Dancing in the Rain.

Saturday, yes Saturday. Last weekend I met Mitch at the never ending pasta bowl. Mitch send me an e-mail about the ECE inter-mural Frisbee team, asking if I would like to play. I made sure that they were not that good, seeing as I am horrible, he said that I would be fine... Well he ended up not being able to be there, so when I got to the field, I had to go around asking people what their team name was (it was a little embarrassing). I eventually found the "Magic Smoke Mafia" (Computer Engineers, yes this is a reference to keeping the smoke inside.) So I played some Frisbee. I was certainly the weakest link on my team, but I still had fun. We ended up losing all of our games. :( but that is fine. My body hated me a little afterward, but again, it was fun.

For the rest of the day requires a little back story: two weeks ago I wore my Dropkick Murphys shirt to class. Someone noticed it and asked if I was in to that sort of music, then she saw my bag and decided that I was. She mentioned that there was going to be an Irish festival in a few weeks, and that if I wanted to go, I should let he know. I sort of put the idea in the back of my head seeing as class was about to start. So I eventually went to the website to find that their line up of bands was going to include Scythian and Gaelic Storm! I had not previously heard Scythian, but I had heard of them, and knew that they had a reputation for being good. And Gaelic Storm is just amazing. At this point I knew that I had to go. Now an issue came up that I did not know this girls name, and she was not in class this past week. So I sent out an e-mail to the entire class asking if anyone wanted to go. Sadly, Sonja, was the only person to respond (only sad that more people did not want to come).

Mmmm... Shepard's Pie

Epic!

YEAH!

So after Frisbee I showered and donned my Kilt, and headed out to the festival. It was a fairly intense festival, there was a ton of merchants (including Utilikilts!!! all the way out here...), lots of Irish inspired food, Irish Dogs, lots of things for children, workshops for music, dancing and heritage finding. But of course the main part, and the part that I was most excited about, was the 3 stages they had set up for the vast plethora of bands. We walked around for a while and got something to eat. I went for the Shepard's Pie, it was great. While eating, there were two interesting people standing near us. The guy had a utilikilt on, and I noticed an interesting Tattoo, turns out it was an imperial cog over his elbow. I asked him if I could take a picture, he said: "sure, but you might want to see hers first" gesturing to his friend. She pulled up her sleeve to reveal a half arm Star Wars collage! So cool! I talked to them for a while about Star Wars and what now, awesome.

Sonja and myself: Irish buddies.

 After getting the lay of the land, we ended up picking out some seats at the main stage. The next two groups were very, very good traditional Irish folk bands. I greatly enjoyed them, great sound and great music. Around 8:45, Scythian took the stage. Scythian is a group composed of rather young guys playing Irish and Czech infused folk music on steroids. They were great. very unique sound and awesome stage presence. From where we were sitting, I could see that a pit was forming. Seeing as I can not resist a good mosh, I headed in. Just as I got down there, it started to rain. Not very heavy, but a good rain. Right about this point the band got in to their good stuff, and the people watching came alive, it was great. A little mosh pit formed (I may or may not have been a part of it) complete with crowd surfing. It was obvious that the event planners were not ready for this. Eventually security gaurds had to come stand in the pit and keep the fun down.

Scythian, tearing up the stage.

At this point the audience was fired up and soaking wet as it had kept raining. Then came Gaelic Storm. It was great. They are certainly gifted individuals, they sound way better live than they do recorded. Again, great stage presence, and a great show. I think the fiddle player went through 3 bows during the performance. There was lots of fiddle-pipe offs, little duels, so cool! Lots of dancing in the rain, it was perfect. Just in front of me there was a little girl who was on her dad's shoulders, turns out she was five. She was singing away, on "Drink the night away" the lead singer noticed that she sang every word, and noted that was most likely a bad thing. Eventually this little girl was brought on stage and got to hit a cymbal during one of their last songs. It was so cool! and the crowd responded great. Certainly one of the more unique shows that I have been to, and a wonderful time. Sonja and I left, completely drenched, and in high spirits after a fun evening.

Sweet Box Drum playing. Just for you Drew

Needless to say my body was not happy with me after lots of running around and jumping around. On top of that I forgot to take my contacts out, so Sunday morning I did not feel the best. But it was well worth it.


If you want to see more pictures!