FLOGGING MOLLY + Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band @ Metropolis

By Josh Mocle - The Kids are So-So - 02/19/2008

Late last year, I promised myself that I wouldn’t ask to review shows featuring bands I’ve already reviewed given the fact that it’s rare that I’d have anything new to say about them. However it’s about time I come clean: the last time I reviewed a Flogging Molly show, I knew shit about Flogging Molly. Yeah, I obviously knew who they were and a few of their signature tracks but that’s about it and I pretty much managed to bullshit my way through a thousand words or so for the last one. However, this time around I was much more familiar with the band and had a much better time as a result. (Shocking, I know. More on this later.)

Dusty Rhodes and the River Band opened the show and I will outright admit that from a musical standpoint, I wasn’t terribly impressed. My tolerance for jam bands, while not as low as it used to be, isn’t very high and at times I found the band grating on my nerves. However, these guys had heart: they very clearly loved to be doing what they were doing and didn’t really care that the crowd wasn’t that into it (which, with the exception of my lovely and mysterious co-DJ, they largely were not). They blasted through around a half hour of jammy goodness with a bit of a more rock edge than say, Widespread Panic, and were off almost as quickly as they were on.

Following Dusty Rhodes was arguably the most surreal and amazing musical experience I have arguably ever had. I’m referring, of course, to Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. Now, coming from my own experience -- I’ve seen many many different bands perform on that same stage, but nothing could have really prepared me to see a drummer who may very well have been thirteen, a rather large woman named Washboard Breezy with a REAL WASHBOARD hanging off her and the man known only as The Rev (who looked as if he could shoot you in the face, with a shotgun, or give you a massive bear hug depending on his mood) take the stage. Stylistically it was pretty basic “blues with a slide guitar + basic drumming + washboard scratches” formula (which I suspect many in the crowd were not familiar with and if they were, certainly not used to), but this performance was very much not about the music itself, but the power of music in general. Never before has such a basic musical set-up been so powerful and, unfortunately, there isn’t much more I can say about it. It really was a “you had to be there” situation, and if you were you probably would have been just as moved as I was (both physically and spiritually).

Which brings us to Flogging Molly themselves; I mentioned earlier that the last time I saw them I wasn’t that familiar with their material and thus didn’t have as good of a time as I did now. The reason for this, I think, is pretty simple: Flogging Molly is the kind of band you really make your own. You either get it or you don’t and there really is no middle ground. From the looks of things, a lot of people in our fair city really get this band, given the packed (and incredibly smelly) house that sang along to almost every word. Their traditional Irish folk meets traditional American rock sound hasn’t changed at all, despite putting out a new record (that sounds, surprisingly, like all their old records). Their live performance hasn’t changed much either, despite being a decent amount older than most contemporary rock bands, they once again managed to stuff a ton of energy into their work (and appeared to have a great time while doing it as well). I’ve said it before and I’ll most likely say it again many more times, but when a band enjoys what they’re doing, that joy is infectious. For the first time in my life I became “that guy who is so into it that when the band lets the audience sing the lyrics he can be heard well over anyone else” (which is not something that’s easy to admit). As far as consistently entertaining bands both recorded and live, Flogging Molly are still ranked near the top and I would imagine that is where they’ll remain for many years to come.

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