Ri-Ra is an Irish pub in Raleigh that I'd never visited before last night. I've been to the Yeats in Chapel Hill, the James Joyce in Durham and Tir nA nOg in Raleigh, but that's just the tip of the Irish pub iceberg around here...anyway, a band, Seven Nations, that I first heard at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games back in 1995 (when the group was still called Clan na Gael) came and did a show at Ri-Ra last night, so a group of us piled in the car and went. We had a dinner reservation for 8pm, so we left around 7.

Our first sign that we were in for a bumpy ride came when we walked in the door and the woman ahead of us, who also had dinner reservations, was screaming at the manager. Our ears perked up. Apparently Ri-Ra wasn't SUPPOSED to take dinner reservations for that night, there were people who showed up at 6pm to see the band (who wasn't scheduled to start playing until 10:30pm), and the manager wasn't just going to kick them out. The woman was being totally unreasonable and quite "ugly" as my mother would say. By contrast, we smiled, said "please" and "thank you" and were seated almost as fast as she was. We ended up with great seats, in an alcove to the side of the band--we could still see them (from the side) and could hear perfectly well.

The company was good, the beer was excellent, and the service was great, considering the circumstances. I'm reserving judgment on the food until I can go back on a night when they're not being slammed by teenage band groupies. My first impression, though, is this: If you must eat there, stick with the very basic pub grub and/or the traditional Irish specialties. Forget the steaks and the "spicy" chicken. As for drinks, they have Harp and Guinness on tap, and lots of other good beers available as well. It was a crying shame, we all agreed, that the group at the table beside us spent then entire night drinking Bud Light. Go to Ri-Ra for drinks, definitely, for food, maybe.

A warning: Ri-Ra is not for you if you have asthma or are allergic to cigarette smoke. Even though it was almost 2am when we got home, I was sorely tempted to get in the shower and wash my hair right then. When you have waist-length hair and it all smells like smoke, that's icky.

On to the music:
Seven Nations started out as a group called Clan Na Gael, and their first album, "Rain and Thunder," is basically acoustic, traditional Scottish music, with no drummer. Their second album, "Old Ground," is where they became a Celtic-rock fusion, using the highland warpipe as a lead guitar and adding a rock-and-roll drummer, Nick Watson. Their third album, "Big Dog," is where they really hit their stride and came into their own as musicians, IMO. The sound is high-energy, versatile, and the playing is consistently good. They released a couple of live albums, "Road Kill" volumes I and II, then came out with "The Factory," after Neil Anderson left. The band took a hard right into almost straight-up rock with "The Factory," which shows very few traces of their Scottish roots.

Also, around the time "The Factory" came out, the group changed its look. Up to that point, they'd always worn kilts on stage, since two of the members, Kirck McLeod and Neil Anderson, grew up playing in pipe bands at Scottish Highland games across the country. Plus, most of the guys had long hair. So, what you had was long-haired Southern boys in kilts playing kick-ass traditional Scottish music fused with rock. It was incredible. Then came "The Factory." They all cut their hair off, put away the kilts and got down to the serious business of trying to be a "real" rock band, apparently. They somewhat redeemed themseves in my eyes by putting out a mostly acoustic album a year later, called "The Pictou Sessions," repackaged for mass-market release as "Seven Nations."

I respect their need as musicians to change and evolve, but they're going places with the music where I'm just not all that interested anymore. It seems to me that they've lost some of their uniqueness and are in danger of becoming just a rock band witha gimmick (a fiddler and a piper)--sort of like Jethro Tull is a rock band with a flutist (mind you, I like Tull). If I want a wall of sound and fury, I'll put some Nine Inch Nails on. What Seven Nations, or more appropriately, Clan Na Gael, used to be was unique. What they've become? I don't know.

The show was a mixed bag. The band was plagued by sound problems for most of the night but kept playing anyway. My main beefs with the guys are that they started almost an hour late, which is a rock-band stunt, I'm not used to Celtic groups pulling it. Then, they only played for thirty minutes and took a thirty-minute break. Most professional bands play at least 45 minutes, then only take a 15 minute break. It struck me as very primadonna-ish, especially after their late start. But the crowd was very into their music, and the energy was there.

They played some of my favorite older stuff from "Big Dog", as well as some new stuff from "The Factory" that I don't like as well. The band has gone through several personnel changes in the past couple of years. They lost a piper, Neil Anderson, and replaced him with a technically superior but not as versatile piper--Scott Long, who used to play with Ashley MacIsaac. Long is a great piper but he doesn't sing like Neil did, nor does he play pennywhistle or uillean pipes. A couple of years ago they also added an insane fiddler, Dan Stacey--think Tazmanian Devil dressed in thrift-store rejects. They finally seem to have absorbed the concept of a fiddler and the music sounds more seamless than it did when he first joined.

Alas, most of the Neil Anderson-era material seems to be gone forever, which is a shame because I think those are some of their stronger songs: "Pound a Week Rise," "Johnny Cope/Jerusalem Rap," etc.

I will say this for the band: They've certainly provided a shot in the arm for the aging fans of Highland games, if what I've observed at Grandfather Mountain happens at other games they play at--they've brought a much younger audience to the games, and some of these teens are sticking around and becoming intrested either in their own Scottish or Scottish-American heritage or in Scottish culture in general. Some are picking up musical instruments, some are taking up dancing, others are learning Gaelic. It's great.

All in all, it was a decent evening. If you're interested in Scottish music that packs a wallop, consider picking up a Seven Nations CD. You won't think of bagpipes the same way ever again.