Tonight I wore my Ireland hoodie, my Kelly green bowler, my Celtic earrings from Dubuque, and my Ring of Kerry medal for our big night out. Jilly Moose picked me up, and we went to the local German restaurant for their big St. Patrick's Day party, because there was a band playing there that a bandmate of mine highly recommended, but it was so packed that they said we couldn't get in until 8:30. Since that was three hours in the future, we decided to go to the Harmony Bar, because a woman from my Irish class was supposedly having a birthday gathering there.
It was pretty crowded at the Harmony Bar, but a couple sitting at a big table waved us over and said, "Join us!" They were pretty friendly, and we talked about our travels in Ireland and all sorts of other things. Chairs were in short supply, but we found one for Travalon, who soon joined us. We never saw my classmate, but we did see my former Irish teacher, and I made an Irish 101 mistake while talking to her. How embarrassing! I had the St. Patrick's Day special, which was a sampler platter of bangers and mash, corned beef and cabbage, and shepherd's pie soup. It came with a very cute leprechaun cookie that I split with Travalon. I also had a pint of Guinness, because come on - it's St. Patrick's Day. Travalon had a burger and Jilly Moose had their famous walnut burger, and they both had the drink we actually drank in Ireland, which is Jameson and ginger beer. Then the band came on, and they were excellent!! It was a guitarist, a bodhran player, and an amazing fiddler. Watching him made me want to go back to the fiddle, but we have so many fiddlers in my band now that they haven't needed me to play fiddle in years. When the band took a break, the local pipe and drum corp played, and they were fantastic too. I especially enjoyed the one girl in the group, who swung her drum-playing, pom pom-looking things around most of the time but then hit her drum with them once in a while, and it was a wonderful sound. Then the first band came back, and they played some more reels and slip jigs, but they started playing the drinking songs that the crowd loves, and we decided to head home. I did buy their CD, and it was a lot of fun watching people dance to them when they played the traditional music. There are some good dancers out there!
Here are some photos. First is Ma Hat's St. Patrick's Day decoration.
I have some footage of both groups playing music, so maybe at some point I'll make an iMovie of that and post it on the blog.
Famous Hat
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