping traditions and techniques alive that haven’t been taken over by commercial interests or assimilated into bland “mainstream” music like so many of our folk traditions have. So come on, give Malone and the Lads a try, this summer at Shenanigans or at any of their OC venues. And if you have a few pints and find yourself singing along to “Danny Boy,” well, I promise I won’t tell the guys at the record store.