Every girl in the Levee on Saturday night wished that her name was Kathleen when lead singer of Irish rock band Black 47, Larry Kirwin, shouted, “This one’s for all the Kathleens!”
Although many students were disappointed that due to inclement weather, the band wouldn’t be playing in the quad like last year, Black 47 didn’t let down the 200 down who were packed into the on-campus bar.
There wasn’t cushiony grass to break students’ falls in 2005, but that didn’t stop them from crowd surfing. Fairfield girls delighted the band with their Irish step dancing during the jigs and reels and the guys clapped their hands and stomped their feet to the beat.
During the performance, the band played songs including “The Big F,” “Desperate,” “40 Shades of Blue,” and their hit song, “Funky Ceili.” They covered Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” and encored with “Green Suede Shoes.”
The songs’ lyrics usually related to the conflict in Northern Ireland and civil rights issues in contemporary New York.
A few days after the show, Kirwin spoke with The Mirror about his experiences with playing at Fairfield.
“Fairfield University is always a great gig,” Kirwin said. “Many of the students know the band’s songs already.’
“Matt Dinnan is a perfect host,” he added.
The university was the band’s fifth stop on their three-month tour up the East coast and into the Midwest. This was the band’s fourth year playing at Fairfield and Kirwin said this is not the band’s last year on campus.
“We love the students,” he said. “We see many of them in the course of the year while traveling the country, so we’ll be back. We’re looking forward to next year.”
Most students thought the rain would put a damper on the university’s spring weekend, but Black 47’s performance proved otherwise.
“I think a lot of people were disappointed that the weekend would probably be washed out,” said Kevin Donohue ’07. “But having the band here [at The Levee] created a great environment. It was a really fun place to have them perform.”
The only complaints about the location of the performance were regarding the Levee’s refusal to serve alcohol.
But bartender Matt Ventura ’05 said The Levee was closed because Spam Jam had been planned for that day.
“It was really hard to find workers,” he said. “Obviously for those who are 21, it would have been awesome to drink Guinness with the band, but the event was still great and there was a huge turnout.”
Ventura also said that there wouldn’t have been “dirty big pints of stout” permitted on the quad, which was the event’s planned location.
For most students, the lack of alcohol didn’t matter.
“The band does such a great job every time they’re here,” Donohue said. “They always get the crowd involved. They absolutely met my expectations.”
Chris Zeitz ’04, who came back to his alma mater for the weekend’s festivities, said this was one of the band’s best performances that he’s seen.
“It was such a great show,” he said. “Everyone seemed to be into it. I always looked forward to seeing them when I was an undergraduate and I’m so glad they continue to play at the university.”
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