Irish music at The Soon

            Sitting in the Runcible Spoon there are only two things on my mind, that delicious salmon that I ordered, and sudden urge to learn how to play the mandolin, Irish flute and/or the accordion. The air is filled with the scent of great food and the sounds of traditional Irish tunes. In the Runcible Spoon there are eight musicians crammed tight into this little nook of the restaurant, despite the tightness everyone still comfortably performs epically and extremely Irish. It was an awesome experience. 

            The whole experience was extremely laid back, both the ambiance of the restaurant and the musicians themselves. The way they were all set up was that there were eight musicians sitting roughly in a semicircle, at the vertex of this semicircle was Grey Larsen, probably the most experienced of the bunch. The instruments that were played in this band included the concertina, accordion, Irish flute, guitar, flute, goatskin drum and a variation of a mandolin. All of the musicians were comfortable in this participatory style of music, although one did say he was nervous to be around such a great Irish flautist, and although he had his own flute he was more comfortable playing the drum.

            This type of music playing is laid back but at the same time very organized. While everyone was playing simple nods or even just eye contact was used in order to say that they were going to change something up or switch into an entirely new song all together. Something that I loved about that was how they got songs started, sometimes they would say to the woman in the corner “hey how about you sing us a song.” she agrees and sings a beautiful Irish song, or they say “hey lets play a happy one.” What I like most is how they will just start playing and one at a time everyone else joins in, that is incredible to me.  In total I believe they played about four or five songs, mostly in six/eight time signature. What I find beautiful about this session is that no one really chooses a song to play beforehand; they don’t have a set list, they just play for themselves.

            From what I observed, I believe that these gatherings were not meant to perform, but instead to connect on a musical level with friends, also they do it to just catch up on old times. These weekly meetings were never meant to show off musical abilities, but rather play with each other for each other, there was no one to impress. I believe that the values that they place on these gatherings are very similar to their lives; especially Larsen, this is especially valued to him because he grew up playing this music; he is a part of this cultural formation. Some of the newcomers have a different view on the sessions, someone who doesn’t live with this music day by day uses this as a cohort, or an escape from their reality temporarily.  As a mirror of society the values that are shared in this Irish music is that of DIY, local, uncompetitive and made just for the enjoyment of others. These aspects can be directly connected with the cultural formation of those who play in this band. They are all aspects of a DIY friendly Irish band, who plays solely for the enjoyment of playing music.