Boiled in Lead celebrates their 20th anniversary at First Avenue in Minneapolis this St. Patrick's Day. Wow. 20 St. Patrick's Day shows at FirstAve; I think I've been to 8 or so of 'em, maybe more. The Tim Malloys, Folk Underground, and the Minnesota Pipes & Drums will open the show. Former BiL members Todd Menton and Josef Kessler will be special guests (and other former bandmembers and associates are likely to show up, too). Should be big fun.

Folk Underground is the Fabulous Lorraine's new band. You may know Lorraine as one of those Flash Girls or from her gig as Neil Gaiman's personal assistant (I just know she's fabulous).

The Tim Malloys are a popular irish bar band who play frequently in the Twin Cities area. Some of you may also know Adam Stemple from Boiled in Lead or Cats Laughing or 'cuz Jane Yolen's his Mom. He's in the band along with John Sjogren and Neil Johnston. Anyway, they just put mp3s of all the songs from their out-of-print first album on their website. Click on the song titles. It's a rough live album circa 1997.