IF YOU GO
* What: Nightfall Concert Series featuring The Young Dubliners.* When: 8 tonight; More Like Me opens at 7 p.m.* Where: Miller Plaza, corner of M.L. King Boulevard, Cherry and Market streets.* Admission: Free.* Phone: 265-0771.www.nightfallchaoga.com* Related links at current.timesfreepress.com.
When Keith Roberts left Dublin, Ireland, to pursue a career in journalism in Los Angeles in the ’80s, he was convinced he would practically trip over job offers to sit behind a news desk.
That didn’t happen. Instead, he ended up in a mad scramble for jobs that eventually killed his dream, so he and fellow Dubliner Paul O’Toole started The Young Dubliners, a Celtic rock band that became one of the world’s preeminent acts of the genre.
Toole and Roberts started off playing a handful of impromptu St. Patrick’s Day gigs around L.A. The experience showed them they could eke out a living and achieve a little fame in the process.
“Everyone was giving us booze and paying us, and we thought, ‘Oh man, this is the life,’ ” Roberts said during a phone interview. “We grew up with St. Patrick’s Day being a holy day, a day off from school.