What a whirlwind tour to Anchorage to play the 49th State Brewery! 

Our travel plans were derailed by a flight cancellation on Thursday. This put us in a bit of a “pinch” schedule wise. Fortunately for us, the sound crew and staff at 49th State Brewing made things happen quickly and we had a great show! 

Many thanks to Natalie Harrison and Philip Price of the Irish Club of Alaska for recommending us. Ellen Maloney and Allie Smedal of Northern Hospitality Group in Anchorage for coordinating the event. We especially appreciated the professionalism of Allen Neilson and his son, Alex at Sounds Good who really knew their equipment and got us dialed in quickly. Also, many thanks to Dan Hemme at Creative Sound and Lighting for providing most of Kelly's drum set. 

We can't forget Premier Alaska Tours and their intrepid driver “KM” for the luxury tour bus ride from the airport and back- that was quite an experience for us!

Mike wants to personally thank the patrons of the 49th Brewing who graciously let him parade through their St. Patrick's Day dinner playing bagpipes and, “Big Tom” for letting Mike ride on his shoulders : )

We like to thank Alaina Pruitt  at 49th State Brewing who handled all the moving pieces leading up to the event and got us extra time to set up. Thank you Alaina! Lastly, the bartenders and staff at 49th State Brewing  who kept the green beers flowing and food on tables. We appreciate all of you - thank you! -FOM

Finally! After years of crawling out of a pandemic we are thrilled to announce our first St. Patrick's Day show since 2019!  And, who better to celebrate this defining moment that with the good people at 49th State Brewing! It will be quite the day with an impressive list of events sponsored by The Irish Club of Alaska. 

Fire on McGinnis is pleased to announce out first live shows since the beginning of the pandemic! Jeni McDaniel from the Alaskan Scottish Club in Anchorage contacted us to perform  June 25th and 26th at the annual Scottish Highland Games. We are super excited of course and the band has begun holding regular rehearsals in anticipation. We have been working on probably the most complex song FOM has ever tried to play. It's called "Mrs Elliot" a cover originally performed by Enter the Haggis. It's almost 4 songs inside one song with fun bagpipe solos. We have a new peppy song by Ed Sheeran and a 3rd song by a band called "The Darlingside." Their version is great but we thought we could do one better by adding real guitar distortion and original bagpipe solos!

Mike is so excited he bought a digital bagpipe chanter so he can practice his technique at home but rest assured, his wonderful highland bagpipes will be on stage! 

Again we are super excited about re-surfacing and we are honored to play such a prestigious event! -FOM

Our sets will be short but we will have 4, possibly 5 sets at the games.  

More about the Scottish Highland Games

When: Saturday, June 25th and 26th

Where: Alaska State Fairgrounds

Featuring: All things Scottish. Bagpipes, Heavy Athletics, Celtic Dance, Drumming, Kilted Mile, Scotch Tasting, Tea Ten, Salmon Tossing, Highland Coo. Tug-of-War, Vendor, Historical Demonstrations, Musical Guest, Axe Throwing, Children's events and more!

It's been a long pandemic and FOM did the right thing by laying low. Certainly it was no fun for any of us but we managed to keep the music alive in small ways. 

A more common term is "wood-shedding" but we call them "clinics." Basically they are low volume practice sessions where not all band members are present. Why do this? For most normal people, music isn't written to a mental "hard-disk" somewhere and recalled easily...It starts to fade! Capo positions disappear, starting chords and chord progressions disappear. That sweet solo that you played 1000 times? Gone. Lyrics are probably the toughest. Especially songs like "Bedlam Boys" that has 8 complicated verses. Newer material is always a challenge to remember because it hasn't been played enough. Our solution? Clinics. Just get together and play the material with no expectations. Just get the song "back under your fingers" they say. We have a held a few full band practices and several smaller clinics. It's good to get the songs back.

We would like to recognize Clint Davis for all the help he has provided for some of our practices and live shows. He's genuine and kind, with a strong grasp of all the technical aspects of a modern PA system. 

Currently on Facebook we are using photography from a local photographer named Michael Penn. We love the pictures he took at our last live show in 2019. Thank you Michael! -FOM

Checking in. I guess we are just doing what everyone else is doing. Some of us, like our piper, have taken things to the extreme of course! We have managed to have a few socially distanced practices in Kelly's garage which has been both a mental and musical life saver! It's amazing how songs just start to slip away when you haven't played them in a long time? We are having fun with a new cover of a song called "Mrs Elliot" by "Enter The Haggis." The song has a lot of moving parts so learning it has not been an easy task. Martha brought in a song by a band called "The Darlingside." Yes, I'm sure they are popular to somebody but wee folk in Juneau, Alaska had never heard of them. They have a song called "The Best of the Best of Times." Their version is a pretty stripped down instrumental with kind of a "drone" quality to it. Martha saw the potential of this song using the unique instruments and capabilities of FOM. In other words, sonic curtains of guitar distortion and bagpipes! We are having a lot of fun with it. Martha has another song that she wrote called "Glass House." It's very new, so new in fact, some of us are still trying to understand what the chords are! 

Mark has been busy with the recordings. Things are getting pretty close really. What's the hold up? Well, having the time to work on them has always been an issue. In that respect, Covid 19 was a blessing. All the time at home means he can focus on things better. Mark is a bit of a perfectionist. Using mad scientist lab like techniques in his garage, he's trying to find the sound that he hears in his head. Our first release, "Moon and Stars" is finished and only needs to be mastered. The rest of the songs are literally one recording session away from being finished.

Like everyone else we are lying low. Trying our best to keep the songs we know on a warm simmer. No shows planned of course. We hope this changes soon. Hang in there!

We are sad to announce the cancellation of the March 14th Red Dog show in a effort to curb the spread of the Covid19 virus. The band is super bummed of course as we have been working hard to get ready for this. We planned on playing, for the first time, 4 new songs that we think are high energy and very fun to listen / dance too! No plans for a reschedule as of now. We, like everyone else, will be watching the development and the eventual end to this scary virus. -FOM

We have a gig coming up! We were invited by the good folks at Cancer Connection to help them celebrate National Cancer Survivors day on June 1st! 
Location: The JACC 
Doors open at 6:30 
Awards presentation 7:00 
Live music by Fire on McGinnis 8:00 
Desserts and no host bar by V's Cellar Door 

Cancer Connection is a grass-roots, nonprofit organization designed to assist people living with cancer, their families, and support systems. Cancer Connection sponsors education programs and awareness events with the intent of prevention and early detection of cancer.

Wow! What a night! Thank you all for joining us at the Red Dog Saloon. It was fun for us to play for such a large, enthusiastic and dancing crowd - thank you! 
Also like to thank Clint Davis for taking care of the sound engineering for the show. Also Michael Penn for photography and Eric and Tessany at the Red Dog for making it all happen! -FOM

Join us at the Red Dog for Corned Beef and Cabbage, Drink specials, costume contest and live music.  Sat. March 16th - 9:30 pm. No cover!!