Every now and then, John and I do things that normal people do, like go out on a Friday night to see our friends’ band.

Fin Tan is an Irish band that is made up of SCA people and fronted by our friend Sir William (MKA Pat Savelli).

They are pretty awesome, and put on a great show.

Fin Tan

(This was the first time that I took a camera to one of their gigs. The rest of the photos are here on my flickr site.)

They play a lot of gigs at Molly Malone’s and The Dublin Pub (we have seen them in both places) and have several CDs out. I know that they have a lot of gigs coming up on St. Patrick’s day in Columbus, here in Dayton, and in Cincinnati. So, support local music and go see an awesome band!

Take a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey and add it to a pint of hard cider (I like Hornsbys) and then enjoy.  That’s a Johnny Jump-Up, and that was the only thing that I did on Wednesday to acknowledge St. Patrick’s Day.

On Friday, John and I went down to the Dublin Pub in the Oregon District to hear Fin Tan play, since we are friends with 3/4 of the band.  We know all of the songs (and they like to provide sing-along sheets with the chorus of all of the songs in their sets since they are a very audience-participatory kind of band) and I like to sing along, even if I can never actually hear myself sing since we tend to sit as close to the stage as possible.

A couple of times during the show there were announcements that the Dublin Pub announced intended to open at 5am on St. Patrick’s Day and would be offering a “breakfast and beer” special.  I tend to think of St. Patrick’s Day as the national holiday of frat boys.  I don’t enjoy crowds and I am not much of a bar person on a normal day, but St. Paddy’s is one of the days where I do not think that I could be paid enough to set foot in a bar.  Too many people wearing green, with shamrocks painted on their faces, being stupid, and drinking too much of all kinds of faux-Irish drinks.

Hence the Johnny Jump-Up in the quiet and comfort of my own home.

Just say no to green beer… really.  Because nothing says “St. Patrick’s Day spirit” like a Budweiser with some food coloring in it.