Young Dubliners with Enter The Haggis
Where: Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday [[Aug. 5)
Info: $25; www.birchmere.com; 703-549-7500
In the 20 years the rock/punk/Celtic group Young Dubliners has been around, they’ve ignored labels and carved a niche as a fusion band — not rock, not punk, not Celtic but all of those sounds.
But despite the auditory blend, critics still label the band and make descriptive comparisons such as “The Pogues Meet Van Halen.”
“Yeah we really hate that,” said band vocalist and guitarist Keith Roberts. “Early on we were Pogues with U2 or Pearl Jam, but we didn’t even really know [the music of] Van Halen.”
The affable Roberts has a right to be disappointed in the comparisons. After the group of Irish and American musicians formed in 1988, they quickly developed the signature sound of rock punctuated with penny whistles, mandolins, and other classically Irish instruments.
“With us, though, the sound was … a pure decision,” Roberts said. “When we wanted to play real rock, we did and someone would add a tin whistle. We could have gone either way but it’s just the fact that we tended to write punk rock songs that became a real career sound.”
Arguably, that melded sound has not only kept the group around for 20 years, but kept them producing exciting new music that has continually won critical acclaim.
In an overview of the band, Amazon.com writers noted that the narrow genres into which critics divide rock “miss a crucial point-all the best rock has been a fusion of disparate elements. Simply labeing The Young Dubliners ‘Celtic rock’ does them — and the listener — a disservice.”
Not that the band doesn’t have a deep affection for pure genres as evidenced by last year’s album “With All Due Respect — The Irish Sessions,” which paid tribute to classic Irish performers and won fans throughout the world as well as the No. 14 slot on the Billboard charts.
On this tour, as is their habit, expect the band to play a “Saints and Sinners.”
“We were talking and if I was in advertising, I’d say, ‘This will be one of the most exciting shows you’ll see,” said Roberts. “I know that’s what people who’ve come to our shows say.”
