A Chilly Reception? Yes and No
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Sunday was a hard and lovely day. The day started with me struggling out of bed at 8:30 to get a bottle of water and collapse back on the couch for some more sleep. The night before was spent celebrating a friend's 30th birthday, and I was appropriately hung over. The hangover was bad enough, but the temperature had plummetted into single digits overnight. I had a double-date with "Flogging Molly":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flogging_Molly coming up in a few hours, and all I could think of was a warm bed and a lot more sleep.At 2:30, "Flogging Molly":http://www.myspace.com/floggingmolly played a small all-ages show at the local music shop. I'd dosed up on water and some lunch and trudged through the cold to "Indy CD & Vinyl,":http://www.indycdandvinyl.com/ my favorite place to buy music. I'd never been to an in-store show there before and was uncertain about what I was going to witness. The store is divided into three long and narrow aisles, and the only place resembling a stage was at the back of the store. I wasn't sure 7 people would fit up there let alone the whole band. I arrived about a half hour early to find the place was already half full; so, I slipped as far up one of the side aisles as I could get. Then the long, hot, uncomfortable wait set in. I was too hung to really chat with anyone, and there wasn't anyone within a decade of my age around me anyway. The only distractions were browsing the CDs and posters nearby and the couple seconds it took for me to pose while some girl took a pic of the back of my Dresdon Dolls tee (which I considered much more appropriate than the Utilikilt I saw someone else wearing). Eventually, the band took the stage. Somehow, they all fit. Dave even commented on how the stage was bigger than Molly Malone's in LA. He also had some fitting words to say about the weather. As the band passed around a few bottles of breakfast (Guiness of course) someone in the crowd mentioned that you couldn't buy alcohol in Indiana on Sundays. (Except in restaurants and bars.) Poor Dave and the rest of the band were a bit shaken by this news and wanted to know if Indiana was spelled H-E-L-L. A bit more bantering and the band opened up with the second song from the "new album,":http://www.floggingmolly.com/ Paddy's Lament. In all honesty, the sound wasn't that great, but the crowd was hearty and full of life; even managing to form a small, close-hugging pit at the front. As expected, it was a very short set. They played three other songs from Float, including Lightning Storm, the title track and Requiem for a Dying Song, before heading off stage. They came back after a couple minutes for a single-song encore of The Seven Deadly Sins. Everyone seemed to love the new songs, and an announcement that a signup sheet was available to pre-order the new album was met with a cry of, "but we want it now!" The stage was cleared quickly and tables were setup for autographs. Again, space was a bit limited, and the drummer and bass player had to sit on stools. They both grabbed nearby albums to sign stuff on. The drummer looked pretty confused as he stared at the Le Tigre album he'd picked up; eventually opting to use the back of the record for a signing base. I'd picked up a vinyl copy of Swagger (my fave album) and had the band sign the inside of it. With a couple handshakes, "some more pics,":http://zeroskilz.multiply.com/photos/album/10/Flogging_Molly_-_In-Store_Pics and a couple nervous utterings of "can't wait for the show tonight", I was back out in the cold. On the way to my car, I ran across a pretty curious sight. Someone had left a full bottle of Miller High Life outside one of the bars. As the beer froze, it had fountained out the top and frozen into a billowy mass sticking up out of the bottle about 4 inches high. I didn't really need the reminder that it was cold and picked up the pace to get back to the car, where the thermometer told me it'd made it all the way to 14.!http://images.zeroskilz.multiply.com/image/3/photos/10/500x500/7/IMG_0165.jpg?et=VzBl8pvy%2BBxjHYWy%2CUA%2BkQ&nmid=81658757!The real show started at 8:00, and I was still struggling to finish off my hangover. Dinner went as planned, but all efforts at napping were quashed with phone calls. I finally gave up and met some friends at a bar where I got rid of my hangover the old fashioned way. Yeah, I drank more. We got a bit of a late start to the venue, and I had to park about 8 blocks away. I grabbed one more drink at the bar and made my way through the sold-out crowd to check out the opening bands (reviewed in the comments) and secure a good spot close to the front. The Vogue is an old theater that is split up the middle by a long narrow bar; ending with a fairly large dance floor in front of a chest-high stage. If you get there early enough and want to sit, there are tables and booths positioned in the elevated wings and on the wrap-around balcony. In it's prime, it must have been a beautiful place. Now it's painted almost entirely black isn't really the kind of place I'd like to see with the lights on. It's a good place to see a band and has decent acoustics, but the smoke hangs about in layers, and the bouncers always seem a bit more interested in hurting people than keeping them from being hurt. I'm sure you know the type of place. My friend and I managed to make it about 20 feet from the front and had a pretty good view. Thankfully, the band took the stage before I lost all sense and went back for another drink. You've got to hand it to the band, they dress up well. All of them were well dressed and seemed in high spirits or, maybe, just deep into their cups; most were still carrying a bottles of Guiness. Dave was wearing a black pinstripe suit with a silver, skinny tie that he said had to have been around since the '60s... unlike himself. The crowd got a small laugh out of it and he got a bigger laugh out of it himself. The band literally launched into the first song of the night and half the crowd went with them. Somehow, I was lucky enough to be behind the two statues that had parked themselves between me and the action. The opening song was Lightning Storm, and I had to content myself with bouncing in place. The next song was Swagger though, and I wasn't standing still for my favorite song. With a couple of polite shoves and a shouted strain of, "I don't know wwhhherre the fuck I'm going!" I bolted for the front and the thrill of the rowdy crowd. What can I say to really describe the night? It was fun? Sure. Glourious, touching, frustrating and funny at times? It was all of that and more. The sum of the whole experience outweighed any individual event. The band has a certain energy about them. Even when they are singing the saddest of their songs, there's a certain bit of something to the songs that makes you want to sing along as if it were a defiant anthem. When they sing the rowdiest of their songs, you howl along and wonder at the madness that drove you to the front. I'd made it second from the front, and, as I looked around me, I recognized several faces from the in-store show. It's kind of hard not to notice the guy who's 7 foot tall or the other 6-something guy with a 3 inch spike sticking out of his chin. Dave recognized them too and commented on the familiar faces from the earlier show. For a while, it seemed the songs and the friendly banter between songs would never end. As with all things though, the end eventually drew near and the band filed off stage waving and smiling. They'd played a good mix of songs from all their albums. I was surprised at how seemlessly the newer, more mature sounding songs dovetailed with the older, rawer material. The only song I missed was Factory Girls, because I'm a guy and would never pass on a chance to see a pretty girl sing a good song. Dave came out alone with an acoustic guitar to start the encore with a song that he explained was the start of Flogging Molly and what the band was really all about. I've heard Dave sing solo before in various songs, but his voice never fails to amaze me. It's not what I would normally call a singing voice, but there is a certain richness to his voice that makes up for the raw edge of it. As he sat up there and sang the first half of Black Friday Rule, I watched and listened on in captivation. I was even a little disappointed when the rest of the band came on stage to finish out the song. It was probably my favorite moment of the night. As they played out the remaining songs of the encore, I slowly moved back through the crowd to go search for my friends. I found some of them perched in the wings and watched with them as the band finished up for the second time that day with The Seven Deadly Sins. After the final song, the band took a few moments to shake hands with everyone up front (yes, I regretted moving back) and to hand out setlists before slowly suffling off stage. The were all smiling and looked like they had had the time of their life. If they grace us with another visit, it will be the warmth of the crowd that brings them back and not the weather. It was a long, cold walk back to my car. I hate wearing jackets into bars and had left mine in the car. I sat in my car and ran a hand through my hair to remove the frozen sweat from it; thinking of the frozen beer earlier in the day. The thermometer said 8, and I thought it was being optomistic. I was literally frozen, but I was happy and felt the best I'd felt all day. I was glad I'd not bailed and passed up a chance to see such a great band here in my own city. If they come near you, you shouldn't pass up the chance either.Couldn't get the song to upload; so, I'm using the Rhapsody version. Sorry if you can't hear it. As always, thanks for reading.
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