Bastard Bearded Irishmen

Bastard Bearded Irishmen are a Pittsburgh Celtic rock band formed in 2008. They mix high-energy punk with traditional Irish folk, fiddle, and mandolin. Frontman Jimmy Bastard started the group as a one-night tribute that never stopped. A live BBI night is loud, fast, and built for singing, drinking, and stomping along. Think Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, and The Pogues with South Hills grit. They have opened for Dropkick Murphys, Gogol Bordello, Street Dogs, Gaelic Storm, and Rusted Root. City Paper readers voted them Best Rock Band in Pittsburgh four years running. If you want a live Irish punk blowout, this is that show.

God’s Green Apples are a four-piece from Pittsburgh’s Mon Valley with late-’80s punk in the blood and Americana in the current set. They started as skate-punk kids in Charleroi, Belle Vernon, and Donora, first under the name Flagrant Violation. The name they kept came from Jim McDonough’s grandfather saying “sure as God made little green apples.” After a ’90s run that produced the 1995 album Bajesus, they went quiet and came back in 2016 to write and play again. The lineup is Jim McDonough, Roby Rollison, Mike Evans, and P.J. Caruso. A live night with them is tight, loud, and older-and-meaner than the garage years. New singles like “Can’t Stop” sit next to the old catalog without pretending they never left. If you want Mon Valley punk that grew up and did not get soft, this is that band.