Twenty years in, 1916 is still doing the thing they started in Rochester bars: taking Irish rebel music and running it through psychobilly and full-throttle punk until the room has no choice but to move with it. On Friday, December 18, the Rochester-born Celtic punk band brings their 20th-anniversary year to a close at Photo City Music Hall with a homecoming show behind Conscience of Kings, their sixth album and the one critics have been calling “Premier League Celtic-Punk.”
About the Show
The December 18 show marks the close of a milestone year: 1916 was founded in Rochester in 2006, starting as an acoustic act playing traditional Irish rebel songs in local bars before evolving into the full electric Celtic rock ensemble they are today.
Conscience of Kings was produced by Grammy-winning Ted Hutt at Sonic Ranch Studios in El Paso, Texas, and runs 12 tracks and 37 minutes. Reviewers have called it “no filler, just pure passion and melody crashing into chaos.” Lead single “The Mollies” draws on the history of the Molly Maguires, the secret militant Irish-American society active in Pennsylvania’s 1870s coal mines, with frontman Billy Herring tracing the song to his own family history. The album also covers immigration (“America,” “Covered in Gold”), Civil War history (“O’Rorke,” honoring Civil War hero Colonel Patrick O’Rorke and his Rochester-area regiment), and Sleepy Hollow folklore reimagined through a Celtic lens (“Horror on the Hudson”).
Live, 1916 puts upright bass, mandolin, accordion, banjo, and punk-rock guitar in the same room. None of it is subtle, and that is the whole point. Bassist Ryan Hurley plays with a physical, acrobatic energy that draws eyes before the first chorus. The band spent two decades earning national stages, opening for Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, Rancid, and Twenty One Pilots, and landing a spot on the Flogging Molly Salty Dog Cruise. Their 2012 debut, A Drop of the Pure, built them a dedicated following and a Pandora station. Heading into 2026, the band describes themselves as “louder, rowdier, and tighter than ever,” and Conscience of Kings makes the case.
Venue & Logistics
Photo City Music Hall is a 400-capacity club at 543 Atlantic Ave in Rochester, and 1916 has played this room before. For Celtic punk, the size is an asset: the upright bass carries through the whole space and there is no back-of-house detachment from a show this physical. This is an 18+ event. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are $20. The venue’s no-refund policy is in effect. Buy tickets