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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.

Learn more about this author, Dave Franklin.
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