St. Patrick’s Day is when people celebrate the season in liquid form and by listening to live music, more than they usually do. So pretty much all of the gigs I hit, March 17 were packed.
Pop
’s Pub West featured an early show with local indie rock band the Silkstones. They were playing in the corner of the room next to the washrooms with a chattering crowd cheering them on. As usual they played a strong set of laid back, melodic indie rock including a lot of cheerful originals like “Sailing.”
They also added a couple excellent cover versions including a beautiful version of Queen’s “Crazy little Thing Called Love.”
back downtown, the Owl Acoustic Lounge featured Celtic music courtesy of D’Arcy Kavanagh and Ian Hepher. I caught them at the end of a set break.
They kicked off their next set with D’Arcy Kavanagh singing an excelle
nt version of Stan Rogers’ “Northwest Passage while Hepher added a harmonies and played bouzouki. Hepher took on lead vocals as Kavanagh exchanged his guitar or a bodhran to bang on, which had the crowd clapping along for the next song. They played a varied set ranging from the “ridiculous to the sublime,” according to Kavanagh, including Celtic classics like the “Night Paddy Murphy Died” and more popular numbers like the Proclaimers’ “I Would Walk 500 Miles, which had the crowd singing along.
I just missed That ___ Band at the Slice, but arrived in time to catch an eclectic set of music from the Junkman Quire, who made a long awaited return to the stage with Tom Scott on fiddle and Ryland Moranz on banjo, mandolin and vocals.
Frontman George Fowler sang a variety of Celtic classics in his pleasing tenor voice including a sweet version of “Ise’ Bye.” He strummed his acoustic guitar for most of the show, but switched to cello for a couple of songs. There was some accordion for a couple of songs and a saxophone on stage, though I left bef
ore I could hear it.
Ryland Moranz took centre stage to sing “ Dirty Old Town,” which drew a couple of dancers and had a few folks singing along.
I just missed the end of Shanneyganok at Coyote Joes, so I caught a nineties flashback across the street at the Tilted Kilt.
I caught local acoustic trio Red Light District on the middle of a set break, but relived the nineties after that.
Greg Gomola, who usually plays with blues rock band Paul Kype and Texas Flood and his own rock band Zojo Black, but he showed his acoustic side with Juno on djembe drum and Dano on guitar, who play in local ’90s band Uncovered.
They opened their set with Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” and after a brief discussion, launched in the Three Doors Down’s “Kryptonite.”
Then Gomola plugged in and turned things up on a hot version of Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower.”
Other highlights were a cool version of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” sung by Juno and a heartfelt version of the Foo Fighters’ “Everlong.”
