By DJ Salinger, BROOKLYN – It’s a Tuesday night and as usual the dance floor is cluttered with couples each engaged in various stages of groping as prescribed in that ancient mystical text, the Kama Sutra.
But unlike fashionable Mumbai, where bangra beats rule the night, Irish music is what’s making these pub-goers flip their lids and let themselves run wild – in this case the Irish music of popular indie favorites U2.
U2, not to be confused with YouTube, a popular Internet website, consist of 4 Irish blokes, one of them who sports the unusual moniker of “Bono”.
“Their music is really popular around here,” said Brian Whittiker,47, owner of The Duck N’ Fox Irish Pub. “We often play entire U2 albums,” he went on.
Hmm. From watching the amount of beer consumed and witnessing- first hand – the smiling faces as U2 blared from the overhead speakers at The Duck N’ Fox, I’d say Whittiker was dead on with his comments. Dead on.
But are there any other Irish pop music groups that are popular in pubs?
“Oh, that’s a stickey wicket,” declared John Dig, a bartender at another Irish pub who had stopped by the D & F to say hello. “I suppose Sinead O’Connor might’ve been popular once upon a time,” he said after three and a half hours.
On Wikipedia I found other Irish artists like The Cranberries, The Pogues and U2. If you go to an Irish pub you might hear their music. If you like it then later on in your room you’ll probably download it, right?
But U2 has that special Irish pub connection, that other, somewhat lesser Irish bands lack. No other Irish band will ever have it as long as the world exists.
“An Irish pub isn’t an Irish pub, unless you’ve got U2 on singing ‘In the Name of Love’ – which isn’t about Martin Luther King by the way – it’s about Daniel Day Lewis, in that movie (In the Name of The Rose)”, said Gerhard Ecker, 26, who is a regular at the Duck N’ Fox.
“I tell you there is nothing finer that sitting with a Guinness in an Irish pub and hearing ‘In the Name of Love’ come on,” he went on.
Or did he?
