Black 47
Connolly's Pub, New York (February 19, 2000)
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Black 47
Connolly's Pub, New York
February 19, 2000 |
This show was celebrating the release of the band's new record, Trouble In The Land. The band played several songs from this record, including the title track, but most of the show was a survey of the last seven years of Irish protest music from the Bronx.
Lead singer Larry Kirwan is a slight man, but he commanded the stage and the eyes of the crowd, who sang along with songs about "The Troubles," throwing their fists high and punching the air as Kirwan and pipes player Chris Byrne shouted the chorus of "It's Time To Go." Other high points included a towering jam during "Sleep Tight In NYC" from the band's first record, Fire Of Freedom. The song opened with a beautiful whistle solo from Byrne, before moving back and forth between Kirwan's mournful singing during the verses and the strength of the refrain: "You better sleep tight in New York City / you got a different angel watching over you / I tried to ring you / your phone is always busy / and I don't think I'm ever going to get through again to you."
About midway through the night Kirwan called "John and Mary" up to the stage, saying they had won a Guinness contest and were going to be staying for two months in a brewery. The couple took the stage, where John leaned down to Kirwan's mic and asked Mary to "do me the honor of being my wife." A huge roar went up from the crowd, she accepted, and off they went. The evening was filled with classics from the band's early days -- "Rocking The Bronx," "Fire Of Freedom" and an incredible version of "Funky Ceili" that had the crowd forming the Irish version of a mosh pit in the close confines of the club's second-floor performance space.
Black 47 has the rare ability to bring a room of strangers together and to make them feel like soldiers in the same rebel army. A quick survey of the room after "It's Time To Go" would have produced a list of twenty- and thirty-something account executives ready to drop their Prada bags and take up arms against the English oppressors.
But the band tempered this message with a playful side in songs like "Losing It" and in a long instrumental jam -- propelled by the first-class rhythm section of drummer Thomas Hamlin and bassist Andrew Goodsight and the horn section of sax player Geoffrey Blythe and Fred Parcells on the "black trombone" -- that sounded more like a Chieftains concert than a gig two blocks from Radio City. Black 47 will be playing at Connolly's on February 26 and March 4 before taking a night off to play at the Wetlands. Then it's back to the pub for several weekends. If you're in town, throw on a green shirt, grab a pint and head upstairs for one of the best shows in New York.
JASON CRANE |