Flogging
Molly plays a packed, enthusiastic show
at the Vault 350
By
Jamie Rowe
Online Forty-Niner
Editor in Chief
Flogging Molly, along with two opening bands, hit the Vault 350 in Long Beach
Saturday, giving concertgoers one hell of a show.
Before the doors opened at 7 p.m., the line was already working its way around
the building, with fans dressed in their punk finest.
At about 8:30 p.m. the first opening band took the stage in a fury of screams
in the classic British punk style. Dead Pets features lead singer Sweeney Todd
who has raspy vocals perfectly suited to this genre of music. While the sound
was classic punk, the addition of a trumpet and saxophone gave these guys a
slight ska flavor, which was not lost on the audience who danced along in both
styles.
The most interesting member of the group was the trumpet player. While Todd
walked through the audience and joined in the mosh pit for a bit, the trumpet
player’s antics on stage got more gaudy and outlandish, including picking
his bellybutton, nose and ear.
For the ladies out there, these guys proved they’re softies when they
pulled up some young rockers onto the stage, including a 5 year old sporting
a mohawk. Sadly for Todd, the poor little guy didn’t seem to know what
was going on, even when riding around the stage on Todd’s shoulders.
Following the Dead Pets was the Street Dogs, who left something to be desired
of their performance. Composed of members of other bands (Mike McColgan from
Dropkick Murpheys and Joe Sirois of Mighty Mighty Bosstones), this group didn’t
really pump up the crowd as much as its predecessor or successor to the stage.
Singer McColgan asked to have the house lights stay on for most of the band’s
set so he could see the crowd. I’m still pondering the point of this
one.
Overall, the Street Dogs didn’t impress the crowd much outside of their
rendition of Black Flag’s “Rise Above.”
After two opening bands, the crowd seemed pretty antsy for Flogging Molly to
take the stage, but the wait was well worth it.
The band exploded onto the stage around 10 p.m. and started off with “Screaming
at the Wailing Wall.”
The rest of their set included “The Likes of You Again,” “Whistles the Wind,” “Tobacco
Island,” “Selfish Man” (which lead singer Dave King dedicated
to himself after teasing the audience about not being able to get tickets for
the Green Day show at the Home Depot Center in Carson), “Within a Mile
of Home,” “Salty Dog,” “Black Friday Rule,” (which
featured a kick-ass guitar solo from Dennis Casey while fiddle and tin whistle
player Bridget Regan and accordion player Matt Hensley ran off the stage).
Regan’s performance throughout the night was amazing, but she truly shined
while taking some teasing from King while playing the intro to “Devil’s
Dancefloor.” King’s bantering was a constant from the time he took
the stage until the end of the encore.
King got the entire audience to flip the bird at a guy in the balcony from
Liverpool, at himself and at each other all the way through the concert.
At one point he even went off on a tirade about how influential Johnny Cash
was in his musical career, saying it was because of Cash he picked up a guitar,
then lamented he couldn’t play his black acoustic anywhere near as good
as Cash.
Halfway through the set, he asked the audience to help him out with a little
favor and root for the Irish soccer team in the World Cup qualifying game against
Switzerland Wednesday.
King said the band didn’t know where it would be that night, but hoped
wherever the fans were they’d say, “Ole, ole, ole, ole, ole” in
honor of the Irish team.
His request backfired when the show ended as the audience cried, “Ole,
ole, ole, ole, ole,” until the band retook the stage with an encore of “The
Wrong Company.”
Flogging Molly really knows how to put on a great show and how to close it
as King said, “Good night, ya bastards!”
|
