Flogging Molly @ Nokia Theatre, NYC
Live Reviews | Feb 20th, 2006
Opening Bands: The Scotch Greens
Date: February 16th 2006
Venue: Nokia Theatre, NYC
It’s been awhile since I last saw Flogging Molly perform in a club. I usually only get to catch the band on the crappy Warped Tour, and their sets are too short to really enjoy them. So seeing them again was way past due. The show was at the new Nokia Theatre in Times Square. I’ve never been there before so I was anxious to check out the new club.
Before arriving at the club, my brother and I got stuck in New York City traffic on the GW Bridge and then a little bit on the West Side Highway. Traveling by car in the city is a pain in the ass but I’d rather do that than the train. Just confusing and I’ll get lost. Matt and I got to the venue and went to the window to get my photo pass and mark our names down on the guest list. Well apparently, we were suppose to have tickets with us (even though the label said we didn’t need them) but the club had the photo pass for us. So we had to end up paying tickets at the door, while a stupid scalper hound me to buy his tickets instead. I was pissed because what if the show was sold out. We would have drove pretty much an hour and half for nothing and then had to go back home. So I wasn’t a happy camper and felt I got screwed out of a ticket (like I have been in the past from various record labels & bands) I think it was the venue who actually screwed up because I wasn’t the only one who had to end up paying from the label’s list. But I was thankful to get a photo pass at least and take some kick ass photos.
The venue was super nice inside, a big TV showing the concert stage was in the lobby area, and then we went into the main concert room. All the way in the back (though not that far away), was stadium seatings like in a movie theater, then there was the middle section, and then the lower section near the stage. On either side is the VIP section that leads up some stairs into a cool balcony overlooking the stage. The club was designed very nicely, too bad they are schmucks and can’t figure out the guest lists right.
I never heard of the first band, and kind of wish that were still the case. They were the Rolling Blackouts and they looked and sounded like they wanted to be living in the 1970’s. But unlike that music from back then, these guys were extremely boring and they didn’t even sound that great either. Plus, the club’s sound guy was doing a pretty crappy job at making the band sound good and made them sound worse. It felt like 2 hours went by and it was only a half hour. After that band got off, the Scotch Greens came out next.
I recently reviewed their album so I knew who these guys were. They sort of played bluegrass/cow punk and are from Iowa. Yeah they sounded very hillbilly-ish but they were all right. I liked their punkier stuff and less of their country/bluegrass stuff. I’m just not a fan of that. So, later on these sonsofbitches covered The Clash and I believe another song but I can’t figure out what song it was. Oh well, Flogging Molly was up next.
The band took the stage and opened the set with “Another Bag of Bricks,” you know, that song that sounds like “Turkish Song of the Damned” by The Pogues. I really forget what songs were played in order but they did play a lot of songs. They did play a lot from each of their three studio albums. From Swagger, they played “Salty Dog,” & “Selfish Man” and I’m sure a few others but can’t remember right now. From Drunken Lullabies, they played “Drunken Lullabies,” “The Kilburn High Road (I Think),” and “Rebels of a Sacred Heart.” Off their newest album, “Within a Mile of Home,” they played “Factory Girls” (with Bridget singing), “Seven Deadly Sins,” “Whistles Of The Wind,” and “Queen Anne’s Revenge.” I actually thought the best song of the evening (besides my all time favorite “Salty Dog”) was “Whistles of The Wind.” The song sounded great in the club and the band seemed to play it the best out of all the songs they did (in my opinion anyway). Maybe since it was a slower song, they didn’t have the need to rush through the song? I didn’t really like that song all that much on the album until I heard it live. That’s the beauty of live music, discovering you like other songs you might not have liked on their studio albums. I guess the same can be said when I saw the Pogues in December and now like “Young Ned of the Hill.”
Dave King was really funny the whole night and kept making funny jokes about things like British people, his palely Irish skin, having a whole case of Guinness on stage (Guinness was the sponsor by the way) and Dick Cheney. Didn’t take bands long before cracking jokes at that numb skull Vice President shooting someone in the face. I wonder what Anti-Flag has to say about it. Since their set was getting close to 11pm, and the fact that i’m an old man now; I had to head out early to go home to get some sleep. I had to work the next morning ok! So I honestly don’t know what songs they ended up playing. Overall, the first band was awful, the Scotch Greens were ok, and Flogging Molly were great (like usual). Definitely one of my favorite bands to see live.
