An Irishman goes into a bar....
Lots of bad jokes start with that line but not so many good bands can say the same. In this case the Irishman in question is an ex heavy rock guitarist and the pub happens to be in Los Angeles but the line still sort of fits. Flogging Molly's main man Dave King has come a long way to finally get to the place that he wanted to be. Having been brought up on the folk music of his home land, he rebelled as all youngsters do and hit the road to play heavy rock. Having played along side Motorheads ex-guitarist Eddie Clark in Fastway and then invited to America to join super group Katmandu he eventually found himself unemployed and cleaning toilets for a living far from home. At this juncture he thought that there were to things that he could do, either return home to the Emerald Isle or try to make a go of fronting his own band in his adopted homeland. In 1998 Flogging Molly was unleashed upon an unsuspecting public and Drunken Lullabies represents the bands third album, and what a cracking collection of songs it is.
To try to sum up the band in a sentence you could try "a punk band with folk instruments" or "a folk band playing way too fast" or even "the Pogues on speed", or you could just listen to the album. If you did this is what you would get. An upbeat Banjo leads the title track in and all seems very much the folk norm, arran sweaters spring to mind, beards and pipes and four part harmonies all fall in to line only to be shattered when the drums kick in and you realise something much more edgy is being offered up. This is a fusion of punk and folk with more than a glint of madness in its eyes. From these few opening bars and their relentless beat you can picture a mosh pit, mad flailing arms, the occasional casualty and alcohol and sweat raining down. Try not tapping your feet to this, its worse than not chewing your fruit pastel. This song really paves the way for the nature of the band, although they do show a softer side from time to time, but what in my opinion they do best is encapsulated in this blind adrenaline rush that starts the album, imagine Fiesta or Sally McLennan by the Pogues and you are in the right area.
What's Left of the Flag follows, bowing down to the rebel sensibilities of the band. Again starting with folk intro, accordions and mandolins entwine with the guitar, lilting slowly behind the vocals before picking up the pace and charging off again in mad panic. Accordion and violin take turns to lead the song and all the time a fast snare drum keeps the power on. Its one of those songs that even if you have never heard the song before you will be singing the chorus by the end of it. The next song is almost a follow on from the previous song, but May the Living Be Dead in our Wake has enough of its own character to give it a life of its own. This time the tin whistle is brought out and the multi-instrumentalist Robert Schmidt brings out the Bazouki, an instrument not heard much since the Waterboys heyday. If I Ever Leave This World Alive is more reflective and brings the tempo down to a more manageable level, this is the bands roots showing through.
An out of character electric guitar over driven and distorted lurches into earshot and the pace is picked up again and The Kilburn High Road charges off maybe telling tales connected with Dave Kings London days of his youth. Bridget Regan swaps her violin for the tin whistle and a touch of Kings hard rocking past is brought to mind with a distinctly unfolk-like guitar solo. By now you have got to grips with what Flogging Molly do. Its not a wide ranging repertoire, its not big, its not clever but it is some of the finest full on drunken dance music going.
There is an almost pirate influence in some of the songs and Cruel Mistress is a classic example of this, if they had had electric guitars in the Georgian navy then Im sure that the ships band would have been playing this song on the Victory the night before the battle of Trafalgar. It is a mix of influences old and new. Death Valley Queen is even more reminiscent of those times and is a slow drunken waltz, its infectious 3/4 time making it impossible to keep still to. Another Bag of Bricks is a strange mix of eastern sounding violin and bazouki and a celtic pub stomp mentality pinning it all in place.
The play out song also requires a mention as this wanders into the realms of country music which after all is the cousin of folk and is only to be expected from an Irish-American band based in LA The Sun Never Shines is a banjo sing along, complete with slide guitar and a chorus that makes you want to get your lighters into the air and sing along in that last song of the night, sorry its time to go sort of way.
In my opinion no band in recent times have managed to merge the apparently mutually exclusive genres of punk and folk as well as this band, its a great band for parties and suggests itself to be the sound track of a wild time. Check out Flogging Molly and their "drunken pirate rock" as I heard it called the other day, not a bad summing up really.