I remember seeing them in your neck of the woods (at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival) a few years ago - I thought they were fantastic. Thanks for the reminder!
Perhaps you should give a listen to Black 47: www.black47.com/
Their links page leads you to Flogging Molly…“A Guinness soaked musical body blow.” www.floggingmolly.com/
Then there’s the Dropkick Murphys–their 3 St Patrick’s Days shows in Boston are already sold out. www.dropkickmurphys.com/
I found the music magically repetitious too, but to the best of my memory there were head mics on the singers*. Not only do head mics ruin the aesthetics of a concert, they destroy the attractiveness of any otherwise-pretty performer, not only by their inherent robotic ugliness, but also because they make their wearer look that much more like Madonna and Britney.
*Best of my memory because I refuse to watch the program again 
I hope nobody’s mentioned this yet, but there’s a band out of Kansas City named “The Elders”. Absolutely awesome band. I’ve bought all of their cd’s and am waiting patiently for their next concert. They’re more of a Celtic Rock band. You just have to go their site and listen to a few tracks. Trust me.
Scottish Gaelic is easily as worthwhile as Irish, even though it’s harder to come by. I’m particularly into waulking songs. Waulking is a particularly disgusting part of wool processing, involving urine and bare feet. Waulking songs tend to be in odd time signatures, with frequent idiosyncratic time changes. I’m guessing that turning waulking into a difficult dance made it less puke-inducing.
The Tannahill Weavers are a good Scottish group that’s been around since the late 70s or so. Silly Wizard is may still be the best known group, even though they broke up in the 80s. I wish I could recommend some current groups, but I’ve been out of the game for a while, Houston being a waste land when it comes to traditional music.
Not completely, but Dropkick Murphy’s has a good portion of Celtic flair to it (they have punked up versions of Black Velvet Band, Cadence to Arms, Fields of Athenry and Amazing Grace as well as several other songs that has a similar feel such as The Dirty Glass. The Pogues? Though to be honest I haven’t heard much of their stuff. Been meaning to get some CDs from the library and have a good listen.
I love Celtic music, somehow I need to get my Mom’s records to MP3 (she’s got some songs that I can’t find, or when I do find I really don’t like the versions I found). I was also pretty much raised on country and Maritime/Celtic music (Great Big Sea, The Rankin Family, Men of the Deeps, John McDermott, Stan Rogers, Irish Rovers, The Dubliners etc).
Thinking on it, maybe that’s why I’ve been listening to more bluegrass lately…
The Dropkick Murphys version of Finnegan’s Wake is awesome.
Irish Rovers, the Chieftans, Gaelic Storm, Loreena McKennitt, all worthies.
Don’t forget to check out the Chieftan’s chilling versions of “Foggy Dew”, one with Sinead O’Connor (yeah, she’s mad as a hatter, but girlfriend really can sing), and the other with Sarah McLachlan.
I thought Loreena McKennitt was Canadian? Love her though
Let us not forget Leahy, Pooka, Draiocht, Altan, Capercaillie and Solas.