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Irish Connections <ICONSFESTIVAL>

	The weekend!	777 giorni fa
	Icons Summary | By Steve Morse CANTON – The weather cooperated, the musical acts excelled, and the ICONS Festival took another giant leap in the summer of 2007. It drew inquisitive crowds and boundary-pushing groups from the Black Crowes to the Dropkick Murphys, as well as traditional Celtic stars from Mick Moloney to Dervish. I was transfixed by the three-day event, which took place on the lush, 50-acre grounds of the Irish Cultural Centre in Canton – only about 30 minutes from downtown Boston. I’ve covered many festivals for the Boston Globe through the years, spanning Live Aid and the last two Woodstocks, but I’ve never seen a better-run festival featuring multiple tents and stages, which made it all feel like a modern-day Bonnaroo for lovers of Celtic music and its offshoots. I was thrilled to be part of it, having written a number of “Morse’s Corner’’ pieces for this website. “It was an amazing weekend,’’ said producer Brian O’Donovan, who also hosts a Celtic radio show on WGBH-FM. “And though we have a long ways to go in many areas, we feel that the event has taken a first step toward becoming what is destined to be one of the major music and arts events in the US.’’ He’s not just blowing smoke. This was truly a thrilling event, starting on a Friday night in mid-August with a headlining set by the Black Crowes. They arrived late after getting snarled in traffic from New York (their bus pulled in about ten minutes before showtime), but they hit the stage in a pent-up state and played a cathartic comeback set. Chris and Rich Robinson, the brothers who front the band, were in synch and refrained from too much of the jamming that has sunk some Crowes dates in the last few years. They rocked early and rocked hard, slamming into the likes of “Jealous Again’’ as fans enjoyed the Guinness on tap and made merry throughout. This show took place on the ICONS stage, a new, world-class stage with state-of-the-art sound and lights. The Crowes had followed Ireland’s Saw Doctors, who revved up the crowd with their own rockin’ sound, which had been hatched in the pubs of Galway. The crowd sang along to their hits and ICONS was officially in full sway. Saturday’s ICONS stage was highlighted by Altan (perhaps the best act of the day with a twin-fiddle, female-fronted sound that lifted off from a Celtic base into surreal climes) and country-folk luminary Nanci Griffith. She had just arrived that day from taking a red-eye flight from the Edmonton Folk Festival in western Canada, but she performed flawlessly. Likewise sensational was Dervish (led by Cathy Jordan, who tucked in a noble version of Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather’’ amid their jigs and reels) and Boston’s Dennis Brennan Band, which scored with fiery roots music. Saturday also saw the many stages for traditional music come alive. Located on the other side of a couple of verdant fields used for Irish sporting events, these specially erected stages were a lure for families and other Celtic devotees, who wandered amid some alluring food tents (a local barbeque restaurant did boffo business) and some ever-present Guinness taps. The young buzz band Guggenheim Grotto was a big hit, but the emotional peak was reached during Mick Moloney’s tribute to the recently deceased Tommy Makem. Moloney poured his heart out, both verbally and musically, in honor of one of his idols. Sunday presented a fitting climax, as the weather stayed beautiful and the music kept its high quality. The ICONS stage went in a youthful direction with the bagpipe-spiced Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis, followed by the punky, Pogues-influenced Tossers, who sang about misspent youth with clearcut honesty. And then came the Dropkick Murphys, whose phenomenal roll continued with an exhilarating effort that rocked these woodsy Canton grounds to their core. The Dropkicks merged trad-folk and contemporary rock played at dizzying speeds. Everybody in the group, it seemed, could sing and the vocal harmonies were as transcendent as the riffs were hard. The ICONS Festival took a chance this year by expanding from its traditional base, but it was done triumphantly and naturally. Here’s hoping the momentum carries into next year and beyond. Keep an eye on this festival. It should keep getting better – and already the bar is set very high. Steve Morse is a longtime writer for the Boston Globe and current Critic At Large for WBOS-FM. He can be reached at spmorse@gmail.com.
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