Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis may have played Peterborough many, many years ago, but band member Brian Buchanan is not sure.
The 25-year-old Toronto-based band is always on tour, and because of St. Patrick’s Day, falling on March 17, this month is especially a blur, Buchanan said.
“We’ve kind of been on a perpetual tour for the past 20 years,” Buchanan said. “We’re sort of on the road for the month of March. It’s more like St. Patrick’s Month for us.”
Peterborough Concert Series is presenting the band for a special “St. Paddy’s Weekend” celebration on Friday, March 13, at 8 p.m.
Buchanan (vocals, fiddle, guitar) says the band was founded in 1995 by Craig Downie (bagpipes and vocals), who is the only original member still in the lineup.
“A band called Enter the Haggis was formed to play a St. Patrick’s Day gig in 1995,” he said.
The current lineup is rounded out by Trevor Lewington (vocals, guitar), Mark Abraham (bass, vocals) and Bruce McCarthy (drums).
It wasn’t until the core of the current line up came together 20 years ago that the band took off in the U.S. It was because that new lineup of Enter the Haggis traded in the “drunken nights in Irish pubs in for trying to build careers as songwriters and musicians,” Buchanan said. “We came together and we started working on writing and learning how to write and how to incorporate folk and traditional music into our music.”
The band ranges in style and sound from punk to folk music, but underneath that is solid traditional storytelling songwriting and a Celtic core, Buchanan said.
“One song will have a hard rock punk sound and the next will sound like a country song. … Every song has a story,” reflecting the human experience, Buchanan said, adding “We try to make sure that even if we are playing a big heavy song on stage you can still take a guitar and play it around the campfire.”
But it’s March and that means a St. Patrick’s Day party style concert, Buchanan said.
“We’ll be focusing on higher energy and danceable music so people feel like they are getting the St. Patrick’s Day experience they are looking for,” he said of Friday night’s show.
And Enter the Haggis always puts on a family-friendly show, he said. “It’s not unusual for us to see three generations of families at our shows.”
“(Audiences) should expect an engaging and fun live show. They should expect it to be a loud party,” he said, adding, “If they know our music already, they should expect to hear some new stuff.”
The band will also be selling their newly released tenth studio album at the show, he said. You can listen to all of their music for free or buy it on their website – https://www.enterthehaggis.com/home.
You can also learn more about their planned April 2021 Scotland trip, which Buchanan wants everyone to know they are invited to. “We just announced we are doing a trip next April to Scotland and we are bringing as many fans as we can.”
The eight to nine-day trip will include a few planned gigs, impromptu jam sessions and sightseeing trips to tourist spots like Loch Lomond and tours of a single malt distillery or two.
This will be their second tour like this to Scotland. They have taken about eight trips like this to Ireland, he said.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Buchanan said.“It’s always a party. We had 100 people come with us last time. We all get on big coach buses together. …See a few shows and get to know a couple hundred of your closest friends.”
The local Celtic band Ishna Trio is opening for Enter the Haggis in what promoters say will be “a more traditional take on Celtic music with a stripped-down Irish Pub style set to set to start off the evening.” Ishna Trio includes Peterborough husband and wife, former Riverdance lead singer and one of the founding members of Three Irish Tenors Ciaran Nagle and virtuosic fiddle player Tara Novak.
Tickets for Enter the Haggis with Ishna Trio start at $25. Tickets can be purchased in person at Toadstool in Peterborough, or online at peterboroughconcert.eventbrite.com.
Leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, there is more in store on the Irish music front in the region.
Celtic band The Kelly Girls are playing a benefit show for the Park Theatre in Jaffrey at the American Legion Hall in Jaffrey on Saturday, March 14, at 7:30 p.m. Audiences are told to expect tunes rooted in the Celtic traditions of Ireland, Scotland, Canada and America. Tickets are $20. A cash bar will be open and the American Legion will be serving traditional Irish favorites, corned beef and cabbage as well as bangers and mash. Each entree costs $10.
Cooper’s Hill Public House also has a big weekend planned for the Irish music fan. In addition to their weekly Sunday session from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Dan Foster (fiddle) and Eric McDonald (guitar, vocals) will perform from 7 to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Also, on Sunday the third annual Jaffrey St. Patrick’s Day Parade is marching through downtown Jaffrey at 2 p.m. Then following the parade, at 3 p.m., and again at 6:30 p.m., The Park Theatre is presenting an exclusive screening of the 25th Anniversary performance of Riverdance, in high definition, at the Jaffrey Woman’s Club. Tickets are $15, or $10 for children 12 and under. This is the 25th anniversary of the world-famous Irish dance troupe and to commemorate the special anniversary tour, they filmed their gala performance in HD at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland on Feb. 9.
For tickets for the Kelly Girls or Riverdance, and more information, call The Park Theatre box office at (603) 532-8888 or visit www.theparktheatre.org.