St. Patrick's Day Trip (with Pictures and Video!)

Well, because it was a very successful St. Patrick's Day trip, the details were hazy to begin with. To start it off, we went to the Flogging Molly concert on March 15. Emily and I have always been big fans of their music, but never have made it to a concert.. boy will that change in the future! For those of you who i've talked to on this board about Flogging Molly... you were right.. (especially you Aggie182).. they are an awesome live band. One of the best I've seen. but, just as importantly, they had two opening bands that were *almost* as good as them. I've never seen a show that had two bands that were *almost* as good of a live band as the headliner, and I've been to lots of shows. These two no-name bands (The Cherry Cokes; The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band) where very good. Here's a quick picture of the band:


The show was incredible, but afterwards, we were ready for more music (Irish music of course) and more drinking, so we headed over to Nine Fine Irishmen at NYNY. The house band at Nine Fine, Ri Ra, sings mostly traditional Irish music, but sometimes 'rock'd up' a bit. We both enjoy quite a bit, but we also enjoy the company we meet even more. That night, we met and hung out with several folks, but only have pictures of Em and one person:

now, we met this girl on night 1, but this picture is from night 3, so the clothes may differ a bit throughout the picture essay.

The second day, March 16 was a bit slow going. We were up and about until the wee hours of the morning the night before and I'm not sure when we got up. But, after getting up, we headed downtown (we were staying at MGM) for a shrimp cocktail at the Golden Gate and some downtown gambling. The gambling downtown, as all weekend, was unremarkable and we headed over to the Hard Rock to cash in some comps. We ate at the Pink Taco with some comp dollars there and enjoyed it.. the last time in vegas we were wasted while eating at Pink Taco so we thought it was the best food ever... but this trip proved to us that their food is very good and we'll go there many times in the future.

That night, we headed back to Nine Fine Irishmen (remember, this was a St. Patrick's Day trip for us, so lots of Irish music was on hand...) to hear Ri Ra and drink a bunch more. The second night proved to be as fun as the night before, but we choose to end the night earlier than before as we had a big day on March 17... St. Patrick's Day! But, these are a couple of the people we met and hung out that night:

(Em is the girl in the middle)

St. Patrick's Day arrives! We were late getting up again, as the night before proved to be a late late night again.. You meet people, begin to hang out, what are you going to do? Leave? yeah right.

So, we got going at about 11am which is late for us on St. Patrick's Day in Vegas. We were heading over for a nice day in the sun, meeting people, listening to Irish Music and many many beers. It was a Monday, so a couple of well placed text messages went out to some T2V folks (you know who you are... ). While there, Coaster Kikky came out to meet us and enjoy in the music and weather:

(my finger was in that shot, so disregard... I was drinking... sue me....

While Kikky was there, we listened to more Ri Ra (they played during the day on St. Patrick's Day on the outdoor stage at NYNY) and met lots more people. The pictures started to fade off that day, as the drunker we all got, the less pictures I remembered to take. But, of course, Em met yet some more people, here is one of the girls:


Some other quick highlights from St. Patrick's Day... Ri Ra was awesome,
here is a youtube clip from them playing one of my favorite songs, but the place is non-crowded... this song is quite a bit different with an engaged crowd
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The little lady in the balloon hat is at EVERY show Ri Ra puts on.... honestly, EVERY SHOW! And, Ri Ra plays 6 nights a week. Em and I have talked to her lots, and all the locals know her. Em and I are also quite well known by the band (we all know each other by name and talk often throughout the night... man, we are such groupies!). But, this is more of the Irish tradition that we love. Not only do we enjoy the music, we also enjoy the craic with the band and other patrons.

Wow.. while finding that YouTube clip, I found many other Ri Ra clips on You Tube and was brought RIGHT BACk to the weekend.. man.. now I really want to go back! seeing those clips, I know how to convince Em to head back to Vegas in an instant... maybe.. just maybe.. this will convince her to a trip to Vegas for MMV....

Anyway, back to the photo essay... Ri Ra has an Irish Step Dancer that does a very good jig, this is the only clip I could find on You Tube, but it shows a bit of what she does. It's pretty short but gives a good look to what Irish Step Dancing is.
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While we were at the St. Patrick's Day party, some other girl spontaneously started step dancing.. which was enjoyed by all, so I grabbed a quick picture:


Of course, there was quite a bit of debauchery on St. Patrick's Day as well, much of which I shan't post on a public site, but I should tell you it was a great time by all. We did meet some fun folks who liked to let it all hang out and I snapped a picture which can be shared:


I can't impress on anyone enough on how poor this trip report compares to the actual fun had by Em and I at St. Patrick's Day. As the night arrived, even more fun was to be had, with many many more stories that don't translate well to the written word (especially by me who is more challenged by the written word than the spoken word...) nor do I have pictures of many of those escapades as the better the escapades became, the less likely I was to leave the fun being had to snap pictures of the events.

Let it be known, that if any of you were at all intrigued by the Irish going-ons at Nine Fine Irishmen that we so throughly enjoyed, please head there on your next trip and enjoy the musical stylings of Sin e Ri Ra) and enjoy the craic of an Irish Pub, remembering that how much you drink is as important as the number of people you meet and the friends you make. It's near impossible to NOT make new friends at an Irish pub.




Ah... Another St. Patrick's Day is over. It's a bittersweet day in our house. While we had, yet again, an incredible time over St. Patrick's Day, we have a year to wait for the next one.

Oh, and I got a new tattoo while there. no pictures of it yet, but it's pretty small on my forearm, based on a design I've been carrying with my (literally) for almost 10 years. Besides the gambling (which was quite horrible for the short time we gambled), this was easily one of the best trips to Las Vegas we've ever been on. A summer trip and a fall trip will most likely been in order.

 

Nice trip report. Where did you get your tattoo done?

 

Sounds like a blast!

 

Brilliant trip report. It has me all excited for next week when I'm sure I will be hitting Nine Fine for a few drinks and a bit of Craic on a few occasions

 

Great TR dude. Glad you enjoyed Flogging Molly. It will be good to meet you at MM.

 

Really enjoyed the trip report! Sounds like you had a lot of fun.

 

It was great seeing you & Em again, Ken. 9 Fine was a really great time. I definitely have to go back sometime when it isn't quite the madhouse it was on St. Patrick's Day. See you again soon!!

 

A great write up as always!

Coulda done without the assless chaps dude, but it makes a point to someone I guess....

 

ken! nice report. em is a chick magnet, but you already knew that, you dog. so, as a smithwicks rookie, what does a veteran irish bar customer/irish band groupie prefer to imbibe in?

 

Excellent trip Ken...and sure, I will forgive you for bragging throughout your trip that you were in Vegas and I wasn't, but I wouldn't expect anything less from you

Great to hear that you and Em had a kick ass time!!!

 

Great job, thanks.

 

Great

I love reports w/ Pics. I have to go for St. Patty's one yr.!

 

I got it done at the new Starlight Tattoo parlor in Mandalay Bay. I just walked in an got it, which I wouldn't normally do, and I wasn't even drunk (well.. not wasted.. ). But, the place is brand new and super clean, so I went for it after talking to one of the artists for just a couple of minutes. The place is not cheap by any means. I way over paid for the tattoo, but in my mind, the guy did a really good job, making it look much better than I thought it would, and I didn't have to go anywhere to have it done, so it was okay with me.

 

Em is a person magnet. I just didn't take pictures of her with the guys we met. What's the point in that?

I prefer Guiness to drink, but will never turn down a Smithwicks. (pronunciation guide at the link). Just depends on the mood I guess. Both are two of my favorite beers. At our local pub, I'll usually order a Smithwicks instead of a Guiness though. Just depends on the mood I'm in.

 

nice - looks like a lot of fun.

Smithwicks - a fine ale... definatley a fall back one for me if I can;t see anything else I like..


I just happen to have some at home as well.....

 

Great Trip report. I have seen the band and enjoyed many a beer while watching them at NYNY. "smiddicks" (that's how I say it anyway) is a beer I have been enjoying for a few years. I first tried it at a pub outside Boston and then it finally came to Florida when we lived there. I think I found it at one bar here in Memphis so far. St. Patrick's Day is my favorite holiday, one of these days I will spend it in Las Vegas!! Good Irish Music and Beer, it doesn't get any better than that........

 

Great trip report Ken. Can you top it next week?

 

Sounds like a great time! I hope Em decides to come out and join us, if even for just a day or two.

 

Great report; great pics and video.

 

After hanging out with you and Em, it doesn't surprise me that you guys can hit it off with so many people in such a short amount of time. Great report!

See ya' next week!