The Tossers

The Tossers played last night at Mary's Place (the oldest bar in Rockford, we're told). They're an extremely talented 7 instrument Irish band from Chicago with growing national popularity. The Psychobilly Kadillacs opened (think: Johnny Cash with an Irish brogue). It was a truly awesome show and truly awesome to find the Tossers playing in such an unusual venue. From the Mary's Place website:

The story of how this huge live event is happening at the oldest bar in Rockford is a good one. Clay Hansen, who performs with the The Psychobilly Kadillaks and The Tossers, made his first appearance on the Mary's live scene at a Tuesday night Open Stage many years ago. Clay was an immediate stand out drinking heavily and taking command of the stage alone with nothing more than an old beat down guitar and a live microphone. The Mary's audience was instantly drawn to Clay's super high energy performances fueled by alcohol and songs about drinking. Not long after that Clay came back and booked The Psychobilly Kadillaks, a band that has helped anchor the Mary's live scene ever since. After a wildly successful Psychobilly show a few months ago Mary's regular, Mark Sweeney, in anticipation of his annual birthday bash, asked Clay if The Tossers would play live at Mary's. The rest is history, which leaves us with The Psychobilly Kadillaks and The Tossers live at Mary's Place this Saturday night for local Irishman Mark Sweeney's birthday bash. The seven dollar cover is less than half of what it costs to see The Tossers in Chicago.

The band was quite friendly despite the claustrophobia-inducing size of the bar and the drunken, exuberant crowd. My husband even got the entire band to sign a tshirt for our oldest daughter who, being only 17, was disappointed to miss the big event. Special thanks to my brother, a long time Tossers fan, for getting the rest of us together for the show.