If you haven’t been to a show lately, there’s been a ton, and there’s a bunch more this month! Go support the scene.
Last Friday at The Theater (RIP The Joint), Violent Femmes and Flogging Molly co-headlined with special guests Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and THICK. Which admittedly is kind of a weird mash up… so was the crowd… but as the tour proves, it works.
Since my flight from LAX that day was delayed a million hours (thanks Southwest) I missed THICK, but I heard they killed it in all of their bouncy, jumpy, punky glory.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes looked amazing in their all white formal attire. Starting off the night with a cover song… oh wait, I guess they were all cover songs, something that Spike pointed out before and after every song. But don’t worry, the crowd loved them. Since the show wasn’t sold out, there was plenty of room for everyone to dance to favorites like “Rocket Man”, “I Will Survive”, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”, and “Leaving on a Jet Plane”. If you missed Bad Cop/Bad Cop at PRB, you had your chance to see Stacey Dee on guitar with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. But if you’re missing Joey Cape, you can see Lagwagon in November at Brooklyn Bowl with our favorite Vegas band Mercy Music opening!
I’m not quite sure how I’d never seen the Violent Femmes before this tour? Especially since my first car in 2007 was a rusty, beat up (but free) 1986 Chevy Chevette that only had a tape deck. The only cassettes I owned were New Times and the Footloose Soundtrack, which was all I listened to for a year. That being said, I was super stoked that I got to dance to “Breakin Up” and “I’m Nothing”. They also played classics like “Add it Up” and “American Music”. Of course it wouldn’t be a Violent Femmes show if they didn’t play “Blister in the Sun”, which had fans running from the bar down to the stage.
Unfortunately, after the Violent Femmes set, a large part of the crowd cleared out. Maybe just because the drinks were cheaper outside the venue? I mean, there were ins and outs, so who knows?
You would not have been able to tell though, because in true Flogging Molly fashion, their fans opened the circle pit before Dave King even got out the first words of “Devil’s Dance Floor”. Most bands that have been around for over twenty years, have a tendency to forget their first albums but this set took us all the way back to Swagger with “The Worst Day Since Yesterday” and “Black Friday Rule”. “Drunken Lullabies” had everyone dancing and spilling their beer.
King, like most musicians lately, expressed his gratitude and excitement at being on stage for their first tour in almost two years. Fans were treated to new song “Croppy Boy” and an announcement that the band will be recording a new album as soon as the tour is over.
If you still need more Celtic punk in your life. Don’t forget to enter our contest on Facebook where you can win a pair of tickets to see Dropkick Murphys and Rancid this Friday, October 15 at The Theater!
-Kristy Calhoun
Photos by Aaron Mattern
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