Flogging Molly: Irish-American folk-punkers led by Dubliner Dave King, who boast the same relationship to the sounds of the old sod as Gogol Bordello do to Balkan music: that is, they’ve pulled up the roots and jacked them into an electric socket.
You could get snobby about this shower, but only if you were a snob. Flogging Molly have minted it in the US, playing their sawtoothed ceilidh music from the west coast to the east. Their last album Float was a Billboard Top 5 hit. They make most so-called Paddy Goes West success stories look like small spuds indeed. And going by this live album (plus the accompanying DVD), recorded at the legendary LA amphitheatre, it isn’t hard to see why. ‘The Likes of You Again’, ‘Man With No Country’ and ‘Drunken Lullabies’ are somewhere between Black Flag and the Wolfe Tones. Every one’s a fuck-you-very-much-Father anthem, followed by a dose of the fear and a Hennessy chaser. Sure, sometimes they sound a little corny and come-all-ya, but they’re rarely dull. If the Dropkick Murphys are the musical equivalent of Gary Oldman’s character in State of Grace, Flogging Molly are their gauche younger brothers. Nothing wrong with that.