KMRIA - A Pogues Tribute Band featuring an all star cast of Portland musicians (members of Decemberists, Minus 5, Hanz Araki, Casey Neill & The Norway Rats)Up from the bogs to celebrate and mourn the passing of beloved songpoet Shane MacGowan, once again KMRIA will be performing faithful renditions of the Pogues mix of traditional Irish music and punk rock. Drawing from the records Red Roses For Me, Rum Sodomy and the Lash, Poguetry in Motion, If I Should Fall From Grace With God, Peace and Love, and Hells Ditch, many of the most beloved songs in their repertoire will be covered. The show features as much grit, bluster, and drunken glory as can be mustered without sacrificing the intricacies of the material. The name KMRIA is an acronym for Kiss my Royal Irish Ass excerpted from James Joyces Ulysses and used in the Pogues song Transmetropolitan. The band includes Hanz Araki on flutes and whistles, Ezra Holbrook on guitar and vocals, Chris Funk on bouzouki, banjo and mandolin, Derek Brown on drums, Scott McCaughey on guitar mandolin and vocals, Casey Neill on guitars bouzouki and vocals, and Jenny Conlee on accordion and keyboards. Everybody sings... and that means you too. I heartily subscribe to this effort. Why, I even gave Funk and Conlee directions how to play the impossibly arcane middle section of Bottle of Smoke, which neither Jem (who wrote the damn middle section) nor Terry Woods (who never plays the same thing twice) can actually get through without extemporizing. Neither can I, truth be told. But at least I know how its supposed to go.JAMES FEARNLEY of THE POGUES
