The Chieftains recently performed in LA, San Rafael, and Modesto, California, during their current USA tour. As many of you may know, Matt and Sean were unfortunately not present because of personal family health concerns, and many people who went to these concerts were disappointed not to see them. Evidently, the Gallo Center for the Performing Arts in Modesto received a lot complaints as to why people weren’t informed of this ahead of time. Here is an article from the Modest Bee newspaper:
I had tickets to see the Modesto show which is about a one and a half hour drive from our home. But it was storming like crazy in Northern California the night of the show, and since I had heard on this forum from members who were surprised and disappointed from the LA show two days earlier, and since my son came home unexpectedly from college for the weekend because he was sick with a virus, my wife and I skipped the show.
I just received this gracious offer from the Gallo Center in response to all the unhappy Chieftain fans: They are offering a 2 for 1 ticket sale to anyone who had previously bought tickets to the Cheiftains concert for their upcoming St. Pat’s Celebration Concert featuring The David Munnelly Band. This band recently received liveireland.com’s Concert of the Year Award, and their singer, Shauna Mullin, won Newcomer of the Year Award. Here are a couple of video links for them:
Yup, I’ve seen the Munnelly band several times at the Milwaukee Irish Fest and when they’ve been in the area since. They are fantastic, probably one of the best live bands in Irish music touring today. Kieran (Dave’s brother) is a great flute player and definitely should not be missed.
I doubt that the Disney Center would make a similar conciliatory offer to the folks who went to the LA concert - too big an operation to be as sensitive and responsive as a smaller venue like the Gallo Center.
Doesn’t turn me on. Dave M. can sure play fast, and the fiddler is a good jumper. Pretty athletic, and it does make a good show. The singer there sang flat more than once. I wouldn’t buy the CD and I surely would not pay $55 to hear them even if they were all there.
We still had a good time, it was the perfect concert for my cork friend, that hated Irish music! He was sat next to gregarious 300 pound Dublin lady, who kept calling him “Cork Boy”, “ya like that Cork boy?” That was more fun then the concert! Especially when he told her he was a monk… Then it turned into, "pray for me father…"
I saw the DM band at the Newport, RI Irish festival last year, and their live show was nothing short of spectacular. I bought two of their CDs as well, one studio, and one live (recorded at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas), and the live CD, by far, is preferable. They put so much energy into their show, it’s impossible not to get caught up in it.
