St. Patrick's Day Festival

Join us for our 33rd Annual St. Patrick's Day celebration. This is a day for the whole family and all ages are invited. There will performances by the Mayer School stepdancers, Irish music and special St. Patrick's Day fare in our heated festival tents, and plenty of Guinness, Harp and other favorites. The SideBar also will be open. NOTE: Tickets are available at the club and TicketWeb; children's tickets (12 and under) at the door only. Doors open at 1 p.m.

The line-up features: 

IN THE TENT:

2-6 pm Mayer School Stepdancers with Paul and Mary McHugh: Stepdancers from the school under the direction of Mary McHugh present their annual showcase of Irish dance. Many students from the Mayer School have placed at regional and national championships and several have gone to Ireland to compete in the All-Ireland and World Championships. Each year, the school grows and the list of accomplishments grows as well.  http://www.mayerschool.com/

6:30-7:30 pm Cannonball: Cannonball is a group of musicians based in Chicago who connect with the same rock sensibilities and merriment to create an explosive sound rooted in the American folk tradition of blues, country, rock ‘n’ roll and all their offspring — hillbilly, rock-a-billy, folk rock, psychedelic, punk. 

8 pm-10 pm Fred Eaglesmith's Traveling Steam Show plus an opening set by Bill Poss and Tif Ginn: Tambourine reaffirms Fred Eaglesmith’s rock ‘n’ roll odyssey and is some of his most comprehensive work yet. The band’s musical cohesion shows how tried and true his Travelling Steam Show really is and the level of production and engineering brings it all together to set a new bar of originality and creativity. Adding a touch of the theatrics to every show, Eaglesmith dubbed his band The Traveling Steam Show and they began performing in steampunk-ish outfits a few years ago when he released his Latin-influenced rock album Cha Cha Cha. “It harkens back to the ’60s and ’70s variety shows that were on TV,” Eaglesmith told the Albuquerque Journal. “It’s a show. It’s a lot more than a concert. I like to pay attention to what’s cutting edge and bring that into the live show.”

10:30 pm The Westies: In December 2012, Michael McDermott and Heather Horton got together with a few friends in Nashville to record a bunch of songs. Songs about love, betrayal, murder, hope and redemption. The session started off casually. As the songs and the sound began to unwind an album was realized. Lex Price produced and engineered. The Westies were born a few months later when a band was put together to play the songs live. The reference point for the band’s name is not cute little white puppies; it’s the ruthless gang of Irish American punks that ruled and terrorized Hell’s Kitchen in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. www.westiesmusic.com

Admission is $15; $5 (12 and under) 

IN THE CLUB:

7:30 & 9:15 p.m. The Dooley Brothers — In the mid-‘60s, the Dooley Brothers entered the thriving folk music scene in Old Town and the North Side of Chicago, playing in the same circle of clubs as the likes of Steve Goodman and John Prine. In the 80's, the Dooleys released their first album, A Place in My Heart, consisting of mostly original acoustic folk-jazz songs, complemented with some of the best-known sidemen in Chicago. They split their performing between rock, etc. clubs to straight-out Irish pubs and venues. In the mid-80s, they released an Irish and American folk album, featuring many songs and tunes from the west of Ireland. At the beginning of the 90s, the Dooleys released a collection of original songs, and also a variety of folk and calypso that they were performing in clubs. Today, the Dooley Brothers are still singing and working on many new projects.  http://www.dooleybrothers.com/

11 p.m. Cannonball: Cannonball is a group of musicians based in Chicago who connect with the same rock sensibilities and merriment to create an explosive sound rooted in the American folk tradition of blues, country, rock ‘n’ roll and all their offspring — hillbilly, rock-a-billy, folk rock, psychedelic, punk. 

IN THE CLUB, SIDEBAR AND TENT:

8 p.m. Shannon Rovers — For more than 75 years, the Irish bagpipe band has been a cultural fixture in the Chicagoland area. The band is made up of seventy plus pipers, drummers and color guard. Membership has passed from generation to generation and includes plumbers, social workers, bankers, lawyers, electricians, doctors and celebrities to name but a few. The common thread that seems to hold it all together is the genuine love of traditional Irish music.   http://www.shannonrovers.com/