FLOGGING MOLLY + Street Dogs @ Metropolis

By Josh Mocle - The Kids Are So-So - 03/08/2007

Everyone knows Flogging Molly, yet no one can really remember exactly when these Irish scoundrels and their mix of Irish Folk and American Punk came onto the scene; they’ve kind of always just been there. I would reckon that it’s because of this feeling of familiarity that people don’t even realize they’ve been around for ten years as of 2007. For ten years they’ve made their own way and won the hearts of many in the spiky, leather-bound punk community, but also in the old salty university professor generation as well. In addition to rocking like the best of them, Flogging Molly have apparently discovered the secret to bending time as on March 8th, they brought St. Patrick’s Day to Montreal a week early.

All hyperbole aside, Day 11 of the Guinness-sponsored Green 17 Tour ("Seventeen Cities Celebrating Revelry of St. Patrick’s Day" or something like that) certainly was a sight to see -- what I did manage to see of it anyway. I arrived at the sold-out Metropolis at approximately 8:10, only to find that I not only had missed the first act (a one-man guitar act going by the name of The Mighty Steph) but I had ten minutes to orient myself before Boston’s truly mighty Street Dogs took the stage.

During a conversation with my spiritual advisor/attorney prior to the show, we determined that the Street Dogs would surely out-Irish Flogging Molly this evening. In actuality, we were half-right. Taking the stage with their newest fan favorite track "Not Without A Purpose", the boys ripped and roared through forty-five minutes of some of the best Boston working class punk you or your mother will ever hear. Running through tracks taken primarily from their last two releases (2006’s Fading American Dream and 2005’s Back To The World), they surprised the crowd with a rousing rendition of "Road of the Righteous", a track from singer (and all-around good dude) Mike McColgan’s old band, a little-known group called The Dropkick Murphys. Having spent two hours talking to the band earlier in the day, I had been told more than once that one of the only reasons they do what they do is because they love doing it. A noble stance to take (and terribly cliché answer to give) but from the moment they took the stage it was clear that their statement was completely accurate. I’ve seen many punk bands perform in my scant twenty years, but few seemed to genuinely enjoy it as much as the boys of the Street Dogs did, and that joy was infectious.

Once the Street Dogs finished their set and exited the stage was around the time I noticed just how many people surrounded me. The Metropolis, one of downtown Montreal’s bigger rock venues, was literally packed. This surprised me as I had seen bands with significantly more commercial notoriety (Bad Religion, The Dropkick Murphys twice, Rancid and even -- as much as it pains me to admit -- current flavour of the week emo group Underoath) play this venue to noticeably smaller crowds than the one that had gathered to see Flogging Molly. Which I suppose just goes to show the impact that the band has had. While not enjoying even close to half of the commercial exposure given to many of the bands they’ve played with on their multiple stints on the Warped Tour, they’ve managed to amass a monumental following through good old fashioned hard work and word of mouth, and as they took the stage it was not hard to see why.

In my time I’ve used many different adjectives to describe many different shows, but one I don’t use half as often as I’d like is the word fun, and I can without a shadow of a doubt say that this Flogging Molly performance was FUN. After hearing the first few notes out of Dave King’s acoustic guitar and Bridget Regan’s fiddle play, in the darkness one couldn’t help but smile and dance along to the hour plus long Irish jig. All the favorites were covered: "Swagger", "Selfish Man", "Screaming at the Wailing Wall" and my personal favorite, "Laura". You name it, they played it, occasionally taking time out to spout some assumedly cliché Irish idioms and dispel hatred in the general direction of Mr. George W. Bush (and all with a drunken smile on their faces). Everything one could expect out of a Flogging Molly show was present in full force and the eager (and more likely than not, very drunk) crowd ate it up. I must admit, watching from my perch on the balcony as a drunken mosh pit tried in vain to form on the overpacked floor was entirely entertaining, with most resorting to jumping up and down after realizing movement from left to right was quite impossible.

The question remains however: DID the Street Dogs out-Irish Flogging Molly that night? If you ask this Boston-bred reporter, the answer is both yes and no and such is the beauty of this year’s Green 17 tour. I am quite obviously neither Irish nor Catholic, but I do love St. Patty’s day and I do know the difference between Boston and Ireland and the people who live there. But, if I do say so myself, this tour provided a taste of both worlds in three short hours, giving us an all-encompassing St. Patty’s Day experience that few, if any, could top. Basically if The Pogues went out on tour with Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys, with Street Dogs, The Real McKenzies and The Tossers on direct support, brought a twenty-piece pipe and drum band with them and gave out free Guinness, then MAYBE it could top this. As for what both of those worlds tasted like: why, the freshest pint you’ve ever had topped with a hint of clover of course. Man, I am ALL about the clichés today. Oh well, sorry Eitan.

Cheers!

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