bitterdiva

Saturday night is Roofy night!

Seeing as such as Sunday was most likely going to be a day of relaxation and recovery Kris and I decided that it would be in our best interest to get all the activities we normally would do on a lazy Sunday done. Which meant going to do laundry, luckily this Saturday was about 15 degrees cooler and 25% less humid – favorable conditions for laundry. And as per usual no one was really doing laundry, everyone waits until to Sunday to finish up their chores.

After doing laundry we drove over to Barnes and Noble and we hooked myself up with the rest of the Belgariad since I was feeling lost without more Polgara. I think Kris is rather amused at the fact that I’m just chugging away at the books, one can’t help it when the characters are as extremely developed in the book as these are. And I was able to use the gift card my aunt had given me for my birthday and since I had already bought Harry Potter, I guess I could use this as an excellent excuse to pick up more of the series.

Jaunting over to Target heading back home, I picked up some cute little socks for bowling. I had unfortunately purchased a pair of bowling shoes wearing my tiny thin socks and as such my bulkier socks will not do. That okay, anything to force me into buying cute beige socks with kitties is never a bad thing!

In the evening we headed over to Revolution Hall. I started out playing two of my favorite Black 47 songs, Funky Céilí and 40 Shades of Blue. As Kris mentioned on one of his numerous journals/blogs, he meets up with an old acquaintance named Jim. This guy was a riot; he was hyper and hysterically funny. We got there five minutes early and had to wait for fifteen minutes even though doors supposedly opened up at 8pm.

We get inside, scout out a table, I order a Long Island Ice Tea. Amusing story: the bartender says to me, “they’re expensive,” and I’m looking at him dubiously, how bloody expensive can a plastic pint-sized long island ice tea be? Seven dollars, but that’s not expensive, that’s normal for the five tasty shots of alcohol. The bartender remarked that people often look expect it for three bucks, those people must be from some backwater bar where 75% of the drink is coke. I switched to beer (three pints of Cherry Raspberry Ale) as soon as I got my buzz on.

Finally to the music… the best part of the evening (other besides the alcohol). I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by The Ruffians. I went into the show not knowing the type of music they play, after all the last time I saw Black 47 at Northern Lights, the opening act was the son of the venue’s owner and had the musical capability of a tone-deaf shop teacher with two fingers. The Ruffians are in fact an Irish band – even better than that an Irish Punk Rock band complete with Matt the Bagpiper. You have to love a band that makes the procession into the hall headed by a Bagpiper with a Chris Farley type jig and dance attitude festooned with a Hawaiian shirt, West Point kilt, and a blazingly red blazer.

At the beginning I didn’t know how I was going to make it through this band’s set and just wanted them to get off the stage so I can see Larry and company. After a couple of their songs I was hooked faster than a monkey on cocaine. Most of their songs’ themes were typical Irish fashion, beer and women. They even played a reel complete with Katie a red-headed Irish step dancer who’d be dancing for about 15 years – basically equating for most of her life since she had to be no older than 22.

During one of the songs the brother of the lead singer, dressed in what I called Michael Meyers gear but more like a paramilitary soldier with combat boots, Kelly hat, and a olive drab jumpsuit was dancing across the tables. I believe before him and after him, Matt came dancing across the tables playing the bagpipes. The most amusing point was when Jim sitting next to me stuck a dollar in his kilt pouch.

Black 47 was bloody fantastic as usual; they played two new songs off their upcoming album. One of them has to do with 9/11 and I used that time to go to the bathroom, as I was worried for missing one of my favorite songs. They played Living in America, Green Suede Shoes, Rockin’ the Bronx, Different Drummer, their usual jam Reel, Fire of Freedom, Fanatic Heart, and Funky Céilí (to which Jim and I danced) and for their encore they played James Connolly.

Larry pimped the Trojan Pale Ale, which I believe Kris also dug a lot. It was good to see the crowd reacting to the band a lot better this time. I was worried that it was going to be another Northern Lights fiasco but it wasn’t. After the show, Larry hung back to talk with people and I received a hug. Larry is the man, he never disappoints when it comes to be friendly and chatty.

I however would like to say I enjoyed my conversation with Matt the Bagpiper from the Ruffians. We talked about his West Point kilt, his family in Killarney, he plays Rugby and was generally the nicest guy. He told me how they play at Rocky Sullivans in NYC and occasionally hit up CT once and a while. I had a great time talking with him, just ask Kris who I sort of ignored as he talked with his buddy. Kris and I bought the CD for $5 but it’s totally worth it, what a great deal that it was. And Matt gave me a sticker on my upper chest so I kept saying to everyone that I was roofied.

All and all I have to say this: give me beer, give me irish men, give me music, give me reels, and give me bagpipers and you’ll have drunken happy bitterdiva!

04:36 PM

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Posted by: mersidotes at July 15, 2003 08:13 AM

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