I rave about a lot of bands because, well, I like a lot of bands in a lot of different styles of music. But the Mahones have always and will always stand out from the crowd.
They are one of my blizzard bands in there words a band that I would drive through a blizzard to see, and have. They put on one of the best shows of the year at the Slice, Nov. 24.
But first, I caught the last catchy, punky song from Toronto’s The Unbelievers. The female fronted trio sounded like an Asian Joan Jett and the Runaways back in the day.
But the Mahones came to party, especially with hot accordion player Katie McConnell, and charismatic husband, Finny McConnell plus the pyrotechnics of tin whistle player Michael O’Grady who did everything but stand on his head, including playing two whistles through his nose.
They set the Slice on fire with a crazy set of original Celtic punk music, with a couple awesome covers including the undertones’ “Teenage Kicks” and a sizzling version of the Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated,” during which they brought the Unbelievers up back on stage as well as enthusiastic audience members.
They started with “Drunken Night in Dublin,” then crashed right into “Paint the Town Red,” which was featured in Oscar winning film “the Fighter.”