Happy Saint Patrick’s Day 2022 to the faithful now, and we always think of The Bunnymen around this time of year, either because it’s Holy Week or else because it reminds us of their concert on this date in 1988 in New Orleans; they were supporting the album shown here in the video lede. The representative song from it is apt for our times.
That was a wild Saint Patrick’s Day in 1988. No drinking because of Lent, but it still was too Irish-themed for sheer coincidence. Jm. Joyce would have had a field day, between the Modern Irish Literature class at the home of Dean Jm. F. Kilroy, reading Yeats in a circle with the button-nosed little Irish coed from Newcomb College picking ’An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’ to recite, walking around campus after that, loitering in front of McAlister Auditorium before the concert, not knowing exactly what was in store, but just showing up anyway, then the stranger handed us the tickets with the backstage pass after he couldn’t find someone to scalp them to, so in we went, for free, Ian McCulloch on stage, Will Sergeant playing a snatch from ‘Irish Washerwoman’ while McCulloch did a jig. Godsmacked. Jm. Joyce would have had a field day. Always remember certain dates in life, and so it is with Saint Patrick’s Day every year. Luck o’ the Irish.
Need some of that Luck o’ the Irish right about now; noncontenders showing-up in unwanted places (the winner’s circle!) too much and making the touting ridiculous. Wake up! Rally! So here’s to the fifth, sixth & seventh tonight at Turfway. Bombs away…
