Flogging Molly | House of Blues Boston

Flogging Molly has been a great band for over 15 years. That’s about half of my goddamn life. When I first saw them at the Warped Tour about what seems like 100 years ago, I did not fully appreciate them. Because I didn’t appreciate anything. I was just starting high school, so like everyone that age I was a miserable little shit. I couldn’t drive, I had no money, and didn’t know anything about anything. Actually, none of that has changed. But still, I couldn’t find Ireland on a map (bad schooling) let alone understand the Irish political lyrics of Flogging Molly, and I hadn’t even tasted alcohol yet, which covers another pretty large portion of their subject matter. Well, I saw them last night at the House of Blues Boston and I appreciated every fucking minute. They played the right songs and worked the crowd well, and I got to sing lyrics knowing what they actually meant even while taking down Guinness after over-priced Guinness.

But what I appreciated the most was that, well, they’re fucking old, and they just keep rocking out. Front man Dave King is 53. Almost twice my age. And while I bitch about standing on the concrete floor while drinking at the show, he’s singing his balls off and dancing on stage as he described “like the drunk uncle at a wedding”. They look like they are having just as must fun as they were 13 years ago. How many bands can say that? Even the ones that have been together normally hate each others guts, have broken up several times, and sound like dog shit live at this point, just living off name recognition. In the 80s King sang for the hard rock/metal band Fastway but unlike the Poisons/Motley Crues of the world, he didn’t spend the next 20 years playing those same songs to his former groupies, their 3^rd husband, and their brain damaged offspring. He started a Celtic punk band, because fuck it, why not?

When you’re the Rolling Stones and you get paid a dick load every few years to tour I’m sure it’s easy to say “Let’s get the band back together!”. Does anyone care that “Satisfaction” actually sounds better performed by the cover band for $10 at the local dive than Keith and Mick at this point? No! Because they’re famous and people want to say they’ve gone to see the Stones. Flogging Molly never attained that level of fame, so I guess they can’t really mail it in. The song that got the biggest reaction last night was “What’s Left of the Flag”. Don’t get me wrong, great song. But I love this band, and I had no idea it was one of their best known songs. They’re not doing these tours (which they do every year by the way) for casual fans to hear the one song they know and record them singing it on their phone. They’re playing music because they love it and they obviously have a great time doing it.

A final note that stuck with me. Sometimes I think about the rock stars like Jagger, or the even sadder excuses for them like Vince Neil, and how in their prime they had that stereotypical life: drinking, doing every drug imaginable, and finding countless amounts of women to sleep with them. Then they get older and no one gives a shit about them. They’re in rehab, or on reality TV shows, or some combination of both. They fight bankruptcy and addiction. Then you see them marry some model for a few months here and there and they’re supposedly happy. Dave King is married to Bridget Regan. Who is of course plays fiddle and tin whistle about 3 feet away from him in Flogging Molly. And she’s isn’t just in the band as a favor, she’s been there since the beginning. I don’t know their relationship too well but there’s something real about two musicians loving each other, not just a rock star and the person that worships them (or their money). They love each other and they love making music. And for that,  I fucking love them.

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Bake

I'm nothing. Maybe less than nothing. I also write.

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