irish music

Fionn Regan

Conor Oberst, is that you?

yummy! it tasted like bananas.

Jape

dancing to Jape

I can't say I'm a fan of Irish music when it comes to traditional songs. People here call it "trad music" and it's the very Celtic-sounding traditional Irish music that gets played at tourist pubs and for Riverdancers. I've been trying to figure out Dublin's music scene so I was excited to meet some friends who seem to know what's up.

Last night hubs and I were invited to see some original bands from Ireland play in the city of Dundalk, about an hour north of Dublin. We rode in a car with our new friends and talked about how we should take driving lessons before we rent a car in this country. Being on the left (wrong) side of the road feels horrible, even if you are just the passenger. Every turn feels foreign and if we were to rent a car tomorrow, we'd probably end up killing people by reverting to the right side. I didn't realize how ingrained that feeling is! For the same reason, I still have trouble crossing the street; when I check for traffic I am always facing the wrong direction.

In Dundalk we went to this venue called the Spirit Store. It was an intimate little house serving incredible weiss beers. We saw a band called Boy Lights Fire, Fionn Regan, Jape, and And So I Watch You From Afar. Jape was kind of dancy-groovy but I mostly liked Fionn Regan. He is a little mushroom headed singer-singwriter that sings sappy songs about love and life and the difficulty of being (see caption above). He also plays harmonica, which ends up being a little dylan-esque. There seems to be a lot of these guys right now (Tallest Man on Earth) but you wont find me complaining. I'm glad to say I am a fan of some Irish music--finally!