Christmas in July

Since last Friday, I have been like a kid waiting for Christmas!  The Dropkick Murphys announced their Shamrock Roll ‘N Roll Fest in which The Mahones and Street Dogs are going to be playing.  Ever since I heard The Mahones were going to be playing in the States, I have been anxious to find out when and where.  So when DKM posted the news of The Mahones playing with them, I got excited and quickly told my wonderful wife (who is my enabler with my musical addiction), and when I told her the closest venue was in Columbus, OH (416 miles away) she did not shoot me down.

The concert is going to be on a Tuesday, so the first thing I had to do in order to make this dream a reality was to find out if vacation time is open for me to take at work for Tuesday and Wednesday.  I sent a message to a co-worker asking if I could have the time, and during the hours waiting to hear back managed my giddy nervous anticipation by trying to think about what the wife can do with our kids and our dog while being gone for 2 days.  The moment I got the news that vacation was available, I went into my work to request those 2 days off, lest they got stolen from me!

So as it stands, I have my days off, I bought my tickets on Saturday and now I have to be patient and wait.  This concert will be several firsts for me, it will be the first time for me to see The Mahones and Street Dogs, in addition this will be my first road trip JUST to see a concert.

In other news, Friday night I also saw The Irish Xiles, a St Louis Irish Rock band at Nick’s Pub.  Other than there having been a fair number of bar patrons being loud and not paying attention to the band, the night was enjoyable.  The Irish Xiles are a 3 piece band that utilizes a keyboard to synthesis the wind instruments, the lead singer was the guitar player and a drummer.  The most amusing thing I found during the night was seeing the Bodhran being played with an empty Budweiser bottle.  The band is still rough around the edges and not quite as hard-driving as I generally like, but it was a fun evening.  Rusty Nail is still at the tops of my local Irish Rock bands.

Speaking of Rusty Nail, to further add to my September anticipation, their new CD will be coming out which I will be receiving as I helped in their Kickstarter campaign.  You can catch some of their songs on the Celtic Folk Punk Sampler, it is a free download, so enjoy and check them out along with the other great bands included.

Well enough blathering, back to watching the clock and waiting for September 13th to get here.  Slainte!