DICKENS ON THE STRAND 2008

Dickens on the Strand made a triumphant return to the Hurricane Ike ravaged island of Galveston and the Bilge Pumps made sure we were there to use our Squeegy to help clean up the mess. Due to the mess downtown was in, the festival shrunk down to 1/2 its normal size by limiting itself to just the Strand and limited its stages and stagetimes as well by closing early on Saturday. However, we were there to create havok and merriment wherever we went with shows both inside the Strand and 2 triumphant shows at the Elissa. may her hull be shiny.

Pictures coming soon!

THE TEXAS RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL 2008

Good weather, good friends, and good fans awaited the Bilge Pumps as we rolled into the largest renaissance festival in the country on the year they set a record for highest attendance ever. We took over the Wharfside Gazebo stage, made it our own by spraying our pirate musk all over it and proceeded to unveil our new five-man show for all the world to see... and unfortunately hear. Whenever we ran across any of the Pride of Bedlam's crew or any of the royalty, we made sure to totally ruin their day.

Pictures coming soon!

TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY PARTY 2008

Chandler's Landing Marina hit the weekend with their fourth Talk Like a Pirate Day party and they, once again lack the social graces to stop hiring the Bilge Pumps to perform at the party. Good times were had by all as the free beer and nachos lubed up the crowd and the band gave 'em the full follow-thru. Costume contest winners were forced to come up with dirty limericks this year to earn their bottles of rum for prizes thanks to Harvey. It also turned out to be Phil McGroin's last show with the band.

Footage coming soon!

PIRATE DAYS OF THE COLONY KICK-OFF PARTY 2008

Though the band could not perform for the actual Pirate Days of the Colony festival as it conflicted with TRF, the organizers did show the lack of hearing required to hire us for their kick-off party held at Hawaiian Falls water park in the Colony on Talk Like a Pirate Day. We had a good time eating up all their food and drinking up all their rum and then proceeding to give everyone indigestion by performing a 1 hour set in the gloom of night.

Pictures and movies coming soon

LAWTON RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL 2008

The Bilge Pumps returned to a military town to poke fun at the goverment types in our true aniestablimentist fashion. Man, these big words are tough. We enjoyed the hurricane force winds on the first weekend as we attempted to keep our Pirate Goods and Bait Shop from taking sail, and we sleazed though the nasty heat of the second weekend as we tried to keep our boots from catching fire. All in all, it was a good show as we got to reunite with old friends, make some new ones, and drink all the sodas from the ice buckets at the back of the audience. Just another day sailing our ship on the prairies of Oklahoma.

Click here for pics to blow you away

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA MEDIEVAL FAIR 2008

2008 marked our triumphant return to Norman and the Med Fair that ranks in the top 40 festivals (not just ren faires) in the country. After taking a year off, we were really happy to be back in Sooner land where our largest collection of fans are. Even though many of us, especially Maroon, got hit with the traditional Oklahoma allergy attacks to reduced our voices to gravel, we still had fun and put on entertaining shows and reconnecting with our fans.

Saturday afternoon, we recorded a one-hour show to be the highlight show for our next DVD, (currently untitled) and thanks to all of our OK fans, it turned out to be a successful show with lots of insanity to be preserved forever in plastic disks. Special thanks go to: John, Tod, Josh, Lyssa, and our sound guys for making sure the recordings came out well. And thanks to Dana and Celie for the hospitality as well.

Pictures and video of the pictures & video are here

TIPPERARY INN 2008

It was back to our favorite Irish Pub in D/FW as the Bilge Pumps rolled back into the Tipp with a fun-filled Thursday night show. We had all six band members there pulling a 3 show performance filled with strangeness. We had a marriage proposal during "Whisky Johnny", a brand-new song performed that all 6 of the band members had never sung together before, John Crow debuted his first lead vocal in a song, and... more curious of all... Phil McGroin remembered all of the words to his "Old Dun Cow" class rock songs!

Then, it was a summer show scheduled primarily for our Danatopian fans from across the sea where we pulled the unsuspecting Danes up to dance with us and apread our disorders across the globe.

Pictures coming if I get some

SCARLET'S MID-WINTER RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL 2008

The mermaids and foxes were looking for a piratey makeover in 2008 and the Bilge Pumps were happy to do our part to spread the buccaneer butter around their toast. We took over the second floor of the festival building and proceeded to set the roof on fire with all sort of craziness onstage. Including a final show that contained almost all of the bonus tracks from our CD's... never performed onstage before. Surely that was worth the price of admission, right?

Fun footage is frozen forever forthwith

LOCHRANN'S IRISH PUB 2008

The Bilge Pumps fired up the year 2008 with an appearance at a brand new Irish pub in Frisco and gave it a right good breaking in. We rolled into town, crammed all five of us (Squeegy was missing) and our equipment onto the stage and gave the crowd something to watch other than football on TV. They were a little surprised by the pirate music exploding in their midst, but it wasn't long before they all got in touch with their lil' buccaneer inside.

Pictures of the piracy are here