Gullifty's - 3/17/01 - St. Patrick's Day - Thick & Martini Bros.

Woohoo! It's St. Patrick's Day! We stocked up on some cheesy, festive goodies for the Martini Bros. for St. Patty's Day before their show that night. Three bottles of green silly string, and three fake, green carnations. We headed off to Gullifty's with Shannon's mom and arrived there around 9. We chose a table to the left side of the stage, sat down, and began to chat. We saw that both bands were getting some stuff set up. Deuce gave Shannon a wee punch on the arm when he walked by. Shannon doesn't understand why she's always getting beat up by people…*sigh*

Melanie rested her head on her arm on the table and a random guy walked by and asked Shannon what was wrong with her friend. Melanie sat her head up as Shannon replied, “Yeah, she’s dead.”

Jim stopped by and introduced us to Michael Reich. Shannon couldn’t hear well and Melanie was half asleep. Melanie ended up interviewing him and then we sat back down to wait some more. During the interview, Melanie looked at Jim once, who was taping and moving his hand. Distracted, confused, and half asleep, Melanie asked the guy, “Where do you think you are from?” lol Afterward, back at our table, Jim introduced us to a gal who he was trying to recruit as a contributor. When he told her our ages, she looked shocked.

Thick soon came on and Shannon had brought her video camera, so she videoed them for a few songs. They were a really good band. No one was dancing, but people still seemed to enjoy them.

After the break, the Martini Bros. came on. We hadn't seen them since New Year's Eve, so we were definitely going through withdrawal. Melanie was wide awake now. Shannon started to video tape, but there were a lot more people on the dance floor, so she had to scoot her way up to the front. A couple of guys were standing right in front of us and left their spots after a song or two, so Shannon had a good filming spot. At random points throughout the set, people were still jumping in front of her, though. It was nice to see all of the drunken Irish fans supporting the Martini Bros. Deuce was quite the Irish lad himself, sportin' a green jacket. Mike and Rej were also their usual stylin' selves, but not as festive as Deuce. They played quite a few covers and tons of originals from "Portable" & "Transmission." After their set, Jim hooked us up with another interview. Scott, the roadie for the Martini Bros, who also has a band of his own, The Scott Keck Band. Melanie interviewed Scott for a wee bit, (Scott said he had a minute and a half) and then we headed back to our table.

A few minutes later, the Martini Bros. took stage once again. Shannon had the silly string cans sitting next to her, on their merchandise stand, and the merchandise lad noticed them there. The adorable merch guy tried to ask Melanie something about the silly string, but couldn’t understand him after asking him to repeat himself twice. So she just said the silly string was Shannon’s and to ask her (even though we split the cost). Shannon said how we wanted to give the cans to Deuce, Mike, and Rej so they could squirt silly string on the audience, but we never really got a chance to talk to them. He said that he'd give one to Scott to squirt at the audience and then we could each squirt some too. Shannon said thanks and later on during the set, Scott sprayed the audience with green string. Shannon attempted to hold the video camera, shake the can, and squirt but it was making her shake the camera, so some other random people ended up squirting silly string. Shannon's dad being one of them! He ended up coming by (he had been at a performance with Pete, Jeff, & Ron of the Badlees). Such the little, local music father. When Shannon's dad sprayed us with it (and accidentally the guy next to us!), Shannon took the can next to her and ended up spraying fumes from an empty can! You know, the fumes that you aren't supposed to inhale…haha oops!

We ended up standing in green goo all night, ew. Deuce even had silly string hanging off of his microphone. Shh, don’t tell anyone that it was us who brought it…I'm sure it was a mess to clean up! Eek! Anyway, back to the music, the crowd was crazy, the music was fantastic as usual, and the energy was great. Shannon was video taping on Deuce's side and he was being his usual camera-hammy self. A little bit later, they said goodbye and went off the stage, only to be cheered back on for the encore. They played "California Man" and Shannon's parents decided they wanted to leave because it was late. We tip-toed our way through the green goo and spilled beer, and said goodbye to our pal, Joy before leaving. Shannon's mom said that she had given Scott the fake, green flowers to give to the Martini Bros. since we didn't get to. Aw, when Shannon emailed Deuce a day or two after the show, he said that he wished they had gotten them earlier because the flower would've went well with his "ugly green jacket." Oh well, we think they looked like their normal rock star selves Cowboy hats and all…