Young Dubliners book The Signal for a February Friday

The Santa Monica Irish-rock lifers play Chattanooga on Feb. 19, 2027, while a fan-funded tenth album is in the works.

Mid-February in Chattanooga is a long way from St. Patrick's Day, which might be the best time for a Young Dubliners show. You won't get the green-beer crowd, just the people who already know the fiddle break is coming.

Young Dubliners play The Signal on Friday, Feb. 19, 2027, with an 8 p.m. start. The show was announced Oct. 20. The Signal's own calendar lists doors at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now through AXS. In the configuration this show uses, the room holds about 1,300 people. That's big enough for a full Friday-night crowd and small enough that you'll still feel a fiddle in your chest.

If you know the name but not the band: Young Dubliners are an Irish-American rock band formed in Santa Monica, California, in 1988, and they've worked the road ever since. Keith Roberts is still out front on lead vocals and guitar. The current lineup is Chas Waltz on violin, Justin Pecot on guitar, Dave Ingraham on drums and Ethan Jones on bass. They play Celtic melodies at rock volume, with pub-song choruses built for a room to shout back. Over the years they've built the kind of following that turns up in every city, year after year.

You won't get the green-beer crowd in February, just the people who already know the fiddle break is coming.

The Signal is a good room for it. The venue started on Chestnut Street in the Southside, opening in early 2018, and moved in 2023 to the old Choo Choo convention center at 21 Choo Choo Ave. The new building has a concert hall and a ballroom that work as separate rooms, which means a band like this gets a proper rock-show room with real sound instead of a corner of a bar. For a Friday night in February, that's a good place to be.

Tickets are on AXS. Doors at 6:30, band at 8. Get there in time to find a spot before the fiddle starts.

Sources: The Signal: Upcoming Calendar (thesignaltn.com); AXS: The Young Dubliners at The Signal (axs.com); Young Dubliners (Wikipedia) (en.wikipedia.org); Sweetwater Music Hall: The Young Dubliners (tour notes) (sweetwatermusichall.org); Rochester Opera House: The Young Dubliners (tour notes) (rochesteroperahouse.com); Local 3 News: The Signal announces grand opening at new location on Choo Choo Ave (local3news.com); Local 3 News: The Signal set to move to former Chattanooga Choo Choo convention center (local3news.com); Chattanooga Times Free Press (Dec 2017): The Signal on Chestnut Street to open in February (pressreader.com)