Seamus Egan and Mick McAuley

On a night of suffocating heat, drenching humidity and bloodthirsty bugs in Chestnut Hill’s Pastorius Park, the critically acclaimed Irish traditional band Solas delivered a scorching performance on Wednesday night at least equal to the temperature under the park’s tall trees.

“It seems somehow wrong to be playing Irish music on a night as hot as this,” band leader Seamus Egan said as the band took the stage. Of course, the subtropical heat didn’t stop them.

At least 1,500 ardent and appreciative Solas fans made the best of a sticky situation, filling every available corner of the park’s performance area. They stretched out on blankets and lounged in beach chairs, many sipping chilled wine from glasses dotted with condensation, others noshing on picnic suppers. Sweaty kids twirled glow-in-the-dark bracelets, and a few of them danced on the small stone bridges separating the audience from the stage. Smoke from punks and citronella candles swirled through the still night air.

The performance began at twilight to the accompaniment of buzzing cicadas and the band played on until after nightfall and chirping crickets joined the chorus.

A few other bugs got in on the act, too. At one point, Seamus Egan had just launched into a brilliant set of reels on flute when he suddenly coughed and backed away from the microphone. The musicians had been slapping at mosquitoes all night—Winnie Horan confessed to the audience that a bug had flown up her nose in the midst of her slow air—but Seamus’s bug met a different end altogether.

After taking a few moments to, ummmm, clear his throat, Egan took off again as if nothing had ever happened.

Later, Winnie commented to the audience, “That’s probably the most protein Seamus has had all this week, that little fly.” Seamus deadpanned: “It wasn’t that little.”

Bugs notwithstanding, no one who knows the Solas songbook went away disappointed. Many of the tunes on the band’s recent “Reunion” CD/DVD set found their way into the performance: “Reason Land,” “Fleur de Lis,” “The Highlands of Holland,” “Coconut Dog” ... they were all played brilliantly. As you might expect, the band rocketed through several sets of reels and jigs, their stock in trade, drawing a hugely enthusiastic response from the audience.

The night ended with a standing ovation and a hard-driving encore, “The Flowing Bowl.”

This was the band’s third consecutive performance for the Pastorius Park series. If the folks who run the series have anything to do with it, it certainly won’t be the last.