Keeping it reel

>>Corrigan Fest’s Molotov cocktail of Celtic, Quebecois and punk-rock music

THE JIG IS UP: Corrigan Fest

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

It’s a couple days shy of St. Patrick’s Day when I talk with Xavier Petermann, local Celtic-punk band Corrigan Fest’s guitarist and chief songwriter, but the man couldn’t give a toss about St. Paddy. Although you may recognize the reels and jigs the band plays, they certainly pour piss and vinegar into their pints o’ Guinness, as one spin of their new CD, La victoire en chantant, will attest.

Punk rock and Celtic music have been strange bedfellows, starting in the ’80s with the Pogues. The cross-pollination continues with contemporary bands like Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys adding more muscle. Corrigan Fest hardly have to prove their punk rock bona fides, what with Petermann cutting his teeth in Banlieue Rouge before beginning a working relationship with Corrigan Fest vocalist Fred St-Jean in street-punk band Shock Troops.

“We grew up listening to punk rock and hardcore, but after awhile, we started to go backwards and look at different forms of music,” says Petermann. “At some point, you have to seek out different music, but we still wanted that same kick and energy of punk. We still love punk rock, but I think we’ve gotten sick of what punk rock has become”

If, on paper, Corrigan Fest come across as a poor man’s Dropkick Murphys, think again, because they’ve definitely found their own voice, steeping their sound in Québécois traditional music. Although the familiar Clancy Brothers reels do seep through, they also introduce an element of French chanson that has more to do with Jacques Brel than the Irish Rovers.

“We do play Celtic music but we don’t sing about Ireland, because we’re not from there. In francophone music, the voice traditionally demands the attention of the listener, so we have to take a lot of care in the lyrics, as opposed to traditional Celtic music, where the reels kind of take most of the attention. We are still coming from a rebel stance in our lyrics, which absolutely stem from our roots in punk rock. We are definitely still anti-fascist and anti-nationalist, and we’re proud of that. I’d like to think we are at least doing something a little different from what most people think of when they think of Celtic music.”