We’re Baaaaack….

It’s been a while huh? Well, we’ve been busy this past month and I guess we’ve neglected the blog a bit. Enough so for Jim Logue to mention it at the Trenton AOH the other night. So apologies to Jim and others. Who knew anyone was reading? The weeks have flown by and a lot happened in March, but that’s to be expected I guess for an Irish band. So let’s get to it…

Wednesday, 03/11/09:

In our last update we mentioned that we lucky enough to be asked to open for the Wolfe Tones at Finnigan’s Wake. This was an opportunity of a lifetime for us and the night couldn’t have been better. A quick back story for those who might ask, ‘who are the Wolfe Tones?’ The Wolfe Tones are an Irish band with roots in folk & traditional music. Some have described them as the “Led Zeppelin” of Irish Music. They’ve been touring the world for the last 45 years. Originally formed by brothers Brian & Derek Warfield and their friends Tommy Byrne & Noel Nagle, the band is now only three members (Brian, Tommy & Noel), after a parting of the ways a few years back between the bothers Brian & Derek. But let’s back up a little…

We got to Finnigan’s that night and after some initial sorting out of the night’s schedule, quickly setup the gear on stage. While waiting to go on, Paul and I were standing around at the bar when Brian Warfield of the Wolfe Tones walked up. Paul, ever the outgoing type, walks over to talk to Brian and introduce us. Not as familiar with the Wolfe Tones’ names, he quickly turned to me to confirm Brian’s name. Knowing of some potential bad-feelings due to the split in the band, I want to make sure Paul doesn’t commit a major faux-pas and use the wrong name for one of the brothers, I quickly tell him “Derek”…WAIT, NO!!!… Brian…too late…

After BRIAN corrects Paul for calling him “Derek”, we spoke to him for a few moments. A very nice person. After he left, Paul quickly punched me in the arm and called me an asshole. Fair enough, but that still didn’t keep me from laughing my ass off all night.

The whole evening was great. The night was sponsored by a worthy cause, the Police Survivors Fund to raise money for the family of Fallen Officer, John Pawlowski. We went on second, after the Three Irish Tenors. Who would have thought that they would be opening for the Birmingham Six? They’ve come a long way. We came on at 8pm and had a great show. It was just a short set & featured a slightly stripped down version of our songs with Brian on a “Stray Cats” style drum kit and for the first time, on the Bodhran. We came off the stage and couldn’t believe how fast it went. It’s pretty much still a blur of memory. Afterward Brian (or was it Derek?) told us that we “cracked ass” on stage. I, for one, am taking that as a compliment. The Wolfe Tones were great. We took some pictures with them before their show and got to talk for a few minutes. They went on and played for an amazing three hours. It was a night to remember for sure.

Friday, 03/13/09:

This was the night to kick off the long St. Patrick’s Day weekend. We started off the “tour” where we ended it last year, at Kildare’s in West Chester. This whole weekend is still a blur to me, so I may ask the others guys to write in anything that I may have forgotten. From what I remember though, this night went pretty well. It wasn’t as crazy as the last show we played here since it didn’t actually fall on St. Patrick’s Day this year. I do remember that someone hit Paul’s car out on the street, or at least that’s what we could figure out after 20 minutes of inspection. I’m beginning to agree that Paul may be “car cursed”. Then we had the long drive home from West Chester at 3am, only to be at Bristol the next morning for the Buck’s Co. St. Patrick’s Day Parade at 9am the next morning.

Saturday, 03/14/09:

After a 2 & ½ hour ‘nap’, it was up and ready to get to the Bristol AOH to meet up for the Parade. If not for the coffee and the 5-hour energy shots, I don’t know if I would have made it. Barry couldn’t make it to the parade due to Coast Guard obligations, but we did have Jim Fowler on hand to ably fill out the sound with some fine whistle playing. Once we got to the parade setup, things went smoothly. There were no car-kicking incidents or potentially stolen instruments this year, so all was well. The parade kicked off and we were on our long, and at some points, seemingly endless journey down the parade route. The Saturday before we played in the Mt. Holly Parade and that was like the Daytona 500 compared to this parade. To compare, we played five or six songs down High St. in Mt. Holly, while we played fifteen or more songs down New Falls Rd. Not to say it wasn’t fun, we did have a good time, but it was fun at a glacial pace. About halfway down the road someone ran out in front of the truck pulling the float and our driver had to slam on the brakes. That sent us all flying towards the front of the float on course to crush Jim under a pile of people, instruments & candy. Luckily, Jim was spared. After the parade it was back to the AOH for the after party. We played all afternoon and then it was off to Kildare’s Manayunk.

But first back to Paul’s house where I was able to catch a 20 minute nap in the car in front of his house.

I woke up, another coffee and a 5-hour energy, and we were on our way. We got there, and loaded in. Once again, probably because we were already going on 12 hours so far this day, my brain has zoned out. I know we played, but I don’t remember much about the night. Do 5-hour energy drinks and beer have this effect on people? I wonder. Well, we played, we went home and slept, finally…

Sunday, 03/15/09:

Continuing on (what seems to be our annual) Kildare’s tour, we played an afternoon show at the King Of Prussia location. This was a different show for us. No drums, laid back, traditional acoustic set. We even decided to sit down for this one. You wouldn’t have recognized us. This was nice to change it up a little for a bit of a break mid-weekend. It was relaxing and we all enjoyed it. There was a good crowd filtering in from the Philly Parade from earlier in the afternoon too. We even played some songs we’ve never done before. I’d definitely do that again on a Sunday afternoon. Can you tell I had a good time? I’ll stop now though, before I get to sappy. And yes Barry, I’ll take the napkin now.

Monday, 03/16/09:

Off. Sleep. Recovery.

Tuesday, 03/17/09:

The Big Day. We started our day around noon loading into Finnigan’s Wake to play downstairs at the Quiet Man Pub from 2-10pm. I woke up around 9am and left the house about 11:30. Apparently I’m not as ‘Irish’ as I thought, as the people staggering out of Finnigan’s after drinking for 6 hours already proved to me. To be drunk and throwing up into your plastic derby at noon on St. Patrick’s Day is what it’s all about, right? But I digress…hell, even I had a bowl of Lucky Charms that morning. We set up, grabbed some quick food up on the top floor (a nice spread by the way), and started the show. We alternated sets with the DJ for the next eight hours. Which made for a lot of changeover in the crowd on an hourly basis. Not that we mind since next to Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day is one of the best holidays for ‘people watching’. Is there really such a thing as a “slutty leprechaun,” because apparently there is a costume? But I digress again…It was a fantastic time. Thanks to Jim for his help and thanks to all the friends and family that came out to support us that day.

We finished up there and high tailed it over to end the night at Kildare’s in Manayunk. We walked into an interesting scene. Wall to wall people, flashing lights, a DJ and some thumping club music. This place was about to undergo a transition. I wonder what it must look like to someone in the club crowd when four pasty-white, Irish guys get up on the stage and strap on electric guitars and such? We stood on stage for a few minutes and just stared out at the crowd wondering how it would all go over. We started, keeping to our loudest & most upbeat songs. There was no riot, nor a single item thrown. Our anxiety quickly went away and we settled in for two very energetic sets, including playing Celtic Symphony at least four times (I lost count after a while), mostly for the guy who kept throwing 20′s at us to play it again. After that we packed up for the short journey home and to finally rest. It took me at least two days to fully recover my energy. Looking back, we had a great time, but I am kind of glad it really only happens once a year. Ah, who am I kidding, I’d do it again next month too.

Saturday, 03/28/09: (Epilogue)

After some recovery we got back to playing. We played an afternoon show at Paddy Whacks. This was a pretty typical show. It was good to get back after a week off. We played until 7pm and then it was off to the Trenton AOH for some scaled down Birmingham Six again. This was similar to the K.O.P Kildare’s show we played on the 15th. Just Paul, Barry & myself. We pulled out some stuff we don’t normally do, or rarely do. It was a good time and a very good place to play. Hopefully we’ll be back there in the future.

Now we’re updated. We’ll keep trying to update on a regular basis, maybe even convincing Barry to start adding material…or at least to start reading the blog. We’ll see…

Don’t forget. If you don’t already have a copy of our CD Iron Rations, you can purchase one on our website at www.birminghamsix.com.