Fiddle Festival to bring
Celtic flavor to Eugene
A violin is for classical music, but a fiddle is for fiddling.
A trio of Celtic fiddlers known as “The Celtic Fiddle Festival” will play at WOW Hall at 8 p.m. March 6.
The trio consists of Kevin Burke from Ireland, Johnny Cunningham from Scotland and Christian LeMaitre from Brittany.
The men are from three different Celtic cultures, but they are also three good friends who share a love of the same instrument.
The trio recently released their live, self-titled album on the Green Linnet label. Soig Siberil, a guitarist from Brittany, will accompany the group for this performance.
Tickets are $21.50 in advance and $24 at the door and are available at WOW Hall, the EMU Ticket Office and Fastixx. For more information, call WOW Hall at 687-2746.
– Alix Kerl
Dead Kennedys bring
audiences to life
The Dead Kennedys, a popular punk band of the late 1970s and early 1980s, is proving that they can still reach audiences with a reunion tour that will bring them to Eugene. But they will perform without founding member Jello Biafra.
The band goes on at 8:30 p.m. March 4 at the Wild Duck with opening band Spread Eagle. Tickets are $12.50 in advance and $15 at the door, plus applicable service charges, and the performance is open to all ages.
Despite Biafra’s absence, guitarist and founding member East Bay Ray said he was surprised at the reaction they received from recent audiences. He said someone had seen the band rehearsing, and word soon hit the street that the band was performing together, which sparked a dramatic increase in ticket sales.
“I’ve never seen so many smiles at a punk rock show,” he said.
Since the group broke up in 1986, Ray said the band members have been working on other musical projects. They began rehearsing together in November 2001 and have released “Mutiny On the Bay,” their first live album.
“The audience is intelligent, more so than in the ’80s,” Ray said, adding that today there is not the same violent element that was always associated with their audiences in past decades.
Ray said the “action had been really good” at the recent shows. He said he expects there to be a lot of energy and some stage diving at the Eugene performance. He also said the band has been playing better now than they ever had in the past.
For more information, call the Wild Duck Music Hall at 485-3825.
– Jen West