NYC’s hardest-working St. Patrick’s Day act would possibly simply be The Prodigals, a long-running Celtic punk band that may play 4 back-to-back gigs in Manhattan and Queens this Friday.
A type of stops can be iconic Irish pub Paddy Reilly’s in Kips Bay, the place the band have had a weekly residency for 26 years.
It was proper earlier than St. Patrick’s Day in 1997 when Prodigals chief and founding member Gregory Grene lobbied Paddy Reilly’s proprietor Steve Duggan to get his group its first gig on the venue.
“I knew he was from County Cavan in Ireland, my county,” Grene advised The Submit. “So I mentioned, ‘Steve, any possibility of a Cavan lad getting his start here?’
“He turned to the woman beside him, and he said, ‘Joanie, what do you think?’ And she was Joanie Madden, who is a very legendary flute and whistle player,” Grene recalled.
“And she said, ‘Sure, Steve, give ’em a go.’ And that was it — without hearing us,” he mentioned.
And for the 26 years since, The Prodigals have maintained a weekly Friday residency at Paddy Reilly’s — named after the legendary Irish singer — increasing to incorporate Saturdays after a post-pandemic reopening.
And naturally, the quartet can be taking part in there this Friday — from 3 to six p.m. — as a part of a marathon pub crawl that can even embrace Bantry Bay in Lengthy Island Metropolis (11 a.m.-2 p.m.), and the Laborious Rock Cafe (7-10 p.m.) and Connolly’s (10:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m.), each in Instances Sq..
However little doubt the Prodigals’ house is — and at all times can be — at Paddy’s, the place they play to a really younger crowd, most of whom weren’t even born when the band knocked again their first whiskey there.
“It’s pretty extraordinary,” mentioned Grene, 57, who lives in The Bronx and teaches English literature at Greenwich Nation Day Faculty. “The average age is around 21.”
Certainly one of their most memorable moments on the pub occurred early on of their residency with Christy Turlington — on the top of her supermodel stardom within the late ’90s.
“She was throwing a party for [then-boyfriend] Jason Patric on a yacht in the New York Harbor, and so we played that,” mentioned Grene. “Afterwards, she came to Paddy Reilly’s to see the band. It was a really fun, crazy, long, long night. Somebody leaked it to Page Six!”
The pub is sort of a second house for Grene — a photograph of his twin brother, who died within the 2010 Haiti earthquake, hangs contained in the venerable venue. Every year, The Prodigals maintain a profit at Paddy’s for a basis that was established in his honor and has constructed a faculty in Haiti.
After a pandemic-induced hiatus, Grene, who handles accordion and vocals, is the one remaining unique band member. He’s backed by drummer Eamon Ellams, 48, guitarist Colin Forhan, 34; and flautist Sean Tierney, 35.
“It’s an iconic place,” mentioned Yonkers resident Tierney, noting Paddy Reilly’s significance within the Irish music scene. “Everybody has played here.”
After asserting it was about to shut in January, a brand new proprietor, Desi Murray — one other Irishman, natch — stepped in; a deliberate hiatus will start on Mar. 31, however Murray expects to reopen in Could.
So what’s the magic within the Guinness-scented air?
“It’s joy, I think,” mentioned Grene. “We’re very happily merchants of joy. The place has a great alchemy to it. Things happen here in a really lovely way … I mean, I met my daughter’s mother here. So my daughter was born in a way because of Paddy Reilly’s.”
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