Green 17 Tour 2008

I attended Flogging Molly's Green 17 Tour 2008 (for a 2 month celebration of St Patrick's Day) on Friday night with my good friend Peter. Peter happened to be the beneficiary of Beth being sick and man was he a beneficiary. This show rocked - might be one of the best shows I have seen in years -at least in the top 5.

The tour consists of Flogging Molly as the headliner, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band on all tour stops and for this leg we had The Cherry Cokes. The show was at House of Blues which has it's many problems but is still a fine venue to see a show. HOB is actually getting too small for Flogging Molly - they should consider moving the the better sounding (and bigger) Hard Rock Live for their next event.

Unfortunately we missed The Cherry Cokes but did buy their CD to see what all the hub bub was all about - and these kids rock! They are 7 kids from Japan that I can best describe as Flogging Molly on speed and with a horn section - a little like the Supervillans with an accordion. Peter secured a signed (in case they go big) CD (Beer My Friends)and we listened to it on the way home - kicking ourselves that we missed the act.

Next up was Rev Peyton's Big Damn Band - this band consisted of Rev Peyton on guitar, his wife Washboard Breezy Peyton on washboard (come on that was not hard to figure out)and Jayme Peyton (Revs brother) on drums and the pickle jar (yes, the pickle jar - and man can he play it). This band was awesome - they are a little bit like Robert Johnson and Son Volt - their sound is a lot like all the old blues recordings you hear from the 50s and 60s. I would describe them as Roots Blues. I bought the CD (Big Damn Nation, also autographed) and have not been able to get it out of my car and I am looking forward to putting it on my Ipod. Favorites of the night were - Mud, Long Gone, and Left Hand George.

After a short break we were ready for Flogging Molly - for those of you who have not heard FM it is hard to describe - punk rock with traditional Irish instruments (mandolin, accordion, tin whistle) or Irish Traditional with hard driving guitars and bass. You listen and decide for yourself. I have seen FM about 10 times now, but this was the first time for Peter and he was in for a big surprise - I purposely did not tell him much so he could make up his own mind.

The first time I saw FM was at a Warped Tour about 7 years ago - they were on a lonely side stage with about 10 people watching them and right away I was hooked - I remember being with my friend Scotty and he was ready to buy their album and get the word out. They quickly advanced to The Social (where the show is so good because of the great setting) to HOB. The crowd has changed a lot but the band has not - they have stayed true to their music and continue to produce great albums. The crowd change reminds me a lot of my Grateful Dead days - once the Dead put out a music video and a sell out album the crowd became yuppy mainstream and the fans were rude, obnoxious, and not true fans but someone looking to catch a buzz - FM fans have changed in that direction too. The mosh pit is still there but and the true fans are still there - now there are all these "wanna be" Irishmen there - too many people doing the river dance (what the hell!) and a bunch a drunk ass adults that are using this time to get a good buzz - BUT shit man - they were not even drinking Guinness - probably Bud. Oh well - enough of my rant - and back to the show.

FM came on a little after 10:00p and jammed through about 25 songs in their 1 hour 45 min show - the 7 piece band that features an accordion, tin whistle, banjo, mandolin, violin along with bass, guitar and drums was hot this night. They rocked - Dave King messed with the audience a little and the band enjoyed their fair share of Guinness! My favorite songs of the night were:

Seven Deadly Sins
Whistles In The Wind
Tomorrow Comes a Day Too Soon
Whitin a Mile of Home
Selfish Man
If I ever Leave this World Alive
What's Left of the Flag

They played a few songs from their new album Float and it sounded so good I bought a copy - when I get a listen I will write a review and let you know. I suggest you either buy Swagger - the first album, or Drunken Lullabies - this will give you a good taste of FM and I think you will be hooked.

I rate this show a 8 out of 10 Guinness - maybe if I saw The Cherry Cokes I would have given it a 9. I rate the HOB about a 6 - first of all you have to be out there by 12:00a (Disney Rules), it gets very crowded and acoustics are very bad in some places, and the beer (in cans only) is pretty pricey ($6.50 for Guinness) - and one last pet peeve - they do not allow bands to sell stickers because they are afraid that the fans will put them on the walls.

If you get a chance to catch this tour you should - it is so much better than any of the arena rock crap out there now - Van Halen for $100, The Police for $150 (although I would pay $150 to see Elvis Costello), Springsteen for who knows what he charges to listen to his political rants these days. You do not have to go and pay $15 to park at the O-rena which might have the worst acoustics I have ever heard in a venue in my life. The FM tour was a reasonable $30 (with $11 going to ticketmaster for the convenience of buying a ticket from them)- you can not go wrong!

Enjoy!