Fado

We (Donnybrook) just played at Fado Irish Pub in Chicago last night. It was, as usual, a really fun, rowdy crowd. It seems that every time we play there, the night gets crazy toward the end. Last night was no exception, thanks in part to our pal Declan from Galway and many others.

The last hour of the night, which ended around 1:30AM, we played two sets of tunes, one about 20 minutes and the other at least a half hour, maybe longer. There were more people dancing than I've ever seen at a Donnybrook show. Harkened me sentimentally back to my ole punk rock days, to be honest with you. There is absolutely nothing more enjoyable for a musician than to play music to a crowd of people dancing there patooties off. It's a very surreal experience.

So, in those last, long couple of sets, Jonathan and I traded off on the piano quite a bit. He'd play fiddle while I played piano, then we'd switch tunes and he'd play piano with me on whistle, all without stopping. I doubt the crowd even noticed all the switching, as they were pretty engrossed in their boogie.

At some point my hands had pretty much become a pair of useless clubs with which I was banging the piano. Now, mind you, I'm not much of a piano player. So, at some point we switched to a tune in E minor, and I realized I don't really know the key of e minor on the piano. So I took to simply banging out a rhythm on a single 'E' note.

I write all this to say that as I type, my thumb hurts!!

Last nights fun, to be sure.