I was very happy to be put on the guest list to review this show that sold out in less than an hour of going on sale.
It was a post Glastonbury chill down show that was being filmed for the forthcoming DVD of the Speed Of Darkness tour that continues on for most of the rest of the year. Whenever I see a band that tours as hard as Flogging Molly do, I always expect it to show and it has to be said - as someone who had never seen them before and didn't own any of their music - that it was a great night out.
They are a 7 piece Irish-American fiddle and accordion folk punk band whose fans were chanting for them for about 40 minutes before they came on, ramping up the atmosphere with terrace chant calls. It was obvious the place was going to explode when they finally came on and the fact that the fans were singing along to the music the DJ was playing was enough of an indication of how the evening was going to pan out.
From the very opening word of the band's intro to The Likes Of You Again', the opening song, made me wonder how I had missed out on them for so long. Still, Dave King is a more than able frontman who never stopped joking and also thanking us between songs and they never really hung about, rattling through Swagger and the title track of the new album Speed Of Darkness like they had all snorted 3 grams of finest bathtub speed before coming on stage. The lyrics are good angry social commentary diatribes such as the fantastically bitter Requiem for a Dying Song and the Worst Day Since Yesterday.
Nathan Maxwell The Bass player who had been hanging out in the audience before they went on was demented for most of the show. He could easily be in a Psychobilly band while giving off the air of the sort of guy who could as easily walk up to you and hug you as punch you in the stomach. Both would be signs of affection but boy does he rip at that bass.
By the time they got to Saints and Sinners off the new album a pattern in the audience began to get established. Every time they started a new song a part of the huge pit went to the bar or further back and as soon as something familiar like The Wanderlust got played they surged back forwards. It was almost like we were at sea and the tide was rushing in and out, riding the waves of euphoria as they crashed on towards a tender song like Factory Girls that was dedicated to Dave King's mother and to anyone else who has worked in a factory and been exploited.
|
We were on the high seas of Sail On that had a nice fiddle solo from Dave's wife Bridget Regan as it seemed we had sailed over to Tobacco Island. That seemed to be a real crowd favourite that came across as about halfway between the Dropkick Murphys and The Pogues and Dave's introduction to Revolution left us in no doubt as to who the band blames for the state the world is in and how they are looking forward to playing a teargas friendly gig or two in Greece shortly.
The spectre of the Irish education system reared it's head for Rebels of The Sacred Heart a brilliant song that really got the pit going and the girl who had flip flops on scurrying to the side of the venue. Sorry to raise this, but why would you go to a gig like this wearing flip flops? Flogging Molly spoke a fair bit about the new album being recorded in Ireland and Detroit and the collapse of both places was evoked on the very angry battle cry of Don't Shut Them Down and the even angrier closing song of What's left of the Flag.
Needless to say the place erupted at the end and soon enough they were back for an encore of (for them) fairly slow Float and then a final rampage through The Seven Deadly Sins: a song that could almost be an outtake from Jim Carroll's Catholic Boy. It was a brilliant end to a stonkingly good show that left everyone smiling and looking forward to there return in the Autumn. Catch them live if you can.
Tour dates can be found at:
Flogging Molly online
This show will make a highly entertaining dvd and hopefully live album soon enough.
|
