St Patty's Day au Québec

Ah, St Patrick's Day! The day when college students of all ethnicities and backgrounds somehow claim a piece of Irish heritage while sucking back pints upon pints of green beer. I've celebrated many such nights in my hometown of London, Ontario, but having moved to Montreal, I was looking forward to seeing how a true party city, like Montreal, would handle it. Truth be told, I'm a wee bit disappointed.

I think it's pretty fair to say that les Québécois, en particulier les Montréalais, know how to throw a good party, so what's the deal with St Patty's Day?!? I talked to Phil tonight and he decided to get a few of his buddies together to raise a few glasses in one of the Irish pubs downtown. The location of choice was one I was, oddly enough, quite familiar with: Mclean's Pub on Peel St. I hadn't been there since November of 2004 when Dré and I were in town to see Cagibi and celebrate my 30th birthday, but it left a lasting impression (mostly on my liver, I'm sure).

As we were walking down rue Ste-Catherine, we could see a massive line up for the Peel Pub, so we figured we might be in for more of the same at Mclean's. We could see a small lineup, but this was just smoke and mirrors. Though the place was busy, it was a far cry from the drunken chaos I've seen in years past at Molly Bloom's or the Brass Door Irish Pub in London. The weren't any open tables on the main floor, partly because of the imitation Irish band that was playing, so we were ushered upstairs. Truth be told, there wasn't much to see upstairs. There still weren't many available tables and there was a bit of a wait to play either foosball or pool, but it was missing the atmosphere of a good ol' Irish drunkfest. I blame this on the fact that they didn't disconnect the jukebox, thus allowing some doorknobs to play crap like Sean Paul. Nothing says luck o' the Irish like mainstream, corporately sanitized dancehall music.

After finishing my second beer, I headed back downstairs to listen to the band. Maybe I've been spoiled in my life when it comes to Irish drinking tunes, but these guys were pretty lousy. Sure, they got the crowd involved, but I hope they aren't trying to make a living off of their performances. One thing did occur to me as I listened to a tune about Whiskey: there isn't THAT much difference between traditional Irish music and la musique traditionnelle québécoise. The instruments are pretty much the same (ie. guitar, fiddle, etc), the general tunes and rhythm are similar. It's just the language and the content. The Irish seem to sing mainly about alcohol while the Québécois sing about farming. Make them instumental and I'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two.

I was surprised to learn one thing, though. Apparently Montreal holds its own St Patrick's Day parade. This year it falls on March 19th so I'll be sure to avoid Ste-Cat that day. All in all, I expected more. I wonder what St Jean-Baptiste day will be like...