Experiences
If you've ever seen the band play live you know what kind of a night your
in for. For those of you who haven't here are some fan experiences that
have been sent in.
If you would like to send in a story about a show or a chance encounter
with the band. Please email it to me using the contact info link at the
top of the page.
Dear Sir/Madam,
Having just found the fan site, I found compelled to let you know that I
also
love the music! An online friend of mine sent me a couple of the band's
CDs
for Christmas 2000, and I've been hooked ever since. I have "Rollin'
Home"
and "Gypsies & Lovers".
At that time, no one else in Australia had heard of you, but that has
changed
- even if only my circle of family and friends.
Please keep the music coming!
Kind regards
(Concert in St. John's, Newfoundland)
I've never written to a fan site before but I had to share this story.
My sister and I just recently returned from a trip to Newfoundland. Our
second night in St. John's was spent listening to the Irish Descendants
play at Bridie Molloys. I had of course heard the Irish Descendants before
and indeed they were one of my mother's favourites so it was a real treat
to listen to them live in such a small, intimate setting. We immediately
went out and purchased Across the Water and played it as we drove around
the Avalon.
Our last night there was spent at O'Reilly's pub on George Street
listening to Con and Mike play sans the other Descendants. I had requested
that they sing Eileen Og and Con had happily agreed. During the first song
of the second set there was a loud bang and all sound was lost. It
definitely hadn't sounded good but we waited in hope that they could fix
it and continue playing. Alas, the sound board was fried so it looked like
I wasn't going to get to hear my song after all.
Very shortly thereafter, as my sister and I sit virtually alone in the pub
don't I look up and see Con and Mike, instruments in hand, headed towards
our table. They sat down opposite us and proceeded to play a magical
version of Eileen Og. They will forever have a very special place in my
heart. They turned what had been a fantastic vacation into the trip of a
lifetime and for that I thank them.
(Central City Brewery in Surrey 2005)
After many trials and tribulations to get there, I had the most wonderful
musical experience last night at the Central City Brewery in Surrey, B.C.
The band was awsome and the venue was great too.
I have only recently discovered the Irish Descendants and instantly fell
in love with my one and only CD so to see the b'ys live was a real treat.
It was nice to put faces to the voices I have become familiar with and the
band's jovial banter kept their audience in fine form throughout the
performance. It will be a priority to expand my CD collection starting
with the Across the Water album.
I have to commend the band member's patience with myself and my
girlfriends as we drunkenly mobbed them for autographs during their short
breaks. We were feeling just a little "sociable". I apologize to all
if we were a tad bit overwhelming. We were having so much fun and we
don't get out of our small town much so it was overwhelming for us too.
You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country
out of the girl.
I wish the band the best on the northern leg of their tour and look
forward to seeing them play on their own turf this summer. Thank you Con,
Glenn, Paul, Mike and Graham.
Cayley MacIntyre
Lytton, B.C.
(Tulip Festival - Ottawa, Ontario 2003)
When one thinks of Celtic music he doesn't normally think of tulips. I would think of Holland not Ireland.
However on the eve of the May long weekend here in Ottawa, Major's hill
park was alive and kicking with the sounds of the east coast as The Irish
Descendants and the Fables played to an impressive crowd on a beautiful
Thursday evening.
As the old saying goes "You can always tell a Newfoundlander in heaven,
because he is the one who wants to go home." The boys did a hell of a job,
providing a temporary cure for all of my homesick friends.
It was an incredible night and one I won't soon forget.
Mark Ledwell
Ottawa, Ontario
(Concert in Winnepeg, Manitoba at the Club Regent Casino March 16th 2002)
I just wanted to say
that St. Patrick' never had a party thrown for him quite like that one
that was put on by the lads from Newfoundland this past weekend. And
what a party it was, the day before St. Paddy's day. This was the second
of two concerts put on by the lads.
The show started
roughly around 10:15pm (as do most shows that the casino puts on) and
were seated at table 8, second row, seats 9 & 10. We had a good vew of
the stage and I had come equipped with camera, CD covers for autographs
etc. and was just getting comfortable in my seat when they announced
that no camera or video may be taken during the concert...rats!!! I was
so hoping to get some good pictures for you guys. Oh and before I go on
I have to give honorable mention to my friend Debbie who was not able to
make it up here to see the band this time, but was with me at the
concert in spirit. And I will endeavour to do justice to this review of
the songs...it's hard to write a review in the dark! Anyway, if you will
bear with me here goes nothing...I did notice one member of the band was
noticably missing in action...Byron Pardy. Not quite sure were he was
but Con did mention the fact that he was replaced with another member
named Michael Kens (?) not quite sure of his last name since it was hard
to understand Con's accent sometimes (to my ear anyway).
Con started the show
with Raggle Taggle Gypsy and then went into Shamrock City, Barrett's
Privateers, then Kelly Russel proceeded to step things up with some jigs
and reels, followed by The City of Chicago, I Used to Love Her and my
favourite Caledonia, My Irish Molly-O and finally ending the first half
of the set with Try to Catch the Wind and She's Never Been There Before.
The second half got off
to a lively tune of Step it out Mary, Black and Tans, Peters Street,
Dirty Old Town, in which Con tried to get the audience to join in...that
was followed by Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle, Murphy Wrote the
Pledge, Black is the Colour in which Kelly Russell played on tin whistle
which was simply haunting beautiful. Mike Hanranhan then sang Hills of
Idaho (?) I'm sorry I wasn't familiar with this song but it was
beautiful nonetheless.
There was a large group
of people representing Newfoundland at table 7 next to the stage they
had the Provincial flag of Newfoundland with them in which they proudly
held up for the boys to see.
Although Con still had
the same jokes that we had heard in October here he was still funny. He
proceeded to say that if you liked them they were the Irish Tenors but
if you didn't like them they were the Irish Rovers. Con then proceeded
to introduce the band. There was once encore of The Dublin Reel. There
was no meet and greet afterward. All in all it was a very enjoyable
evening and I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely lady and her husband
and her mother and father who had come in from Steinback Manitoba just
to see that show. So Maryanne if you are reading this it was very nice
to have met you and it was fun comparing notes about the lads. Hope to
meet you again sometime at the next ID concert. Whew!! The show ended
after midnight and everyone went away happy...
Heather Poole
Winnepeg, Manitoba
(Concert in Peekskill, New York on March 9th 2002)
The Paramount Center for
the Arts in Peekskill, NY was the center of the action on March 9th. It
was a base for the huge Celtic ceilidh set up for St. Patrick's Day.
After a one-hour ride on
the train from New York City, me and my friend Amy entered the Paramount
with a fast heartbeat. The Descendants were here! Yahoo!
Although I've seen them
before only once, that one time was enough to fall in love with their
music. I couldn't believe that I would see them again and have guts to
rent a car, drive all the way from central Pennsylvania through the crazy
traffic in New Jersey, then find a parking spot in Manhattan and be able
to figure out the train schedule to Peekskill. But it was worth a try. I
haven't seen the band since September and although I had their album
"Blooming Bright Star", and was listening to it regularly, I needed some
live music for my system. So here I was-in the town next the Hudson River,
where I've never been before, right after the St. Patrick's Day parade,
waiting for the Ultimate Celitc Experience...
The concert was called A
Celtic Trilogy: it had three Celtic bands and groups (ironically, all of
them were from Canada!), but the concert was also opened by NYC's Irish
piping band and a local group Seisiun with Tim Murphy. They sang the song
"Firefighter's Creed", dedicated to the September 11th tragedy. The pipers
joined them at the end of the song, whenthey started to play "Amazing
Grace". This moment was very touching: everybody cried a little (including
me, a heartless freak)
But then it was time for
some fun. Next were the children's group "The Cottars" from my favorite
island, Cape Breton (that where, actually I saw the Descendants for the
first time!). Boy those kids were great! The little Rankin Family-just
give them a couple more years...they did everything a real Celtic band
could do-fiddle playing, singing, step-dancing, joking around. Everybody
loved them, I'm sure. After them there were Chanda Gibson and Pulse, a
group from Ontario (or at least that's where Chanda was from). The Pulse
performed a really interesting form of step-dancing: it was a mix of
Irish, Scottish and French dancing (a little jazzy, with a lot of twisted
jumps and hops). The three girls who did the dancing were excellent: they
were dancing like there was no tomorrow! The band also did a couple of
sets, including a Cape Breton set, and Chanda sang two Irish songs a-capella.
And finally...the band
was out! While they were tuning their instruments, I took a couple of
pictures, since there were no picture-taking allowed during the concert
itself. I took pictures of Mike Hanranhan mostly because he was the first
one to be on stage.
The heat was on! The
first song was Raggle Taggle Gypsy-I was so excited. In fact I was
behaving like a real groupie: I drew a poster and was waving it in the air
until two men on the back yelled at me. my friend Amy was embarrased to
sit next to me, but later she said she had a lot of fun (she is half
Irish, that's why!).
Con was great, and so
were the rest of the guys (I can't call them boys!!!), including "Boomer"
whom I saw before the concert (he looked tired and a little hung over).
They played all my favorite songs-"Caledonia", "My Irish Molly", "Step Out
Mary", "Emile's Irish Reels" (too bad it was in the concert hall, I would
have danced my butt off!!!), "Black and Tans", "Black is the Color" and
others. The only song they didn't sing was "Barrett's Privateeers"-maybe
because they were int he US and the audience wouldn't understand the full
meaning of it...
And of course there were
some jokes. Con, Boomer and Kelly were joking around about their age
("When I was a kid, I watched a TV program with him"-Con about Boomer).
Canadian dollar got its portion of jokes too ("The concert is 30 dollars,
and you know that i would be 15, 000 in Canadian dollars!"-Con). They also
educated the audience a little about the lovely island of Newfoundland.
And so how it was-the
biggest ceilidh in town...we were late for the last train and so we had to
run to the station at 11:30pm instead of getting autographs and shaking
hands with the bands. So no pictures of me hugging Kelly or kissing Mike.
Yet.
As we were sitting on the
train, ready to fall asleep, we could still hear the fiddle and the voices
in the distance. I know where they were coming from: the Irish pub
"Hugo's", right across from the Paramount Center! All pipers were already
there. The show was going on...
ID's Russian fan #1,
Anastasia Bannikova