"We play every Irish bar," Twomey adds. "In fact, every place they have beer. We don't do coffee shops."

So is the Goat's music best enjoyed when hammered drunk? "The music is great sober, my jokes are hysterical drunk," Twomey says. "So come sober and drink a lot of beers. If anybody has to tune, Matt will tell a joke."

Naturally, as a band with a niche audience, the Goat has played a couple of stinking shows on inappropriate bills. "The headline band wasn't there at Paychecks, and in fact there was literally nobody there," Smith says. "The first group were some young kids who knocked their instruments around, threw some stuff on stage and left. We haven't had many like that though."

What's next for the band?

"Have you seen the age of the band here?" Twomey says. "We've got no time. We're trying to get a third album knocked out by St. Patrick's Day. We want to do about 50 percent original stuff this time. Short-term we want to play the festivals. There are a lot of roots festivals, rock, Celtic, punk. Cracking the scene is always hard. The bar scene is a lot easier. So far, the festival scene has proved elusive."

That's Bill Grogan's Goat — a sweaty party band to drink and stomp to. It's not pretty but it's sure as hell fun. As we end the interview, this writer asks the band if I captured the "inner them."

Whalen says, "You don't want to go there."

Brett Callwood writes City Slang. Send comments to letters@metrotimes.com.

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