St. Patrick’s Day Parade Provides Inspiration For Local Band

may just be a hazy memory for most (unless your court date is coming up!), but local musicians Blaire Reinhard Band have released a video that shines a different, and much more beautiful, light on the Mile Square’s most notorious holiday.

The celebration on March 5 was the perfect backdrop to illustrate the song, which happens to be titled “St. Patrick’s Day.” Those expecting a literal interpretation of frat guys chugging beers will be disappointed, as the Blaire Reinhard Band (and video crew) have instead painted a picture of a city waking up to the hustle and bustle of a crowd of visitors, ending with shots of the band on a roof deck overlooking the city at sunset.

Formed in Los Angeles, Blaire Reinhard Band is the brainchild of Blaire Reinhard, a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist originally from Morristown, NJ. She enlisted brother Gray, husband Wade Perrin, Keith Woodward and Phil Ward, who had already started a band while attending Princeton. When they all found each other again in Los Angeles, the timing was just right to start a new project together. 

“We composed music for TV shows, we did session work,” Reinhard said. “But we all wanted to settle back in New Jersey.”

Planting their new roots in Hoboken, that’s when the band really began to shine, writing their own material and playing shows in New York, as well as at local venues like , , and a weekly Thursday night acoustic residency at .

“St. Patrick’s Day” was written about settling back into an old haunt after being away for so long. For Reinhard, it was about returning to North Jersey after leaving Los Angeles.

“Wade and I were driving back from L.A., ad we arrived in Morristown for their (St. Partrick’s Day) parade,” she said. They met up with some of Reinhard’s childhood friends, calling it “a different vibe from what Wade was used to, growing up in L.A.”

“That’s not way it is in California, and he was blown away by fact that there was such a community presence,” Reinhard said, before quoting the first lyrics of the song: “This is our home from now on / do you miss the sun?”

The crew for the video shoot, Davin Michaels, Chris Saunders, Ian Sotzing and Seth Hauer, who have worked on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” started filming by the waterfront as the sun began to rise. At that time, only a few joggers were out, but by 7 a.m., said Reinhard, people were already lined up outside of the bars.

Interlaced with scenes of the parade, are shots of the band playing in Reinhold’s brothers’ apartment (and featuring a haunting cello line by Yi-Mei Truxes), before the finale performing on a roof overlooking the city skyline.

“It’s definitely not what a lot of people expected,” said Reinhard. “They were thinking it’s going to be a drinking song, but it was written with a different mood in mind.”

Currently, the band is recording a new album, which may be influenced a bit by their new surroundings.

“We have a new song written with Hoboken in mind,” said Reinhold. “It doesn’t reference anything directly, but I wrote it after walking through Hoboken.”