It’s Thursday night at Fado Irish Pub in Penn Quarter, and a teeming mass of hard working — and increasingly beer soaked — Washington professionals is starting to get its collective groove on.

All eyes are on a small back stage, where four young men who look as if they might have done some Abercrombie and Fitch modeling a few years back are brandishing fiddles, harps and acoustic guitars while unfurling some of the most organic, exotic and yet still accessible local music that DC has seen in a long time.

Scythian — the multi-national Celtic rock band founded in the District four years ago — is on a tear. Critics are hailing the foursome as major comers while summer festivals around the nation are rapidly locking up the band’s services for the 2007 season. Scythian’s momentum shows no signs of slowing as the band gears up to play Shamrockfest, currently being promoted as the “biggest St. Patty’s festival in the history of the DC area.”

The all-day March 10 festival in the RFK Stadium parking lots boasts 40 bands including Irish rock legends Flogging Molly, as well as Carbon Leaf, Emmet Swimming, and lots of local favs like Jimmie’s Chicken Shack and the Kelly Bell Band. DJs will spin in separate tents scattered across the grounds.

It’s often been said that Scythian makes Celtic music for people who don’t like Celtic music. That’s true — the band tends to downplay the sometimes hokey traditionalism in favor of more soulful vocals and contemporary acoustic guitar melodies. But there’s more to this band than its hooks and its looks.

Brothers and band founders Danylo and Oleksander Fedoryka are both classically trained musicians — Danylo on piano and Olek on violin. Drummer Mike Ounallah is currently working on a master’s degree in jazz at the University of Maryland, while Josef Crosby, also classically trained in music at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, rocks both violin and bass, giving the band a “second fiddle” on many of its more exuberant tunes.

Finally, the guys are obviously steeped in classic rock — you can hear the ghosts of Van Morrison, America and even the Ramones in Scythian’s live set. During a break at a recent Fado’s gig, Olek explained that the band filters its own multi-cultural heritage (the Fedorykas are Ukrainian, while Ounallah is half-Jordanian and Crosby is of Austrian descent) through a prism of American popular sensibilities.

“A lot of our sound comes from a love of American rock, or rock in general, so we incorporate our (ethnic musical influences) into traditional Irish music and it comes out pretty original,” he said. “We do a lot of different genres.”

‘I think ethnic music appeals to pretty much everybody, whether it’s Irish or Ukrainian or Gypsy,” Danylo added.

Scythian understands the Washington live music crowd, which at times can be hesitant to demonstrate just how much fun it might be having at shows.

“We try to create a festive atmosphere,” Olek said. “We’re like ‘Come on guys, throw down your guard; let’s have a good time tonight, kind of like a barn dance. If you like rock and you don’t like Irish music, if you don’t like a certain song of ours the next thing you know the song will be something you like.”

‘We know how to get a crowd into it,” Danylo added.

The brothers agreed that Washington’s population — one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse in America — is more willing to welcome ethnic music than people in more homogenous locales.

“I love DC,” Olek said. “People here are so open to different genres. In this town, people have traveled around and they have experience. Our crowd comes with a certain willingness to open their minds and their horizons.”

“I truly attribute our success to the fact that we’re here in DC,” Olek proclaimed. “There is something about the audience, the crowd here.”

The band can also attribute its success to a savvy homegrown marketing campaign. Scythian has a sophisticated, interactive website that allows its fans to learn more about the band while keeping track of tour dates and other news. The guys also actively promote its MySpace page.

“We do a lot of guerilla marketing,” Olek said. “We try to make it very interactive and get the audience involved.”
Scythian has always worked to cultivate and take care of its fan base, and the fans are returning the favor in increasingly big ways. Most recently, the band won a “fan favorite” award at the Wammies – Washington’s version of the Grammys - in February.

“We started out in the streets in Alexandria and Georgetown less than four years ago and it’s pretty amazing that now we’ll be onstage with Flogging Molly,” Danylo said. “Now we’re doing 200 shows a year. It’s unbelievable. It’s the real deal.”