The Feninans at the House of Blues Anaheim

March 17th is St Patrick’s Day, a grand, life-affirming celebration of togetherness and unity as everyone drops their nationalities and becomes Irish for a day by compressing the country’s proud traditions and noble history into the symbolic gestures of wearing green, eating corned beef and cabbage, and drinking.  Certainly, there’s more to being Irish than that, but who has time to learn when they are only going to immerse themselves in a culture over the course of one evening in a bar? 

However, no matter the level of interest, anyone who has spent time in an Irish setting can verify that music is as important to life as air itself.  The Fenians, a talented quintet based out of Orange County, CA, proves that maxim traveling the country playing traditional and contemporary Irish music; they also make a yearly trek to the motherland with their fans.  

A new tradition that they are creating is their annual St. Patrick’s Day concert at the House of Blues Anaheim, which I believe has now reached its sixth .  This year’s show opened with young Irish dancers and Graceland Mafia.  Unfortunately, I missed them both because I was participating in my own tradition that day: watching the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the greatest sporting event there is.  It’s recognized as a holiday in the El Bicho household as we commemorate the young men who do battle by drinking alcohol and gambling on their exploits.  This year was very good as Ladron de Tebeos’ prognostication skills failed him miserably to my financial benefit, but it ran until almost 9 pm.