Live Irish Music in Kansas City
On Sunday gone, Easter Sunday, I was working away late when I realised it was that time when I needed to leave the house if I was going to catch any live Irish music at all.
Outside it was freezing, or just below. And the bicycle was in need of repair to both front and rear wheels, and needed persuasion to roll. More persuasion than usual.
And I was very tired. Another five minutes and it wouldn’t be worth my while cycling the few miles, because, it being a school night, Kansas City may well be in bed and I’d catch no music.
Swallowing the last of a hot pot of tea, I really didn’t want to go through the effort of getting down to the pub, but then I remembered the previous Sunday. It was exactly the same except it wasn’t Easter. Cold, miserable, banjaxed bike, a tired me, but I went. And I arrived midway through a very enjoyable second set.
That gave me time to make myself comfortable and others uncomfortable. Then the cast of Love Janice came in from their final night in Crown Center. With the Red Sox fans in the pub from Boston for the next day’s opening against the Royals, we now had quite an atmosphere.
And while Eddie Delahunt can give a party-seeking crowd a party better than most performers, he didn’t. And he did. What Eddie, Brett, and Gabe then did for that last set wasn’t a greatest hits of man-singing-in-a-pub. Instead it was an exhilarating set of Irish traditional tunes and songs mixed in with Eddie’s own compositions. It was the best set of music I’ve heard in months.
So remembering that last Sunday it was easy then to move my backside onto my gel-filled saddle cover and push those broken wheels to the Plaza for more of the same possibly. I mean, it was Easter - maybe there’d even be a crowd.
Well there wasn’t a crowd. Most of Kansas City was asleep, or doing whatever the city does at ten o’clock on an Easter Sunday. But there was enough of us, including a smattering of celebrities - who I’m not telling you about because you have your own backside you can get down there to find out.
And of course the music was so good again that I forgot how cold it was outside, in this freakish April.
Tonight of course is Wednesday. It’s another chance to see Eddie Delahunt & Friends play at O’Dowd’s at no cost to your wallet. You don’t have to wait until summer of parties and festivals. You can be Irish in April.
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
