Live review from 22nd Anniversary Festival Day 1:
1.Franks Medley (trad)
2.Drunken Lullabies (cover)
3.I Useta Love Her (Cover)
4.Wake Me Up (cover)
5.The Riverflow (cover)
6.Jump Around (cover)
7.You Spin Me Round (cover)
8.Dirty Old Town (cover)
(All covers are ‘Naggin Eejits’ versions)
The Naggin Eejits, are Hong Kong’s #1 Celtic Band because they are, by their own accord, and by my very unreliable personal experience, Hong Kong’s only Celtic band. This is a tall order in a city that was at one point jokingly called the “Celtic Colony” and whose Scots-Irish traditions run quite deep (and not only in the insane amount of Guinness my parent’s generation drank). I may have seen them once at the Races but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them sober, so I was actually quite excited for this show.
So, then! Are the Naggin Eejits the boys of the old brigade? Or should the IRA make them run the hell away?
Let’s start with the grand. Song line-up’s a good bit of craic. They began with Frank’s Medley, a mix of classic Irish drinking songs like Hills of Connemara and I’ll Tell Me Ma (or the Belle of Belfast City) among others. They then moved onto covers of more modern Celtic Rock like Drunken Lullabies (Flogging Molly) and I Useta Lover (The Saw Doctors) and The Riverflow (Levellers). They even swapped drummer, Rick, and lead singer, Paul, for a rousing cover of House of Pain’s Jump Around. The audience were clearly (disappointingly) more receptive to the British and American song covers Wake Me Up, Jump Around and You Spin Me Right Round. They did, actually, wake up, jump around and spin. I also really liked a lot of the song arrangements; the fiddle opening to Wake Me Up was a welcome Celtic addition and gave Paul a good chance to interact with the audience, encouraging one of the photographers to get down and do a jig! In any case, Kate and Lidia’s fantastic fiddle work deserves a shout out.
But let’s talk a bit about the audience interaction…and about the parts of the band that are not girls with fiddles. Irish folk is unfortunately not as popular here as it once was, so I didn’t expect everyone to be belting Dirty Old Town with me (which Paul said was a “return to Ireland” but is actually, fun fact, about Salford, Manchester). Nonetheless, I still spent a good part of the show wishing it was more of a ceili. The beauty and power of a good Celtic party is that everyone’s singing and dancing. If you don’t know the lyrics, the rhythm will infect you, and in any case, after the chorus has been screamed three times, one naturally picks it up. The audience did not seem to be infected – neither by the blight nor by anything too bright – for the first few songs, they kept somewhat at arms length and only warmed up around the time Wake Me Up came on. The band was playing and talking, the people were listening but there didn’t seem to be a very close connection. Perhaps the choice of key could have led to this – a lot of the songs seemed a little low in Paul’s range which kept him from really connecting musically to the crowd.
Part of me feels like I’m being overly critical because I wanted to see a gaggle of leprechauns impersonating The Wolfe Tones. That may be racist. But I’m also unsure what is so Celtic party band about a black Adidas T-Shirt.
All in all though, a couple of fun jigs. Whether the Eejits are really the best Celtic party band in Hong Kong is up for debate but I wouldn’t for a day wish we not have them. After all, everyone needs some luck o’ the Irish in their lives.
-Cyril Ma
The writer would not like to apologise for the number of badly placed Irish puns and references in this review.
Live Review from Wild Boar Music Festival 野豬音樂節:
1. I’ll tell me ma (Shamrock)
2. Streams of whiskey (The Pogues)
3. The Boxer (The O’Reillys and The Paddyhats)
4. Donald’s Where’s your Troosers? (Enter the Haggis)
5. Wagon Wheel (Darius Rucker)
6. Encore: Drunken Lullabies (Flogging Molly)
Trust a kilt-clad Irishman and his band of Celtic folk rockers to get the party started.
The minute that Naggin Eejits took the stage, everyone’s interest was piqued. I’d seen them earlier on my way in- pretty hard to miss them, cutting striking figures with their matching tartan kilts and the broadest grins in sight (and not only because it was a few days prior to St Patrick’s Day)- and my already high expectations were to be well exceeded.
Opening with The Sham Rock’s classic belter I’ll Tell Me Ma, already people were clambering to their feet and clapping along with enthusiasm. It’s a song which everyone knows somehow, even here in Hong Kong, and it set the tone for a set full to the brim with joy, festivity, and all out silliness. There’s something marvellous about people who don’t take themselves too seriously these days, and the Eejits made sure that no one could.
Playful, yes, but the Eejits are also damn good musicians. A banjo isn’t an instrument too often seen on HK’s stages, and these guys knew how to pull it off with ease. Their rendition of country tune The Boxer was a sweetly nostalgic leap across the pond, with beautiful acoustic guitars adding some smooth Southern warmth to the golden hours of the day. We were then warned that the next song would be Scottish in origin – the incredibly entertaining Donald, Where’s your Troosers?, recounting the journey of a Scotsman and his kilt on his journey down in England.
By the time their set was due to finish, the crowd was having absolutely none of it. For the first time that day, every single pod at The Grounds was chanting instantly for “ONE MORE SONG! ONE MORE SONG!”, and their wishes were granted. It was a never ending party right til the band waved goodbye, and even then the boundless, infectious energy which they brought was sure to stay with each audience member long after they’d set off for the Beer Bay.
Celtic bands were never my thing- until now. The Eejits have carved themselves a hefty slice of the Hong Kong music scene’s proverbial pie, and it’s safe to say that their music was a refreshing breath of air amidst all the oppressive madness around us today. I would say we need more bands like the Naggin Eejits, but honestly? I think they’re entirely enough on their own.
– Jasmine Gould-Wilson
