The Concertina would certainly be much easier to play than the closet(difficult to transport to sessions).
I once went shopping for a concertina, I was looking for an Anglo but they were out of my price range at the time, I settled for an english. I then(of course it was AFTER I bought it)heard a lot negative comments about english concertina, from Irish players.
I ended up selling it(I wasn't playing it much anyway, better that someone does).   Last year I met a guy who played the same type and he made it sound just like an anglo, it's just a matter of mimicking the directions that an Anglo takes to squeeze through a tune.