It seemed to be they were celebrating our culture more than we were. At the Fly's Tie show, McQuade will be joined by Dave Irish on fiddle, Jeff Pierson on mandolin and Mark Smith on bodhran, an Irish drum. He said this gig will start with the traditional Irish tunes. Probably the first set will be mostly traditional, but as the night progresses, we'll start rocking it up a bit. We'll throw in some originals, but it depends on the crowd.
Every night is different.
You have to read the crowd. Irish operated the sound board for Celtic Soul and got to know McQuade through those gigs. According to Irish, his ability to read the crowd is one of his most distinguishing characteristics. That and his songs, of course. He's good at reading the crowd and keeps the crowd going, which is hard to do when you have a bigger band.