My musical tastes run from the overly sentimental toward the downright absurd.  I do not deny this.

However, two days ago I went to a concert that was so over the top that it was even a bit much for me.  A bit much.  For me.  Me who has a poster of Josh Groban in my baby’s room so the baby becomes used to his musical face. 

“Celtic Thunder” is a new rip-off male version of Celtic Woman.  I imagine the producers thought, “Oh, hey!  Look how well these Irish broads sell.  You know what will make more money with the over fifty set and bored 30-year-old alleged doctoral students?  Irish MEN!”

Oh PBS.  You know your viewers so well.

So I attended the Celtic Thunder concert because a week before the show tickets were offered for “buy one get one free.” This should have sent up a red flag but I saw Celtic Woman in concert twice.  A merging of Josh Groban and Celts seemed like perfection. 

The show seemed Celtic enough.  The stage had platforms built to look like rocky cliffs.  The screen and backdrops were lit to mimic a ship on the sea.  And the production began with--I am not making this up--cloaked figures processing across the stage, while a hooded figure talked about the sea and sky on the screen.
The men with the big ol’ Celtic drums were in full-on kilt ensembles.  Word.

But then.  Then the nice men who make up “Celtic Thunder” came on and sang, oh, two songs that were vaguely celtic?  The rest of the set list including covers of two Donny Osmond songs, Nights in White Satin, Desperado, and . . . wait for it . . . I want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner. 

Oh, how proud the Scots must be. 

I could ignore the choreography which consisted mainly of wandering around on stage and soulfully lifting the arms towards the spotlight.  I could even ignore than the woman in the front row nearly broke a hip when the 15-year-old kid came out and sang “Puppy Love.” And I can overlook the random woman that came out and did an Irish jig during a song that was about, I think, how women chew you up and leave your broken heart for dead.  But Foreigner?  Come on, people.

This just proves to me that I need to watch the whole PBS special before committing to seeing it live.  It’s just that they keep interrupting it to solicit donations.  I can’t help that I saw the one song that actually kept mentioning Ireland over and over.  My advice from all of this?  Go see the “High Kings” instead.  They sing what you think they’ll sing.  And who knew that would be such a surprising thing?