Great lineup of bands this weekend.

Good show at the Palladium this Saturday night.

Irish Times will be open and serving before and after the show.

More concert info on the Palladium events page. Palladium show starts at 7PM.

Last Laugh plays at the Times on Friday night.

We have a few closet Yankees fans at the Times. Please don’t hold it against us.

We know there are more of you out there hiding like the Taliban in Red Sox Nation. We just want you to know that it’s ok. Some of you, like us, probably have some really good excuses like you were born there; it’s your dad’s team or you just really like Derek Jeter for some strange reason.

I feel so dirty just typing this, but we wanted you to know that we’ll be playing every Red Sox and every Yankees games on our TVs. You’re welcome to join us. We can’t stop the rest of the place from heckling you, but this is a safe place to cheer your favorite team no matter whether it’s the wrong one or the right one.

As a precaution, though, we’re only offering 1/2 priced appetizers for every Sox Game. If you’re coming down for the Yankees game, you’ll have to pay full price. The people here learned long ago it’s not a great idea to flaunt any love for the Yankees too liberally.

Probable Cause and Irish Times are kinda like Bonnie & Clyde, ice cream and bananas, chips and pretzels….

So, we’re honored that year after year they keep on coming back and playing their anniversary party at the Times.

Saturday Night April 5th, Probable Cause will be celebrating its 18th anniversary at the Irish Times. It will be an amazing Event!

This’ll be their 18th anniversary and the 4th year they’ve held it here. It’s been a great party the last 3 years. We expect no different this year.

Get here early for free t-shirts and other giveaways to celebrate this crazy milestone!!

Chad Clements is opening act. More info over at Probable Cause’s website.

We’re hosting the Worcester Music Award Show again at the Times this year. In years past, the show has been packed with the widest variety of Worcester Music Lovers. The event really brings local music makers together. If you’re at all interested in supporting the local music scene, you should come down.

Finally. What a great four days we have lined up for you, Worcester.

Friday night, Chad Lamarsh is in town doing Rock and Pop as only he can. Chad is SO talented, one of his original songs is played on the popular Soap Opera, ALL MY CHILDREN. We will also be giving away a BURTON SNOWBOARD donated by Budweiser tonight. If you come before 10pm, your chances increase. Up at REHAB, we have our $100 Hot Body Contest at midnight. It’s easy to see why REHAB has been voted the TOP SPOT in Worcester to dance since 2005!

Saturday night, the boys from Barre come to The Irish Times. Ryde is made up of 5 guys from the area who put on one hell of a show. Self-described “CRUNTRY” music….I like to describe it as “Bad Company and Lynard Skynard go to Nashville!” Either way, it’s a packed house and a great show.

Sunday night, St, Paddy’s Day Eve, is a big day in Worcester in 2008. The Saw Doctors play the new HANOVER THEATER downtown and we will be having a post-concert party hosted by Chad Clements. We will also be celebrating St. Patricks Day at midnight by giving away 50 free Corned Beef and Cabbage dinners.

PADDY’S DAY!

Traditional Irish menu items to be served all day long. Irish Music from start to finish. And best of all, THE HIGHLAND ROVERS will take the stage in the evening to celebrate as only The Irish Times can!

CHEERS!

Here at The Irish Times, March Madness isn’t just the college basketball tournament, but a more accurate description of the month-long party that is happening down here.

Starting this week, when we have Syndicate on Friday and Never In Vegas on Saturday. For those of you who know our bands, this is a SPECIAL TREAT as two of the biggest and best cover bands in New England play on back-to-back nights. If you’ve been waiting for a special week to come back down to the bar and hear some great bands, this is it!

Sunday, March 9th is always a big day in Worcester….PARADE DAY! The parade and Park Ave will be jumping all day on Sunday and as always,m The Times will be the spot to go after the Parade. The Drunken Uncles will be performing from 8pm until midnight and special prizes will be given away all night long! As always on Parade Day….NO COVER CHARGE!

We want to be the first place and the last place you celebrate Paddy’s day this year, so we are having a huge celebration on Sunday March 16th. Chad Clements will be laying music along with Irish music of Saw Doctors, Dropkick Murphy’s, Floggin’ Molly and a few others. The show starts at 8pm and will get crazy immediately after The Saw Doctors concert at the new Hanover Theater. We will also be giving away 50 Corned Beef and Cabbage dinners that evening at Midnight to celebrate the start of the best holiday of the year!

There has also been some confusion as to when everyone is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year. Let me assure you that no matter when the church, the government or the newspapers say you need to celebrate it…The Irish Times will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day ON St. Patrick’s Day MARCH 17th. We have the world famous (yes WORLD famous) Highland Rovers playing at 8pm, traditional menu all day long, and we will be opening at 10 am for you early starters!

One thing is for certain, the “Madness” happens at The Irish Times all month long.

Cheers!

Since I have recently started spending more time writing online, I thought I should comment on a post at Buck’s blog at Radioball.net

A fun and somewhat related anecdote: While at the START Holiday Arts fair this past December I had a T&G employee tell me “it is a proven fact that nobody actually reads news online”. So If you’re reading this and it was news to you, please go back and forget the experience immediately.
Equally fun and anecdotal, advertising revenue here on RB for the same period is up 345.74%

Recently, The Irish Times has been in the news in reference to police activity on Main St. Here’s what Worcester Magazine had to say about the subject:

Alcohol is a big component of Gemme’s argument. In one section of his report, Gemme reports that “licensed alcohol establishments … generate a disproportionate level of police activity in the city of Worcester.” According to Gemme, five of the top 23 locations in the city for multiple arrests between June 2006 and June 2007 were so-called “pouring locations:” Irish Times with 245 arrests, Voodoo with 74, Jillian’s with 35, Palladium with 34 and Sh-Booms with 23.

Conversely, The T&G actually spent the time to dig a bit deeper into the story:

“We see a lot of binge drinking,” Officer Thomas M. Hast-ings, a member of the unit, said on a recent Thursday night. “Some will even drink on Main Street while walking to the bar.”

“Some kids think they can drink a whole bottle of Captain Morgan — which would put an experienced drinker out cold — before they go in,” added Detective Capt. Edward J. McGinn Jr.

Many of the young adults caught by police don’t have Worcester addresses. Leicester, Spencer, Winchendon, Fitchburg and Webster were some of the hometowns of the young adults arrested in early January.

Some are college students. Others still have the drive home at the end of the night. Capt. McGinn, commander of the Detective Bureau, said drunk, inexperienced drivers hitting the highways at 2 or 4 a.m. are dangerous.

“The only result can be disaster,” echoed Police Chief Gary J. Gemme.

The Irish Times, the focus of the Thursday night enforcements, does a great job enforcing the liquor laws, the police officials said.

The key point that Worcester Magazine missed in their quote was that all but a small handful of the “Irish Times arrests” were people who had never even entered the bar. Between the underage drinking arrests in surrounding parking lots and the searches we used to do at the door, the number of actual arrests inside the bar last year was single digits.

The Irish Times prides itself on being one of the safest places to have a good time, listen to live music and dance in the city. We have daily police details and more security staff on then anyone else in the city. It may cost us a bit more, but in the long run, our customers are safer.

We applaud the Worcester Police Department in their efforts to clean up the underage drinking, as it makes our job inside the bar a bit easier.

A lot going on during “St. Patrick’s Week” here at The Irish Times.

March 9th, or “Parade Day” as we call it here in The Woo, we are throwing the biggest POST-PARADE PARTY in the city. No cover, free buffet and live music by “The Drunken Uncles”. The party starts at 7:30. So after you have used and abused Park Ave, don’t forget to stop down to the biggest Irish Bar in town.

March 16, cult-heroes “The Saw Doctors” will be playing at the new theater downtown. To celebrate their show and the kickoff of St. Patrick’s Day, we are having the unofficial SAW DOCTORS POST-PARTY here at The Times. Chad Clement will be performing live, and Saw Doctors music will be playing as well. For the first 50 customers of the night, we’ll be giving away 50 traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinners at midnight.

March 17…..THE BIG DAY! Back by popular demand, THE HIGHLAND ROVERS make there way up to Worcester to play The Irish Times. They are bringing a bus-load of people with them to the show, which starts at 8pm and goes ALL NIGHT! We’ll open at 10 AM for those who want to get a jump on things and have giveaways, t-shirts, hats etc. all day long. Year after year, this is the best St. Patrick’s Day party in town. 2008 will be no different.

Cheers.

From all accounts, The Foo Fighters show at the DCU center last night was a success. Several people coming from the show raved about the sound and the band. As usual, The Times was packed before and after the show. If you haven’t been here on the night of a big show, do yourself a favor and stop by. It’s always packed and a really good time. Here is the schedule for both The Palladium and The DCU Center.