I mean, you see lots of ads for drummers and guitarists in that column but maybe once a decade do you see an ad asking for somebody that plays the tin-whistle. I showed it to my girlfriend at the time and we both thought it was a joke. It seemed a little too tailored to my musical resume. Ever the paranoid, and figuring I was the only guy who played the instrument in town, I thought it was a Plot. I imagined responding to the ad, meeting the person who placed it at a midnight rendez-vous in a parking lot, where a van would tear up out of nowhere and four bodyguards in jumpsuits with company logo's emblazoned on their backs would jump out, throw me in the back, and I'd be never seen again -- or my partially clad body would be found weeks later in a Philadelphia sewer system.
But figuring it might be fun to at least check this out and maybe have some casual gig again I phoned up and left a message. I think Dave phoned me back first and then Duane a day or two later. On the two separate phone calls I don't remember what we talked about. Probably something about my musical interests and what each of us listened to. I think they talked about how they mostly listened to the Clancy Brothers and I talked about how I'd mostly listened to The Pogues. An audition was arranged at the NAL space in North Vancouver.
Upon arrival, I met Dave and Duane and further confused their names with one another. (Their parents must like the letter "D"). I was immediately surprised as to how generally healthy they looked for a band that played Irish drinking songs. Duane spooked me out because I wondered where I'd seen him before, and I realized later it was from TV ads I'd seen him act in.
I don't know if we even played any music. I think we might have just sat around and talked. I have a rough memory of actually playing "Farewell to Nova Scotia" or "Off to Dublin" with them, though. I remember I brought a couple of different CD's that I'd played on. But I don't remember if they played me any of the rough mixes they had from what would be the "Liverdance!" CD or not. Dave and Duane seemed generally impressed that I had played in bands and toured a lot before, and that my age jived with theirs. I think a couple of people who had auditioned were old codgers and others were a little too classically trained. To tell you the truth I don't remember much of that meeting but I must have said or did something right because towards the end of the meeting they told me they had a show at The Blarney Stone coming up in a week and could I learn the 58 songs they had in their song list by then.
So I played my first show with The Town Pants at the Blarney Stone to quite a packed room.. I probably didn't play very well (some would say there hasn't been any improvement!) A lot of the songs I already knew, but their song arrangements were so different I think I probably made more mistakes than I'd like to admit. But Dave and Duane seemed encouraged enough and did their best to show me a good time at the show and the whole night was rather fun.