Church Hill Irish Fest, Ben Folds, Spoon, Amos Lee

Get outside this weekend and enjoy the Church Hill Irish Festival. The weather looks like it will be absolutely bee-yoo-ti-full. The fest takes place in Church Hill (duh) in front of St. Patrick’s Church on North 25th Street between Broad and Franklin Streets. It takes up about four blocks there in Church Hill. It runs from 10 AM - 7 PM on Saturday and 10 AM - 6 PM on Sunday. It will cost you all of a $2 donation to get in.

They have a big children's area with the usual moon bounces and other stuff for the kids to do. There is good food and beverages, adult and otherwise, available. We've been to this festival every year since 2001. We'll be there with the kids on Sunday and this festival is always a good time.

Bit of advice for those with wee ones: Try to leave the stroller at home or plan on moving very slowly through the crowd. It can get crowded but once you make it through to the kids area you can find a spot to park yourself and the stroller.

Below are the band schedules. Bands alternate between local Americana bands and Irish stuff.

Here is the band lineup for Saturday:
10:00 – 10:30 PARADE
10:30 – 11:00 Irish Dancers
11:00 – 11:30 Miles O’Brien
11:30 – 11:45 Irish Dancers (Bridget Boswell)
11:45 – 12:15 Hurricane Base
12:30 – 1:00 Haze & The Transients
1:15 – 1:45 Powder Keg
2:00 – 2:30 100th Monkey
2:45 – 3:15 Blue Line Highway
3:30 – 4:00 Ex-Patriots
4:15 – 4:45 Kelly Kennedy
5:00 – 5:30 Bart Chucker Band
5:45 – 6:15 Page Wilson With Reckless Abandon
6:15 – 7:00 Uisce Bethea

Bluegrass South Stage
11:15-11:45 am – Robin Sean Carns
12-12:45 pm – Dave Alltop
1-1:45 pm – Miles Obrien Band
2-2:45 pm – A Good Natured Riot
3-3:45 pm – Big Boss Combo
4-4:45 pm – Cary Streeet Ramblers
5-5:45 pm – Leather Britches
6-6:45 pm – Somerville

Here is the band lineup for Sunday:
10:00 10:30 Irish Dancers
10:30 – 11:00 Donnybrooks
11:15 – 11:45 Razen Caine
12:00 – 12:30 Susan GreenBaum
12:45 – 1:15 3 Bad Men
1:30 – 2:00 Atkinsons
2:00 – 2:15 Bagpipers
2:15 – 2:45 St. Baldricks Head Shave
2:45 – 3:15 Tinkers Damn
3:30 – 4:00 Gary Gerloff Tribute
4:15 – 4:45 Taters
5:00 - 5:30 Janet Martin
5:45 – 6:30 Andy & Cindy

Bluegrass – South Stage
12-12:45 pm – Swagger iii (Bryce Miller)
1-1:45 pm – Detox Mtn Boys
2-2:45 pm – Irish Dancers (Bridget Boswell)
3-3:45 pm – Cook County Bluegrass
4-4:45 pm – Easy Street
5-5:45 pm – Becky Taylor & Open Fire
6 pm – Poisened Dwarfs

Sunday, Ben Folds comes to The National. Tix are $30 in advance and $35 at the door. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Zach Williams. Ben Folds is best known for songs like "Rockin' The Suburbs" (featured in the animated film "Over The Hedge") and "Brick". Ben Folds has wonderful quirky sense of humor as you can see in this video for "You Don't Know Me". I was going to post his version of Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't Sh*t" but that would hardly be safe for work, now would it.


Amos Lee will be at The National on Tuesday. Tix are $20. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Cary Ann Hearst. Amos is a soulful, singer-songwriter and you might dig him if you like Bill Withers, John Prine, Neil Young, Norah Jones, Jack Johnson or Ben Harper. Click HERE to check out the video for "Arms of a Woman". They won't let me embed it.

On Tuesday, DJ Willims Projekt has their regular gig at Cafe Diem. The gig starts at 9:30 PM.

Wednesday night at The National, Austin TX band Spoon will be there. Tix are $20 in advance, $23 day of show. Doors open at 6 and show starts at 7 with openers Strange Boys and Deerhunter. According to Metacritic, Spoon was the most critically acclaimed band of the last decade. Here is the video for "Written In Reverse":

Written In Reverse from Spoon on Vimeo.

That's all for now. See you at the Irish Fest. Have a great first weekend of Spring!

Tony Jordan