February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The show starts at 11 p.m. sharp; for details, call (212) 597-5126.
Hmmm . . . time for a trip down memory lane. Back in 1989, Bainbridge Avenue was the main Irish thoroughfare in the Bronx, the IIRM was lobbying politicians on behalf of the undocumented immigrants, and we were the new kid in the Echo office.
We can still remember being intrigued by the band’s handmade fliers, featuring a fist and a barbed wire fence underneath the name. What also comes to mind is going to see one of the band’s early gigs. To put it kindly, their rough fusion of rock and trad garnered a less-than-enthusiastic reception in the Phoenix Pub that night, and we have a fuzzy memory of the bartender turning the jukebox back on in the middle of the set.
Fast forward to 1994, and the band’s Friday night residency at Paddy Reilly’s Music Bar is generating the kind of buzz that packs in celebrities, hipsters and regular folk every week. Suddenly, they’re all over the TV talk shows playing their “Funky Ceili,” and MTV picks up the video for “40 Shades of Green.” As Kirwan wryly notes in “Green Suede Shoes,” they’re “living the American Dream.”
Eventually, the band ended its run at Paddy Reillys and 2002 sees them maintaining a touring schedule that takes them all over the country. There have been a few staff changes — Byrne left to devote his energies to fronting his own band, Seanchai and the Unity Squad. The passion of Black 47 is remains strong as ever — Kirwan’s still writing songs combining passionate social commentary and wry humor. They’re still one of the most important and influential bands to come out of the New York Irish scene in the last two decades. And, happily, they’re still playing that funky ceili.