January 16, 2012 at 9:51am
I'll always remember the first time I saw Enter the Haggis. It was at the Irish festival in Altamont back in 2007. I'm not sure how or why I caught its set, but during one of the band's Celtic-rock jams all of the band members starting rocking back and forth in time with each other. It was awesome, I was hooked, and I've been a fan ever since.
Coming at the contemporary Celtic music arena through the folksier tradition, Enter the Haggis has been blending a musical cornucopia of Canadian, Scottish, Irish, and other world music with drums and electric guitar and bass since 1996. On Sunda it brought those same sounds to a quite crowded Lovin' Cup.
The group has added a few more sounds to the already dynamic mix since the last time I saw it. Craig Downie now plays trumpet on top of his previous harmonica, bagpipes, and percussive duties, adding a new, yet not necessarily better, layer of sound. It wasn't bad playing by any means. I'm just not sure how much brass necessarily fits in the overall picture. Perhaps I'd rather just hear more bagpipes.
The set focused on newer songs off the band's recent "Whitelake" release. The tunes relied a lot on the trumpet, which almost bordered on jazz or cabaret at times. While the evening included some of back catalog staples, it didn't dedicate as much stage time to older stuff as I would have liked. Sure, "No More Stones," "One Last Drink," and "Gasoline" all were there (though I do have to ask why the band brought the breakdown sections in "Gasoline" to a grinding halt), but if you hadn't picked up the newest Haggis release, which I somehow missed last fall, older Haggis Heads could have been a little lost.
That said, the group was just as enjoyable as always, and stood as a reminder that I really do need to get that new CD. ETH played two one-hour sets and walked the precarious line of keeping energy at a steady boil until the last few songs, ending the night in a raucous roar. Enter the Haggis has always been great, and this show was no exception. Whether you have the stomach for actual haggis or not, ETH is worth checking out.
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you liked the show.
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Comments for "CONCERT REVIEW: Enter the Haggis at Lovin' Cup" (1)
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eln said on Jan. 16, 2012 at 11:51am
One of the impressive strengths of this band is their consistent willingness to push their song writing and the instrumentation in those new songs towards new boundaries. Whitelake is no exception. It *is* a new sound for them, but honestly, each album has had a new sound; that is one of the reasons why I am such a big fan - terrific musicianship means that you keep moving it forward. Plus they just have such good energy on stage and in person, how can you not get hooked?!
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