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Drunk, broke and with a can of baked beans to donate to the RI Food Bank, I headed into The Penalty Box seemingly shortly into The O'Tooles' set. Promising my friend Holly that I wasn't going to drink anymore that night would prove to be a difficult task, as all three bands could easily be lumped into the drinking music category (and the barage of people walking by me with delicious looking Newcastles didn't help), but I try to keep promises at all costs.
The O'Tooles were a cover band, which came as a surprise to me, but they had a good songbook to choose from. Its fun hearing Rancid, Dropkick Murphys and The Tossers, and they did the songs justice. The crowd was having a good time singing along, when not taking trips to the bar, and the band was a flat out fun time.
My expectations became pretty high and my excitement level grew when I walked to the front and a sparkly gold accordian, a mandolin and a fiddle (or violin-I still don't know the difference) were all sitting there waiting to be played (a bango and flute type instrument came into play later). There were bagpipes as well, which had me expecting an Irish sound (as did their name, The Pubcrawlers).
The band lived up to my expectations with a high energy and highly entertaining set. These guys know how to have fun onstage, and they easily won over the crowd. Their basically traditional Irish punk sound, mixed with a sea santie style (they covered "All For Me Grog") had people moving, fist pumping and Oi-ing.
A few notes of interest I noticed during their set: their singer looked like the guy from "Trainspotting," only if he had taken a role in "Romper Stomper." It was fun watching the fiddler and mandolinist try to kill time when they weren't playing. They were moving, but they looked awkward. I couldn't hear any of the non traditional instruments that well, but I'm sure they'd sound great on CD or with a better sound system.
Sharks Come Cruisin' needed a bigger room. In addition to the people jockeying for position to read the cue cards up front, a lot of the crowd took the opportunity during their punk rock sea shanties to dance. This included what looked like some small square dancing and couples doing their thing like a high school prom. Those not dancing (and even some that were) sang along in a greek like chorus, adding a lot of spark to the already energetic vocals of Mark Lambert. The band, especially the fiddle player, showed their talent through out the night, keeping the tempos tight and the crowd moving.
The songs, being traditional and also being played regularly by the band, were well known and received a huge response, with the crowd joining in on almost every lyric. They played a couple new songs that were more on the ballad side, with one having possibly the best sing along part I've heard. Songs of utmost popularity included , and they were talked (I.e. forced) into encoring with "Drunkin Sailor," complete with made up verses and guest (drunken members of the crowd) singers to end an eventful and happy night.