CELTIC ARTS CENTER CONCERT

WICKED TINKERS

FINN MacCOOL and SLUGGER O'TOOLE

John Anson Ford Amphitheatre

Saturday, September 6 - 8:00pm

Prepare yourself for a wild ride with WICKED TINKERS. Pioneers of the growing Tribal Celtic movement, Wicked Tinkers have been playing haunting, heart-pounding bagpipes and irresistible, tribal drums as a professional band since 1995 and for many years before that at parties, renaissance faires and on various street corners. With the addition several years back of the mesmerizing drone of the Australian didgeridoo and bronze-age Irish horn the magic was complete. Sit back and be transported to an earlier time in Scotland and Ireland when battle cries filled the air and strange, unheard-of creatures roamed the night. Or better yet, get on your feet and let your body move to ancient rhythms and forgotten sounds. 

Don't think that this is dry, dusty music for museum shelves- the boys in the band merge the best of modern, almost rock and roll energy with the hypnotic, insistent grooves of their gaelic ancestors. Rare is the bystander who comes away without feeling a surprising, sometimes bewildering connection with long-forgotten, primal emotions and half- memories of ages past and experiences unknown and yet somehow familiar. This is music to set your jaw, put a fire in your belly, a glint in your eye and a dance in your feet.

The WICKED TINKERS bring their vitality and humor to stages across America. They were on national television: THE LATE LATE SHOW with CRAIG FERGUSON. Touring the U.S. for most of the year, they have made friends and fans from all over the world at some of the largest Highland Games, including: Pleasanton in California; the Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games in Enumclaw, Washington; the Texas Highland Games in Arlington, Texas; festivals in Estes Park, Colorado, and Las Vegas, Nevada; as far east as the Oklahoma Highland Games; the Kentucky Scottish Weekend; the Rhode Island Celtic Festival; and the Mid-Winter Scottish-Irish Festival and Fair in Pennsylvania.

Some of WICKED TINKERS' biggest fans are kids! The band has performed and instructed at schools for children of all ages.

"heart-swelling music from a group called the Wicked Tinkers" - Mike McDaniel, Houston Chronicle

"Music that truly isn't about being pretty, it's about being forceful and filled with rhythms of life." - Chuck Thurman, The Coast Weekly

 "A sound powerhouse!" - Antje Depone, Monterey County Herald

 "The Celtic bagrock band ... the bagpipe-and-drums answer to The Clash! ... They play like their sporrans have been set ablaze!" - Dean Bonzani, Flagstaff Live

WICKED TINKERS sound is the distillation of the passion of a people and their music. Like a fine, smoky Scotch whisky, it's a little rough around the edges but unmistakably the real thing.

John Anson Ford Amphitheatre

2580 Cahuenga Blvd., East, Hollywood

323-461-3673 • www.fordamphitheatre.org