Irish'ing, Dialed up to 11

Slainte, homies.

7am, kicking off the morning the only way I know how. . .

This year's St. Patrick's Day flew up at us so damn fast we hardly had time to decorate the house in advance. Typically we Houghs start decking out our house in Irish decor in, like, late February, and have Irish music - The Clancy Brothers, The Pogues, The Dropkick Murphys, etc. - blasting on various Alexa devices throughout the house on a daily basis. This year was different though, and none of us are really sure what the hell happened - the holiday just suddenly decided to pop up and we were like, 'Oh shit, we have to go and celebrate this, don't we. . . ' We were distracted with work, with school, with all the terrible nonsense going on in the world right now, who the hell knows.

But anyway, today is St. Patrick's Day (observed), so let's do this.

'Homer vs. The 18th Amendment' - mandatory for the morning.

Right out of the gate, we knew that this year was going to be far different than previous years. Since retiring our own St. Patrick's Day Party in 2023, we've taken to spending more time in Clare and then returning to Midland in order to hang out with the Tribe somewhere (whether it's out at a bar or over at Mitch's house.) Last year got a little nuts towards the end, as some of us had been drinking since 7am and didn't stop until nearly midnight, and Kris had not been a fan of that in the slightest. We had entertained a lot of different ideas of how to divide up the epic day in order to check all the boxes - Clare, hanging out with friends, getting in quality time with the kids, celebrating our heritage, etc. - and never really ironed anything out.

Kicked things off at The Bully for breakfast at 10:30am, a little later than last year.

Then, Yours Truly discovered StubHub.

Back in January, I began perusing this app based on some reviews a buddy of mine had given it - it's basically Ticketmaster but easier and less of a pain to deal with, and you can narrow the events down by your geographic area so it's easier to stay on top of things. I began pouncing on tickets for acts that were passing through our neck of the woods: Kris and I decided to check out Bob Dylan (yes, that's right - THE Bob Dylan) in Saginaw in early April, and BP and I would see The Hives (with The Chats opening up for them) at the Fillmore down in Detroit towards the end of March.

Meanwhile, Ella swings by to accompany Kris and the girls to Clare. 

After nabbing up these two concerts, I noticed that Rise Against - a punk band from the early 2000's that for a long time was being groomed as a successor to Green Day - was playing at The Soaring Eagle Casino on March 14th. . . the same day we'd be heading to Clare for Irish Fest. Ticket prices were $92, which was far too steep for me - I like Rise Against, but I don't love them: I'll put three or four songs of theirs on my punk playlists, but they're more of a $30 band for me, honestly. I was about to say 'screw it,' but Kris figured she'd run it by our buddy Morgan, who works at a Ford Dealership in Mt. Pleasant and whose boss gets a couple complimentary tickets to every concert/event that passes through the Casino.

One of the best Bloody Marys I've had.

So we asked Morgan, figured 'what the hell.' Morgan asked his boss if anyone had requested the free tickets to Rise Against yet - his boss is super generous and gives the complimentary tickets away to his employees on a first come, first served basis - and his boss said nope (no surprise there, punk rock isn't super popular these days.) So he handed them over to Morgan, who in turn handed them over to us, and that's how Kris and I got FRONT ROW tickets to Rise Against for FREE.

With a punk concert on the agenda for today, this year, obviously, was going to play out differently: I headed out to The Boulevard with the guys for our usual Breakfast and Bloody Mary's before heading to Clare, Kris and the girls would follow about an hour later, and together we'd canvas the downtown area, bouncing back and forth between the various bars, the parade, the craft show, etc. Due to the concert, however, the girls would all be heading back to Midland in the afternoon (we had Alayna drive separate this year so that they could do this), the guys would all head back to Mitch's for his annual party, and Kris and I would hang back in Clare and have dinner somewhere in order to kill some time before we headed to the Casino in Mt. Pleasant. Then, once our concert was wrapped up, we'd swing by Mitch's to see if anyone was still up and partying.

Ella waiting for Abby to finish up getting ready.

This year's itinerary ended up working out far better than we had anticipated, and overall the day was much more fun than in previous years. Taking a couple hours off between Clare's revelry and meeting up with folks at Mitch's - a period of time during which we hung out with my parents for a bit in Clare, had dinner, then went to a punk concert - kept us from getting out of hand at the end of the night, which Yours Truly appreciated the next morning for sure. I'm not sure if we'll be able to find ourselves another concert to go to next year for St. Patrick's Day, but we'll have to come up with something else I think in order to keep enough gas in our tanks to make it until the end of the night.

Anyway, I'll let the pics and video walk you guys through our epic Saturday - enjoy this year's St. Patrick's Day (Observed) with The Houghs. 

Behold. . . .

We didn't really end up doing a ton of this stuff. Kris and the girls watched the Parade, me and the guys hit up the usual assortment of bars, we all made an appearance at The Doherty, Kris hit up the Craft Show, aaaaaaand that's about it. Par for the course, really.

Coming in from US-10, the main drag into Clare was blocked off so I had the guys drive around to the north of town and cut across McEwan at the old Clare Party Store (whatever the hell it's called now), and park behind the old railroad station.

Back in my high school days, all the skanks and sluts lived on the 'other' side of these railroad tracks (and I'm sure they still do.)

The historic railway station (which was saved by the town a decade or two ago.)

Some shitty statue a guy with Downs Syndrome made.

Our first stop of the morning was Ruckle's, which we usually hit up first to get it out of the way 'cause it gets crowded later on in the afternoon.

I wish my house looked like this during March, but I don't want to devote the time and energy into it.

We had a similarly sized group this year compared to previous years: Erik and I (as always), joined by Collier once again, and Holty made his Clare debut this year.

I have seen some shit in this bar.

Meanwhile, Kris took this picture of my hometown celebrating a pedophile.

I really wanted to steal this sign - I want to know where they buy these so I can get one for my basement.

My fam ended up walking down to Ruckle's after the parade to meet up with us, and while we were all hanging out we had Ella take a few pics of our fam to commemorate the day.

Alayna brought along Sebastian this year so he could get a feel for what Clare is like on St. Patrick's Day.

Photobombing Abby and Ella's usual pose. That's Dadhood 101, folks.

After settling up at Ruckle's, Kris wanted to pop over to her mom's for a bit, but got a pic of this year's adventuring crew before she took off.

The legendary Doherty Hotel: our next stop.

Pub was starting to fill up, but nothing super crazy yet - they didn't have any live music going while we were in there (which kinda sucked.)

Down the weird steps towards the men's bathroom. . .

If they ever paint over this egress window mural, I'll burn the entire city down to the ground.

Back in my youth, I used to explore this hotel a ton - friends of mine used to work here so I've used the service elevator, explored the back hallways, etc. I'd love to do so again at some point.

While we were setting up shop in the bar, the kids had returned to the Doherty and were grabbing some food from the lobby behind the Ballroom (or whatever the hell you wanna call it.)

Back towards the entrance to the Tunnels (but I didn't go back there this year - I need more liquid courage in order to do so.)

After a beer at The Doherty, we decided to head over to the basement-level Trap Door Speakeasy.

It looks super sunny and nice out, sure, but it was absolutely frigid as f*** out - totally bullshit for March.

This kid almost ran into Erik, who would have had to fight the kid's dad as a result.

Clare leans hard into it's mobster past - it doesn't really have much of anything else going on except poverty and racism, so you can't really blame them.

The pipers make an appearance at the Speakeasy. . .

This couple was nice enough to share their table with us so we had a place to sit. Turns out they're both teachers based out of Frankenmuth and we know a lot of the same teaching staff in the area. Small world.

For the 'Gram.

After a drink down in the basement, we headed upstairs to what used to be called Bob's Lounge.

Two cocks.

The city really needs to stop renaming stuff. . .

Seriously - WHERE do I buy these signs?

Collier buys himself a walking taco. Gotta build on that booze base.

After a beer at Bob's Lounge (I'm not calling it the other name), we headed a block down to Timeout Tavern for one final round. As I was coming out of the bathroom, I took a pic of the bar (you know, for scene establishment), and if you look closely you can see two girls in the center of the pic giving me the stink eye. They approached me afterwards and one of them asked me if I knew her, to which I said 'no,' and as it turns out it was my buddy Matt's little sister. I think she was annoyed I didn't recognize her, but I'm friends with her brother, not her - chill out, lady.

Holty demanding more water from the bartender.

The Ideal Theater (which I haven't been inside since watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 back in, like, 2005 or 2006.

Oh, sweet hometown. . .

I had the guys drop me off at my dad's house on their way back to Midland so that I could meet up with Kris and the girls, who had shown up about a half an hour before me. The kids had all established themselves downstairs with pool, ping pong and jukebox, obviously.

The Cannonball works the table (sorta.)

Abby and Ella picking out songs on the jukebox.

Sebastian and Alayna

Taking a break from ping pong for a pic.

Frickin' Marty Supreme over here.

The kids left Dad's for Midland after awhile, right around the time Kris and I headed off for dinner. On their way out of Clare, they saw a stray cat under a truck and decided to stop to investigate.

On the drive back to Midland. . .

As Kris and I were wrapping up our visit with my parents, the gathering over at Mitch's was starting. The Kings of the Hill were assembling under the gazebo out in their backyard (left to right: Erik, Collier, Cory, Holty, Mitch and Tom.)

Mees and Lori

Taking selfies in the backseat.

Kris wanted to try out this Thai restaurant that took over the spot of Ho Wang's (the staple Chinese restaurant in town - I went to school with the owner's sons), based on a couple people's recommendations.

Irish Car Bombs at the BBB.

Mitch set up some kinda game in the basement for folks - stacking coins quickly or something along those lines, I don't know.

Alicia and Lori

Elise and Rylen showing off some kinda festive cake of some kind.

Dance party in the kitchen (I guess.)

Kris really liked her food but mine was super bland and there wasn't anything to it, I was disappointed.

My kids apparently made an appearance at the Bos's in order to score some free food (which we encouraged them to do.) I have no idea what's happening in any of these pictures, obviously, as we weren't there and these were all shared to our Midland Friend Group Google Photos album.

Collier and Erik ready to start stacking coins.

Holty passed out on the couch at like 6pm. Must have had too much sand in his vagina.

After dinner, Kris and I drove over to Mt. Pleasant and the Soaring Eagle Casino for our concert, getting there with plenty of time to spare - we couldn't have timed this out better.

Kris takes a quick selfie before the first band took the stage. We grabbed a couple drinks and took our seats, which were right in the front row (as previously stated) and so damn close to the stage that if I had extended my legs I could have rested my feet upon it. I'm not exaggerating at all.

The first band was a female-led rock group called Destroy Boys. Like a poor man's version of Bikini Kill, they were young and whiny and definitely not my cup of tea.

(Kris thought they were 'adorable,' though.)

Kris wanted another selfie, this time with the stage in the background. Happy wife, happy life.

Rise Against took the stage after a short intermission (which was just long enough for a bathroom break and another round of drink purchasing.)

Unlike most of my other concert posts, Kris and I took the majority of the pics and video you see here - there's only like one that I pulled off of Instagram, I think.

After a couple songs, the singer pulled out a megaphone so that he could walk around the audience and still be heard (you know, 'crowd interaction' and all that.)

Meanwhile, back in Midland, the Tribe was still at it. Another round of Irish Car Bombs in the kitchen by the looks of things.

Lonnie, Cory, Tom and Collier.

Another impromptu dance party breaks out - they appeared to be doing a lot of this while we were away.

Breaking out an acoustic guitar halfway through the set (some punk bands, like The Bouncing Souls, for example) tend to do this frequently. I'm a fan of it sometimes, but other times it can come across as contrived.

These are the best seats I've ever had at a concert, PERIOD. In this picture, I was not zoomed in at all.

Fun fact: BP and I met this guy at a Warped Tour in 2003 while checking out the merch tables between bands' sets - he's a super chill guy (and probably remembers me, right?)

Courtney, Lori, Mees and Alicia taking a shot of that 'Whip liqueur (forget what it's called) that Erik's a fan of.

These guys put on a decent show, for sure - kinda more 'rock' than punk, sounding more like later (post-2005) Green Day than anything you'd find off an Epitaph compilation, but still decent.

Closing out the show on the final number.

So that was Rise Against, folks. I'd give the concert 7/10 stars, I guess, based on the band's energy, the best seats in the house, and the smaller venue (which made it easy to get drinks and use the bathroom when needed.) It would have ranked higher, but as a punk band I was hoping they'd sound more like their earlier albums (the ones I know more) and not lean as hard into the mainstream rock thing (like Green Day does now, for example, in order to appeal to larger audiences.) It wasn't horrible by any means, but the music itself wasn't my favorite.

Kris and I finally arrived at the Bos's house after our drive back to Midland, once the show wrapped up, getting there about 11:15pm. Most folks had already taken off by the time we got there, or were so far annihilated that they left shortly after we arrived. I had a couple drinks and caught up with some of the more sober people on hand (like those you see here, basically) which was a nice way to close out the evening. This party obviously isn't on the scale as our Halloween Party, the Sheahan's Christmas Party, or Collierpalooza, but it's a nice glimmer of awesomeness in an otherwise dreary month. So yeah, in closing, that was this year's St. Patrick's Day, gang - we'll see you all next year.

- Brian