Blarney

Saturday night, the Horseshoe Tavern hosted the 33rd annual Martian Awareness Ball with Mary Margaret O'Hara. It was an excuse for local musicians to ham it up on stage for St. Patrick's Day, and for the grey-haired audience to get pissed drunk. And I here I thought it was some sort of a charity a la Andy Kim's Christmas Show, much to my regret.

I watched people who should know better load up on the booze for a long while. Finally, the house band came on stage and started playing a smooth jazz Greensleeves. I admit to feeling a little put off by the drunken yahoos but I thought, "I'm too old to like staying up this late, but I'm not old enough to like this pap." Things got better with the next number, a rocking blues tune with O'Hara bounding up on stage to do back up. It went south again when another local singer sang a special version of Come Together. The new lyrics, an ode to all things Irish and alcoholic, were tolerable but not the muzak arrangement.

O'Hara finally introduced herself and the show and did an abbreviated version of When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. Despite her antics, which were funny, the power and artistry of her voice and phrasing shone through. Apparently, in some years it was mostly her. How I wished that was the case tonight. A trio of Martian babes butchered several songs including Petula Clark's Downtown. Things got better when a smooth performer did an amusing ode to all the celebrity Dannys sung to Danny Boy. His duet with O'Hara: an enthusiastic Old Devil Moon was also great, especially when he started singing about all the other songs with Moon in their title. His follow-up, local jazz singer Barbra Lica, sang a wonderful Green.

But things got shaggy again with several painful performances. I decided to cut my losses and headed for the door.