Irish Boys Sing Purty*

I had forgotten that the tag line for Ashland Coffee and Tea was those magic words: "A Listening Room."

And when two Irish guys are going to sing in a silent room, I am there, much as I was when I saw them a year ago in January in the midst of my life falling apart.

That time I'd driven to Charlottesville to hear Guggenheim Grotto and tonight I only had to meander up Rte. 301 to the Center of the Universe to hear those two beautiful voices together again.

I arrived in time to eat before the show. My server told me right up front that he was new and I told him he could make his mistakes on me. I ordered the spinach salad (dried cranberries, feta, walnuts, maple-seasoned chicken with Chianti basil vinaigrette) and was happily tucking into it when he came by to refill my water glass.

He did so without spilling a drop and then set the water pitcher down with a flourish in front of me and placed my glass on the counter.

We bonded.

I already knew how amazing Guggenheim Grotto sounded live, so it was really just a matter of enjoying it for the beauty of the sounds. It was simply done like last time, with only guitar or ukulele and sometimes keyboard.

Kevin informed us that he has the mid-ranges and Mick does the upper and lower ends and together it is pure poetry. Kevin explained the hat on his head as having resulted from a lyric, "I tip my hat to the willow tree."

Grinning, he said, "I love that line. Well, I wrote that line, but I didn't have a hat when I wrote it. Now I have a hat." The heat eventually made him remove it for a while, but I noticed that it always reappeared for the suaver numbers.

Because I am constitutionally unable to resist coconut cake, I went for their dessert special of Coconut three-layer cake. The slice was enormous, easily two actual slices, and not one but two different couples commented on it and asked what it was.

It was a refrigerator style cake, so a dense crumb with exactly-sweet-enough icing and a generous amount of coconut (it could have stood even more, but that's probably just me).

About their song "Vertigo," Kevin said that they'd written their version five years earlier than U2 had written theirs.

"But I think this is what they were trying to say...in their ham-fisted way." Don't you love Irish band rivalry? Besides, it's like comparing passion fruit and star fruit.

Toward the end, we were praised by Kevin, who said, "You've been easily the most reverent audience we've had." Sound of clapping.

"That makes us sound like rock gods...which we are. I meant respectful, not reverent." Actually, given what those two voices can do, the audience probably was a bit reverent. And of course, we were all reveling in having a silent room in which to hear every nuance.

Well, silent except when the server broke a glass.

Bonding not feasible.

*My friend Isaac H. about why I would like another obscure Irish band.~2003