McGonigel’s Mucky Duck

2425 Norfolk
Houston, TX. 77098
(713) 528-5999
“theduck” at “mcgonigels dot com”
Cover’s a little expensive if there’s a band, usually close to or above $10 (but free otherwise)

General Info: Man, this is a neat little place. It’s basically supposed to be like a nice, traditional-style Irish pub (although it’s more “Irishy” than most bars I visited in Ireland, and it’s definitely a cool bar to hang out in. Lots of folks play here, but they seem to mostly fall into the whole folk-country acoustic-style music vein, with a few exceptions — if you’re into traditional-type Celtic music, particularly, this is the place you need to be. Well-known Irish bands like Patrick Street and the Battlefield Band (among others) play here when they come to town, and the Mucky Duck also has free “Irish Sessions” every Wednesday — stop by with an instrument and just join in (as long as you don’t want to play jazz or something; it generally helps to play together, y’know). Unfortunately, on other nights the cover is usually a bit more than most places, when bands are playing — the few times I’ve been by, it’s run up around $10, no matter how “big-name” the band happened to be. But if you’ve got the $$$, it’s pretty well worth it…

Setup/Equipment: Well, I can’t claim to’ve ever played this place, but I have taken a look around when I’ve been there… It’s a nice, fairly minimal setup — there’s a smallish stage set up in the corner of the main room (although for big parties & stuff, they move everything outside to the back “deck” area), and they’ve got a couple of mics hanging over it, as well as mics and stands set up for whoever needs ’em. I dunno if they have an actual soundman, but there’s definitely a board, and the speakers seem to be pretty decent. All in all, if you play here, I’d be willing to bet you don’t need to bring anything but your instruments…