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Friday, March 29, 2024
Flogging Molly

This Los Angeles, California band has been delighting crowds with their powerful mix of punk rock and Irish folk since 1993.

Flogging Molly set to tear up The Orpheum

Flogging Molly are (almost inexplicably) a cornerstone band for me. They were a common bond between many of my friends in high school, central to nearly any playlist we had while driving through Minnetonka, Minnesota. We headbanged to “Requiem for a Dying Song.” We blared “Rebels of the Sacred Heart.” It’s kind of strange, looking back as a college senior, but the memories stick.

Given Dave King’s career, it’s also strange to think he’s frontman of one of the biggest and best Celtic punk bands of the past two decades. A man who, after all, once lent his dulcet brogue to a heavy metal band called Fastway (a Motörhead/UFO spinoff) and a supergroup named Katmandu. “Not all who wander are lost,” I guess.

And wander King did, from Dublin, Ireland to Los Angeles, California, where (in 1993) he and a few kindred spirits began honing their incipient mix of rock ’n’ roll and Irish folk music in Molly Malone’s, a L.A. pub that ended up inspiring their name.

The band has had an inspired run since they came together in the early ’90s. Their debut studio album, Swagger, which dropped in 2000, contains a bevy of veritable classics (“The Worst Day Since Yesterday,” “Black Friday Rule,” “Devil’s Dance Floor”) and live favorites (“Salty Dog,” “These Exiled Years”). Subsequent releases (Drunken Lullabies, Within a Mile of Home, Float) built mightily on Swagger’s foundation and established Flogging Molly as a force to be reckoned with, on and off the stage.

And of course, there’s ample proof of the band’s supremacy as a live act. Their first release was a live album (1997’s Alive Behind the Green Door) and 2010’s Live At The Greek Theatre was a two-disc testimonial.

2011 saw a sort of renaissance for the group, as they (sort of) broke from their standard formula and incorporated more rootsy muscle and populist bravado on Speed of Darkness (most evident on lead single “Don’t Shut ’Em Down”). They haven’t followed up with any studio releases, but if Darkness is any indication (and their cover of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” for a Bob Dylan tribute that came out around the same time) the band is hell-bent on effecting a change in the world.

The band will be joined by two opening acts: The Mighty Stef and The Pasadena Band. The former, a Dublin folk rock project fronted by Stefan Murphy, is a group after Flogging Molly’s own heart, whose music abounds with rough riffs and rumbling vocals. Their debut album Year Of The Horse is expected to drop in 2015. The latter is a Maryland band whose music is a ramshackle mix of hip hop and reggae-inflected rock ’n’ roll. Taken together, the three acts are bound to inspire a wonderful affinity.

And if you aren’t sold on Flogging Molly’s history or the openers, go for the venue at least. The Orpheum Theater is almost absurdly suited to the type of crowd who will (hopefully) show up: excited, vigorous people ready to jump and mosh a bit, and sing along with a preeminent Irish punk band.

Flogging Molly, The Mighty Stef and The Pasadena Band will be playing The Orpheum this Saturday, Dec. 6. Doors are open at 7:30 p.m. The show begins at 8:30 p.m. Tickets cost $27.50 in advance, $30 the day of the show.

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