Up For Some Shenanigans?

Dublin 5 plays at Shenanigans in Ocean City, MD twice a year, once at the beginning of the summer season and once at the end. Even so, the Shenanigans shows are the ones I can't bring myself to miss. Nothing quite represents Dublin 5 for me quite like the muted lights of the pub, the clinking of beer glasses in the background, and the light smell of salt water drifting in from the beachscape just beyond the doors. In many ways Shenanigans was where everything clicked into place, where my love for these people and their music solidified into friendship. Missing Shenanigans would be like missing a family vacation, where the stories told years down the road would leave holes in my heart with the knowledge that I should've been a part of them.

So not being able to take off from work didn't stop me. I left my 9-to-5, hopped into my car, and raced the brewing thunderstorms, led by the orange light of the Friday the 13th full moon and the distant thumping of Irish Rock. The first time we came to Shenanigans, we were also racing, leaving college and academic obligations in the dust and headed towards a finish line that promised joy and fulfillment, however brief it was to be. The rest, as they say, is history.

Against the echoes of "Hey, I think that's … SPARROW!" and "You Shook Me All Night Long" and the stories that go with them, we screamed and sang and danced. And when "Where the Streets Have No Name" started, our shouting mixed with sentimental tears that speak only briefly to the nirvana we'd carved out of the lyrics.

As many times as we've seen Dublin 5 perform, it's never the same show. So, after frying like a tomato while lying on the beach, walking along the water's edge, and sleeping despite the apocalyptic booming of the air show above us, we took our places for day two and prepared for another night of beer and shenanigans.

Edited June 2016 from a post originally published June 19, 2014 via Wordpress

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