For those of you who can't make it to a decent Irish festival this summer, you will likely miss a fiery performance by Enter the Haggis, the legendary Toronto-based jam band that mixes everything but the kitchen sink into a decisively Celtic vibe. While the band must be seen to be believed, they are offering something for fans that may not be able to brave the heat to see them. Northampton is their phenomenal new disc, and it is packed with all the hairpin turns of a summer beach blanket mystery novel.

Unlike most live shows that are cheap ploys from the band to offer a "tour souvenir" to fans, Northampton is a vital collection of songs from their previous albums. They clearly spent some moolah on the expert production instead of hanging a microphone on the ceiling of the pub, like most Celtic rock live albums.

The song selection is also well thought out, collecting the high notes from previous albums full of high notes. Their devoted fans sing the choruses and clap to the beat, making it a community effort with their loyal Haggis-heads. For anyone unfamiliar with this group, I couldn't think of a better introduction!

Can we give this band a round of applause for their use of the bagpipe? Many groups use this unwieldy instrument to add the obligatory Celtic touch for entry into the paddyrock genre, but Enter the Haggis revives the lost art form of the bagpipe solo perfected by the likes of Big Country and AC/DC.

Think about it - when was the last time you heard a good bagpipe solo on the radio? On "Lancaster Gate," the bagpipe leads the melody, a fluid prog rock arrangement that has the band getting in touch with their inner Rush.

You've heard of air guitarists? After going to an Enter the Haggis show, you're sure to see an air piper!

"No More Stones" from their Soapbox Heroes collection is a pitch perfect modern rock tune laced with fiddling and fantastic harmonies in this live setting. An example of their foot-stomping firepower can be witnessed on "New Monthly Flavor," a track that mixes southern rock fiddling with jazzy beats and hard rock power chords.

You read that right! The combination must be heard to be believed, which is exactly what makes this band such an exhilarating treat for your eardrum. There are rascally instrumentals on the disc as well for you trad heads out there, including the charming "Fiddle Set."

While the disc is excellent, nothing beats their live show. You can catch them at outdoor summer festivals like the Irish Connections Festival in Boston on August 12.

I spoke with fiddler/ singer/Internet mogul Brian Buchanan during a rare break from the road. Here's how it went.

You have a few weeks off. How do you deal with doing the mundane stuff that everyone else does after you get home from being a road warrior rock star?

For me, it's a lot of Internet stuff that keeps the chores in check. For example, I do a lot of those chores like banking online.

How would you describe the Enter the Haggis sound?

Pretty schizophrenic. We have five people in the band from five divergent personal and musical backgrounds. We never limit ourselves as we have never shot for mainstream appeal. I just carry my iPod around and let people hear it for themselves.

Is there good chemistry in the band?

It's interesting. There are times when things should clash, when things that should not come together come together. We are nice Canadian boys and we try extra hard to make sure everyone is heard, whether it's a song or some band business. It's one of those things where we don't know what Enter the Haggis is, but we sure know what it isn't.

It's surprising because we have toured seven years and there is no major band blowup that I can remember. It's more like being family.

I guess its like roommates in college. If you shared a room with me and saw me naked, you're family in my book.

I agree, though we don't spend a whole lot of time naked (laughs). Family has to like one another, but friends like us let the little things slide. Temperamental, egocentric bands don't last. We are in this for the long haul.

How does the Internet help an independent band like Enter the Haggis, who does not fit into the mainstream category?

It's huge! I am the tech junkie in the band, and it's obvious to anyone with a brain to know that the whole music industry is heading online. I don't know how bands did it before there was an "online." Mailing 1,000 letters from the post office seems unreal.

We have 8,000 fans and friends online that we can instantly email. Our talk board online is a great way to keep in touch.

It's interesting to me how these communities crop up online around the common like of a band.

Absolutely. They organize road trips and caravans with many people from many places meeting up at the gigs. There were representatives from 10 states on the Northampton live disc. Any time people find common ground there is a possibility for a community to grow and take on a life of its own. They come together because of the band and stay together because they have something in common.

I really love the live CD. It's not one of those paint-by numbers discs. It sounds like you really worked hard to make sure that you sound like you do when a fan sees you live in a pub.

I appreciate you saying that. It was really important to bring out a CD without a degradation of sound quality. A lot of CDs are made with a few mikes set up in a pub, and we didn't want to do this on the heels of spending so much time and money on the sound of our last two albums.

We also haven't recorded a live CD since 2002, in which the majority was trad tunes. We wanted a live album with our songs for the most part.

I think the harmonies on tracks like "No More Stones to Throw" are brilliant. Is this the band's trademark?

It's a difficult thing to do. None of us are trained singers so it takes a long time to figure out where our harmonies fit. We layer harmonies sometimes to make it sound like an Enter the Haggis song. It's a way we get away with three lead singers in the band. We trade off parts and we try to be involved. One person steps to the front but its still a band vibe.

We avoid the lead singer/rest of the band dynamic. We write and play everything together. We don't really like pop songs based on one person's experience. A lot of the perspectives in sound and lyric are from a group perspective.

You have this huge following around you, yet you maintain an independent streak.

You have to beat down the door to get industry attention with a name like Enter the Haggis, and we didn't want to bother. We don't fit into any genre, though I suppose Celtic rock is the closest one. We have Latin and country influences, and that goes down well for the iPod generation which has a number of genres on their little device and just shuffles through them all.

It's interesting. For Soapbox Heroes, we were sure we were going to lose people with the diversity. The opposite was true. People dig the fact that it's a different band on each song. It's not a conscious thing.

I think many Celtic music fans are a bit bored with traditional. They like to mix things up.

People in this genre are starving to find out more Celtic rock bands out there. We get so many fans from other bands and vice-versa. Our last two albums have brought music fans to Celtic rock. Celtic rock is the closest label, but that doesn't adequately describe it. I think people who are fans are fans of music in general.

People come to us from music festivals and places like garageband.com. We don't deal with traditionalists too much. There are quite a few Celtic rock bands out there and we really don't want to sound like everyone else.

(Northampton is available through the UFO Music Group, at finer record shops, or on Internet outlets such as iTunes. For more information on the band, log onto enterthehaggis.com. To hear the band and other great Celtic bands, log onto celticlounge.com.)