“Singin' Drunken Lullabies”

(Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly)

13 September 2008 - Boston, MA - WFNX Disorientation

Boston on a Saturday evening is nothing less than exhilarating. Late in the afternoon at the Riverside station for the Green Line T train, fans in Red Sox t-shirts sprawled across the platforms, heading home from an afternoon game, some getting rested to go back to the next game later that evening. Others only gave the appearance of joy travelers, college students, and business men and women. We, the three of us, were heading towards the harbor for a show at the Bank of America Pavilion. The air was still of a breezy late summer day.

Having never ridden the train before, we were slightly confused. Standing on the platform, trying to figure out which lines we had to take and at which stations, we wondered if we would make it to the show in time for the opening bands to perform.

“As long as we don’t miss The Kooks,” my friend kept repeating.

On this mild September evening, the New England urban metropolis was being graced with the likings of the bands Does It Offend You, Yeah, Anberlin, Alkaline Trio, The Kooks, and, the main act, Flogging Molly. Rogue Wave, an indie band native to California who’s style is similar to that of The Kooks’, was also planned to be on the bill, but made a last minute word and dropped from the performance for the evening. But none of the rest of the bands seemed to matter. We were only going for The Kooks.

My only prior knowledge of these bands was Hot Topic t-shirts and my friend’s iPod playlists. Flogging Molly was the single band I had any idea of what the music sounded like. After a brief phase and flirtation of passion with the band Dropkick Murphys (band derived from the streets of Boston themselves) I had experienced Flogging Molly and knew of them and their “Drunken Lullabies”. But mostly, I was on this trip for a joy ride.

The day was slightly cloudy, but by the time we passed the confusion of transferring from the red line to another, the day seemed to be clearing up. We got off a block few too early and every person we asked seemed to not know that the Bank of America Pavilion even existed. At this point, we were beginning to worry. But we kept walking in the direction a couple of people pointed us to. With the downtown skyline receding behind us and sparsely scattered yet fancy apartment complexes rising in front of us, we could just make out the tip of the white tent, the Bank of America Pavilion. Loud music shook from it and we thought that we could’ve possibly already missed the first band. It was well past five o’ clock, the time the show was set to start. It turned out, though, that it was only the pre-show speaker rambling that was meant to keep the patrons entertained in waiting.

Unlikely as it was, we even spotted people from the train and the young kids with the seats directly in front of us seemed strikingly familiar, maybe from a past show or a crazy notion that we had once seen them before.

The Pavilion was completely comprised of nicely spread out seats with a white tent overhang. Despite my distaste for concert seating, it was comforting and serene in the Boston evening. Outside of the stage area was a small village of concert merchandise and $10 hot dog stands. The bathrooms were surprisingly still intact. Just outside of the fenced-in concert, a puzzle of roads and buildings splayed across outer Boston. It was surprisingly spacious for an urban setting. The New England Dodge Center was even more cramped with car lots and bridges than this. Sitting from out seats, we could see a bit of the harbor and a clipping of the city. Not only was it peaceful, but it had a lovely view.

Soon after our arrival, the show opened with Does It Offend You, Yeah, a rock band straight from the United Kingdom. From that point onward, my friend and I have always thought that yes, it does offend us. They were unique, that is a positive. Though the place was still pretty empty (no point in showing up early if you have a guaranteed spot for the night) there were some diehard fans standing at the back, singing and dancing wildly. The group of tipsy twenty or something year old girls at the end of our row seemed to be enjoying themselves also. Most famous for their techno-rock song “We Are Rockstars”, Does It Offend You, Yeah played a short set with elongated beats and songs and ecstatic young fans. Lead singer James Rushent’s voice seemed strangely out of place for the style of music and somehow, the rest of the band did too.

Following the techno fiends was a slightly more popular band who just recently (as of December and January) hit the top of Alternative Rock charts for Fuse and others for the song “The Feel Good Drag”, Anberlin. They were mediocre, but nonetheless entertaining. The bands so far had a bad omen for the lead singers. Stephen Christian’s voice was not out of place, but only ill sounding. Anberlin performed well, though, and just as Does It Offend You, Yeah had, there was a row of fans directly in the front that seemed to know every single word. Despite the negative presence of vocals, it seemed that people were beginning to enjoy their night.

The night was starting to dim and the onstage lights were becoming more noticeable. A punk rock parody of “These Boots Were Made For Walking” played thru the speakers and soon it was Alkaline Trio’s turn to either please or fail. And as part of my opinion, they were one of the bests the whole show. They were into crowd participation, asking the crowd to sing along to certain parts and telling the nearly full Pavilion what the lyrics were when everyone seemed mostly lost. I wasn’t sure if that was because of the thick smell of Guinness hanging over the mass of the Pavilion or the pure lack of knowledge to this band’s music. I was hoping for the second. Even after five tries to get “…love for fire…” from “This Could Be Love” correct, the band still seemed determined to keep us going no matter how quickly people were dropping from the alcohol. For a three piece band, Alkaline Trio was doing a wonderful job.

Boston WFNX (radio station) was sponsoring the show along with the Boston Phoenix (a local paper of sorts). So, of course, radio characters came out between sets out of promotion for the bands and for themselves. A British man took to the stage with a vulgar mouth and obscene jokes.

“I know the seats are bothersome,” he said with a smirk, “so for this next band I want you to let them feel warm and welcome and get close to the stage!”

Security wasn’t happy. There was a giant rush to the stage and red security shirts flashed everywhere, trying to stop the large amount of people streaming to the stage. We just narrowly escaped being sent back to our seats. The front three rows to the right of the stage had been empty throughout the entire show and we evaded the security guards by telling them we had been there all along and so had the girls who had sat in front of us before, the ones who seemed vaguely familiar. It was dirty, but it worked. My friend was determined to see The Kooks up close in person and I was happy going along for the ride.

The Kooks was yet another band from the United Kingdom with an indie rock sound to them. Most of the set was piano and acoustic guitars, but soothing to listen to and fun to dance to. In the front row, kids were cycling through an empty seat at center stage, including my friend. I stood listening calmly and realized that this music wasn’t as bad as I originally thought it could be. The Kooks most well-known album is the 2008 release Konk with the single “Do You Wanna”, a song of unmentioned nighttime games. Just like Alkaline Trio, Luke Pritchard, lead singer, had a voice that was in tune. The rest of the band was just as well. They seemed like they knew what they were doing. Every time anyone from the band came even an inch from the edge of the stage, girls cooed and shrieked in passion and excitement. One girl, in her early twenties, was holding up a provocative sign asking the band “If they wanted to?” a play on the song being played. “Seaside” was by far the best song of the set, a purely acoustic song about love and the ocean. They were onstage near an hour until they had to get off.

After meeting the band (The Kooks) we thought to leave. We had quite a ride home and no one was particularly interested in staying for the main act, Flogging Molly. Instead of getting cooler, the night had gotten warmer. There was no moon, but the sky was clearing. The Pavilion was filled to the rim, but everyone had someone squeezed into the space at the front. Only the back section of the Pavilion was slightly vacant with a group of concert goers sitting here or there. We decided to stick around for just a bit longer. It turns out that Flogging Molly was worth staying a little longer for. Every which way people were attempting lazy “Irish Jigs” and “skankin’” (Google it), falling over the seats and each other. We joined in with our own attempts as the band played songs from the latest album “Float” and made jokes poking fun at American politics (they are a purely Irish band).

“This tie isn’t for Republican,” band member Dave King pronounced while pointing to his red tie, “this is for your Red Sox.” The crowd went wild.

At the peak of Flogging Molly’s set, we stole away into the streets of Boston, catching a train as soon as we departed from the Pavilion. The night’s bands had a rough start, but turned out fantastically as it progressed. I had started out clueless, but ended in a five day binge following of nothing but Flogging Molly and Anberlin. I had been pleasantly surprised by the goings of the evening. Sitting on the train we sat mostly silent, but whenever we talked it was of one of the bands or another. Other people we had seen at the show rode the T train and anytime we were asked why we were out so late, they seemed genuinely interested in the show. Once we hit Fenway the train was packed to the brink with Red Sox fans returning home after a big game and we few from the show by the harbor. These are the glories of Boston.
Rating: 4/5