Some home-state shows with the Fighting Jamesons....

You wanted the best... you got the best!

We recently finished up some Virginia shows in Roanoke, Fredericksburg, and Harrisonburg- also a show in Raleigh, North Carolina. Wrapping up the end of March, we played at Hard Times in Fredericksburg where we got to be KISS for just that one night (Mike got them to change the lights behind us to KISS lol). I'm a big KISS fan by the way, and I'm possibly semi-responsible for causing Mike to impersonate Paul Stanley from time to time (in the sense that I encourage this lol). My favorite Paul Stanley-ism is, "Why you people are hot! Why you're so hot- you're... HOTTER THAN HELL! (*then they roll straight into that song)- lol classic. Anyways, they really had some highly flashy stuff with the lighting in that place- and it made for a funny picture too. It was a great space, a long deep room- people were hopping around and having a good time, and the staff couldn't have been nicer. It was a rewarding feeling knowing we'd won the audience over that evening.

Starting things off in April, we headed out to Roanoke, Virginia to Martin's Downtown. The show was opened by Black Mountain Revival, a bluegrass band consisting of stand-up bass, acoustic guitars and mandolin. Though it was my first time meeting them personally, they go way back with the older members of the band- we had a great time hanging out and playing shows with them; they were a definitely a nice group of guys. Their frontman Chris was especially hospitable to us, and also really hilarious.

Justin the, "Irish Thor" Connor at Martin's Downtown

We got a chance to stroll around Roanoke a bit before we played; definitely a pretty town, nice atmosphere. It was wonderful to see some dedicated fans that have been into the Fighting Jamesons since the beginning both before and after the show; showing up with older Jameson's t-shirts. It means a lot to us in the band, because it's very inspiring to see their enthusiasm when they come out to the shows. Also, after speaking with some of them, they seemed highly pleased about the new record and the direction the band has gone in on the new album.

The next night, we headed out to Raleigh North Carolina to play at Tir Na Nog. It was a great venue, a beautiful large Irish bar- ripe for the Jameson's to set up and play our brand of Celtic-rock/punk. We got a great response out of the audience that night, including a nice couple who had seen us previously in March while on one of our dates with Lucero who liked it so much they said they had to come back- along with a nice handful of some fans from previous stops in the Raleigh area.  

at Madipalooza.

Lastly, was our show for, "Madipalooza" at James Madison University. For me personally, this one took the cake! The JMU students went nuts- I have a great batch of some very fun new memories of how wild that crowd was: the "Dr.Pepper-shirt dude" (he was my favorite) crowd-surfing in a giant circle was pretty epic, the gentleman's mosh pit crew to the left-front-center, the purple tank-top dude, the "you with the glasses" girl on her friend's shoulders, the security dude who did the "2-3!" on the Irish Rover- the students at Madipalooza were a rowdy bunch and they definitely know how to rock a Jamesons show. It was wonderful chatting with the students afterwards and conversing with folks at the merch table too. If and when we go back in the future- I'll be thrilled to play there again. These past few shows have been a great run- it's been great seeing older fans return, but also making some new ones along the way. In the meantime, we've got a great handful of shows coming up in May with a lot to look forward to.