I’ve been looking forward to the Kansas City Irish Fest in Crown Center for a while now. It’s not just the Irish Fest, though. Even more specifically, it’s The Elders with their self proclaimed “arse kickin music from the heartland.” This is one fun band. This is even a more fun band when you are watching them with 2,000 people filled with the Irish spirit (as well as the Irish spirits).
2 years ago, we first discovered them at the Irish Fest since we stuck close to the big stage for most of the day, and had amazing seats for the show. If we hadn’t gotten there early, there’s no way we could have seen them… at least not with binoculars… which is what happened last year. I wanted to go find a seat really early, but I was alone in that thought. So the entire place was packed, and we just left because we couldn’t hardly hear them let alone see them by the time we got there (I wonder if that’s why they call them the elders).
So I knew that when I saw that they were playing at 9pm, it didn’t matter that I was going to grab my seat at 5. By golly, I was going to see them. So that’s what I did.
But the weird thing was, is that while the band before them, Enter the Haggis, drew a pretty big crowd, it kept getting smaller the longer it went on. And during the break between their set and The Elders, the place was really sparse. I was starting to feel sorry for The Elders.
So they came out on stage to meet their spotty crowd, and I thought that they looked different so they must have changed members. And really their music didn’t seem as good. That’s why nobody was there.
And then they said, “This is our first show in Kansas City. We thought we’d be playing to tumbleweeds. We figured when you heard that The Elders were playing, that nobody would come see us, but you guys are great!” Confused, I reached down for the schedule that had been left by somebody a few rows down. There it was on the schedule - 9pm The Elders… on a different stage!!!
So we got up, headed to the other stage and found 2,ooo people rocking out to the Celtic fun. For the 2nd year in a row, I was in a spot where I could not see nor hear The Elders… so we left.
But all is not lost, Enter the Haggis was amazing, and I got to have this conversation about a comment on my previous post:
Me: So you could say no to Tilly?
Watson: Yep.
Me: That’s not very nice.
Watson: Well, she’s a freak. Part cat, part turtle - what does that even mean?
Me: Tortoise shell is a type of marking on a cat.
Watson: Ohhhhh.
Me: You didn’t know that, did you?
Watson: Nope.