The Tucson Irish Musicians Showcase

Where & When Saturday February 22, 2025 at 7pm | The Berger Performing Arts Center, Tucson, AZ

Reviewer Patricia Cassidy

I attended the Tucson Irish Musicians Showcase at The Berger Performing Arts Center, in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday (February 22). The Berger Center is a premier venue for showcasing Tucson’s performing artists. It’s a state-of-the art facility with excellent acoustics, a very comfortable environment, excellent lighting plus it’s downtown.

It was a packed and lively house (seats 480) with a full program of Irish music from 7 local Tucson groups: The Out of Kilters, The Shanties, Púca and the Wild Ones, Dunnóg, The Wholigans, Strike Your Fancy, the Wild Swans, and David Shaul. For us who love Irish music it was a musical feast!

Some of the highlights of the evening, for me, was listening to David Shaul singing in Celtic, the “Belle of Belfast” sung and played by The Out of Kilters, as we all know the happy and up-tempo song and could sing and clap along. And an interesting and different 10-minute song about the Battle of Ofaben – a soulful piece about an Irish battle played with the Uilleann pipes and drum. The music was dramatic and mournful at different times. During the Interval there was an impromptu jam session in the lobby with someone on spoons, guitar, fiddle, accordion, concertina – that was a a lot of fun!

But a real treat was to come when Puca and the Wild ones were playing, and three ladies from the Celtic Steps Irish Dance School in Tucson appeared (a surprise!) and they danced two reels, and two slip jigs. Then,during the encore, when all of the musicians were on stage, the ladies performed a closing reel on stage to wild applause. We all had a great time and were reminded of venues like the McCoy Hotel in Tucson where Irish Music is played regularly.

© 2025 Patricia Cassidy