You'll Never Beat The Irish

Last night I drove to Cleveland to see the band The Wolfe Tones perform with mom, Cate, Don, and little Geo. My parents have been groupies of the band since 1989...enough that the band members talk to mom pretty much like an old friend after the show.
Dad felt a special connection to the band, who take their name from Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Dad's middle name was Tone, and had found through his genealogy research that we're descendants of Theobald.
It's a style of Irish music that is pretty much an unknown quantity outside of Ireland...a lot of it is songs about rebellion, British tyranny, and the struggles of Northern Ireland. That's why Jools Holland has never had them on. Very energetic, angry, melancholy music.
This will tell you all you need to know about the band...they've been together for 44 years, and warm up for their act...how? By sitting at the bar, about 20 feet from the front door, putting back a couple of pints. Totally approachable guys.
That being said...this is the second year we've seen them at the West Side Irish Club in Cleveland. It's a club for older (very older) people who only move when it's time to leave. It's got to be embarrassing for the band...one of the members will tell a little story and finish up with something like "And that's why the Irish are the greatest people in the world!" This should get a loud yell from the crowd, some table pounding, and probably some beer spilled on several people. But at this place...we were the only table making any noise, apart from about a half dozen guys at the back who were drunk enough to yell at wallpaper. It's not an exaggeration to say we were the only ones. At other Wolfe Tones shows I've seen, half the crowd is standing on the tables and chairs for the last 30 minutes of the show. If we made any such moves last night, we would have been shown to the door.
At any rate, we had a great time.