The great punk hunt

I am somewhere around Decatur Street when the panic starts to take hold of me. I have three pages to fill with a story from this show and am counting on good pictures from the show to help lessen my word count. When I arrive at the venue to discover my press passes there, sans photo pass, I begin to worry a bit. After taking my enormous camera to my car, I return and call up the tour manager, with whom I am supposed to convene and set up this, my first face-to-face interview. I have been told every effort will be made to secure an interview with Dave King, the notorious lead singer. But I have also been told there will be a photo pass waiting for me at the venue. I have learned that things do not always go as planned in this field. Nonetheless, I call the tour manager to find that the band is out and about, roaming New Orleans in search of food. I am told to call back in an hour. So now, I wait.

I stand in line with all the other disillusioned youth, sporting beat-up chucks and a variety of spiky jewelry. At one point, two members of Flogging Molly walk by and elicit no response from the line. Dressed in black with hats on, they blend perfectly into the crowd and no one is the wiser.

Finally the doors open and the mass passes through security, armbands and stamps applied, metal-detecting wands waved and tickets scanned. Guinness is on special and nearly every armbanded member of the crowd rushes the bar to get their hands on this sweet Irish concoction. After all, this is a Flogging Molly show � it wouldn�t be right to drink anything else.

After standing around for long enough to make me nervous, I ring the tour manager again, hoping to get this interview over with before anything else has a chance to go wrong. He happens to be downstairs, so we meet up and decide that I will call again in 45 minutes, as the band has yet to come back to the venue. Now I just stand around, thinking of what a colossal train wreck this has the potential to become. Just in time to drown out my manic thoughts, the first openers, Riverboat Gamblers, take the stage.

Having never heard of this band before, I did not expect anything life changing from them. And I was right. This band does not make music that will change your life. But they do make music that is damn fun to listen to. Hailing from Texas, this quintet of black-clad punk rockers delivers a high-powered dose of testosterone and sweat in its 3-chord melodies and frenzied vocals. The lead singer leaps into the crowd, trailing the mic cord behind him. He weaves in and out of the sparse audience, singing directly to the people, refusing to allow them not to participate in this show. Sometimes when you�re an opener, you have to force the crowd to hear you. Riverboat Gamblers get in everyone�s faces and don�t let up until the last song. And for this, I give them my seal of approval.

After the set wraps up, I reluctantly pick up my phone to call the tour manager. Finally, he says it�s a go. Here it is � sink or swim time. As I walk up the stairs, I spot two girls in homemade T-shirts with the following question scribbled out in puffy paint: �Who is Molly?� And on the back� �And why are you flogging her?� Some of you may be asking that same question right now. So, I will clarify.

Who the hell is Molly?

Flogging Molly�s roots lay in Dublin, Ireland, the birthplace of lead singer Dave King. Dave joined up with heavy metal outfit Fastway in the late �80s and later did a short stint with the John Kalodner creation, Katmandu. After maxing out his heavy metal credit, Dave began to play smaller clubs, sporting only his acoustic guitar.

In 1997 at Molly Malone�s, a local Irish pub in Los Angeles, the first incarnation of the band appeared. They released a live recording from the pub, Alive Behind the Green Door, with the original lineup. Their first studio album, Swagger, was released in 2000. In 2002, Drunken Lullabies was released with the addition of lead guitarist Dennis Casey and Flogging Molly, as we now know it, was born.

Dave heads up the band singing lead vocals and playing acoustic guitar. The band is rounded out with Bridget Regan on fiddle and tin whistle, Dennis Casey on electric guitar, Matt Hensely on accordion, Nathen Maxwell on bass, Robert Schmidt on mandolin and banjo and finally George Schwindt on drums.  After playing so many shows at the pub, Dave thought it fitting to say they were flogging it to death, and thus they arrived at the perfect name.

The band created a buzz all over the United States with their eclectic mix of punk and traditional Celtic music. They gained a stronger following after playing numerous stints on Van�s Warped Tour, earning their stripes next to bands such as The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and MxPx. They recently released their third studio album, Within a Mile of Home, and are currently on the road in support of it.

Meet Bob Schmidt

After stumbling and apologizing my way through the packed crowd, I arrive at the artist entrance upstairs. The muscle-bound man in black tells me to wait behind the chain until the tour manager comes for me. Finally, he does and so begins the saga of my interview. He opens the door, and I instantly realize that I will not be interviewing Dave King. My heart sinks a little, but I�m just happy to have finally gotten here.

Robert Schmidt, better known as Bob, is standing just past the door with a smile on his face. Proper introductions are made, and we search for a quiet spot backstage to do the interview. We eventually settle in a small room off of the balcony with windows that face the stage. There is a table with a small vanity mirror surrounded with bright light bulbs. My nerves are going haywire, but from seeing my reflection in the mirror I think I�m hiding it well.

I ask him about the premise of this tour � the Guinness sponsored Green 17 Tour. �It�s just kind of 17 cities over the course of a month leading up to St. Patrick�s Day,� he responds. �Guinness is on board for it this year and we�re hoping that they have a good enough time on it that we can get it ripping.� I begin to wonder if this was Guinness�s idea or the band�s. �It was our idea to get something like this together with Guinness, a sponsor that we all obviously support and someone that we could get behind for more than just the money. It wasn�t like we wanted to do it with Budweiser,� he explains. Flogging Molly is a band notorious for its sincere appreciation of Guinness, so this tour makes perfect sense. Their last go-round on Warped Tour saw the guys (and girl) with 50 cases of the infamous brew in tow. �We had a trailer and we just loaded it up with all the Guinness it would take for us to get through the summer,� he remarks. Surprisingly enough, it survived the entire tour. �I think we actually had a 12-pack or two left,� he says.

With a total of 13 crew and band members present on the bus, traveling with Flogging Molly must be one hell of an experience. I wonder what kind of things they must do to pass all that time on the road. �Well, we�ve got Playstation. We play Texas Hold �Em a lot. Get tournaments going. Read. We read a lot. We have books all over the bus. I have an acoustic guitar on board and Nate�s got an acoustic bass, so we just mess around sometimes. It depends what mood hits us,� he explains.

Their travels have brought them to New Orleans many times before. When I ask Bob what he thinks of our fair city, the response I get is not altogether unheard of. �I love it,� he says. � It�s � ah, it�s a good place to come for a day. It�s bad when you stay. One of the times we were here our manager was sleeping in the street. We were at Ryan�s [Irish pub], and trash was getting thrown everywhere and Dave, our singer, was up on the bar pouring drinks and someone started throwing pool cues and balls and yeah � it got a little out of hand,� he comments, laughing.

This baffles me. While passing the pub earlier, they were blasting the new Flogging Molly album and even had drinks specials in honor of the band�s gig. �Well, we ended up making friends with the guy that night. He appreciated the business I think in the end. We didn�t break anything too expensive,� he clarifies.

When I ask Bob about the new album�s direction toward a more traditional sound, he counters with the thought that in terms of Irish music, he feels it is the least traditional album the band has produced. �I think it draws on a lot of the other music that�s been influenced by Irish music, like country music and a little bit of soul and some Cajun music,� he says. He describes the album as the most �folk sounding� album by the band to date. �We�d just been traveling this kind of narrow road for a while and we�d been able to bump it every once in a while, but on this album we wanted to just widen it out and be able to do a lot more with our music and be expected to do more than just play really fast and really loud and really Irish,� he says. �We wanted to be able to write songs that we could do anything with. Hopefully on this album we�ve kind of spread that spectrum of what people expect of us a little wider.�

On Within A Mile of Home, Dave King pays homage to two of his influences through song. ��Don�t Let Me Die Still Wondering� was inspired after Johnny Cash died, because he was a guy who died knowing he did exactly what he wanted to do. The other one [�Seven Deadly Sins�] was shortly after Joe died,� Bob explains. �They were both inspired by the fact that they died and it really kind of put him [Dave] in the place of thinking about how those people influenced him. Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash had that same kind of outlaw mystique and the same kind of not giving a shit about what the rest of the world expects of them thing,� he says.

The Green 17 Tour wraps up at the end of March, but Flogging Molly isn�t planning on slowing down anytime soon. �We�re gonna head out to Europe to do the summer festivals and things we haven�t really had the chance to do before. Hopefully in the fall we�ll be able to come back and do another American tour,� he says.

With all this touring, I assume Flogging Molly considers its strength to be in live performance rather than in the studio. �I think any good music is best as live music. We�re not the kind of band where people hear the album and think �man I really love this band.� We�re the kind of band that someone drags someone to the show and they�re like �man, I gotta buy this CD,�� he clarifies.

Even with such an extensive touring record, for the first few years, the Mollys didn�t play any shows in Ireland. Bob says that now �the response from the kids who come out to the shows is great,� but the band is trying to get time together to �just tour Ireland and play smaller shows all over the place so that everybody across the island knows us.� Being a band practically full of Americans playing Celtic music, however, wasn�t the easiest thing for them. �The first time we played it was a little nerve wracking, just because a bunch of Irish kids are going �oh, here come the Yanks playing our music for us� � fantastic,� he says.

At this point, bassist Nathen Maxwell pops in the room to ask Bob a question, offer me a beer and subsequently disappear again. When I pose my next question to Bob, a response comes curiously not from his mouth, but from the doorway behind me. I ask what kind of artists the band is listening to right now. Nathen responds with, �Christina Aguilera � Britney Spears � Justin Timberlake � the new Nelly and Tim McGraw single.�  He sums it up for me with this prolific statement: �basically anything that is a soulless sucker of Satan�s pecker � that�s what we listen to.� I have to thank him for that moment of sheer and utter randomness. I find it a perfect way to wrap up my interview.

The second opening band, Hot Water Music, has started playing and Bob and I can barely hear each other. I thank him for his time and see myself to the door. I emerge to a much fuller house than the one I previously left. The bouncer raises the chain for me to slide my way out of the backstage area and back to the pit with the rest of the groundlings. I manage somehow to find my friends and cram my notebook into my back pocket as I settle in for the show.

Ole! It�s the main event

Hot Water Music is already a few songs into their set when I take notice of them. I am not entirely impressed, though some songs do cause obvious shifts in the audience. From the number of kids singing along to all the words, I see that this band has a bit of a following in its own right. A bit more hardcore and a bit less punk than the preceding band, Hot Water Music leaves me with a lukewarm reaction and serves to further press the crowd in their frenzied anticipation of Flogging Molly.

At 10 p.m. on the dot, the house lights fade and a massive tapestry with the band�s name emblazoned on it drops behind the stage. My friends and I stand prepared, earrings removed, hair secured, chucks tightly tied. The band emerges from the darkness onto the stage and the crowd surges forward. Before I know it, the band tears into the first song and the madness begins. Here and there, heads poke out above the crowd as people bounce up and down like pogo sticks. The crowd makes sudden shifts to the right or left, leaving kids grappling for the tails of shirts or some helpful hand to keep them from meeting the floor.

After the first few songs, Dave gives a bit of an introduction, informing us that he has a touch of the flu so he�ll be drinking straight whiskey tonight. The band then slows it down a bit, giving the crowd a chance to breathe. Never allowing a dull moment though, they quickly up the ante and jump headfirst into another set of fast-paced tunes. The band and the crowd begin shedding clothing as Dave comments, �It�s hotter than Las Vegas in here! But this place is much closer to hell than Vegas.� After being bounced around for about half an hour, my friends and I are somehow pushed to the edges of the pit. I appreciate the chance to move my hands above my waist, though.

In between songs, Dave fulfills his role as resident storyteller. Preceding the politically charged �Tobacco Island� off their latest release, King educates the crowd with a history lesson concerning Oliver Cromwell and ultimately trains everyone to respond by throwing up a middle finger.

A little later, the band begins �Black Friday Rule,� a tune from their first studio album, Swagger. They are still playing it 10 minutes later. Members of the band exit and enter the stage on a whim as Dave and lead guitarist Dennis Casey proceed to shred the bloody life out of the song, not to mention the momentary break into the Zepplin classic �Dazed and Confused.�

After informing us that Ireland is slated to play England in football (read: soccer) the following day, Dave leads us in a rousing chorus of �Ol�,� asking us to �sing it loudly for me mother � because there�s nothing she likes better than young lads in tight soccer shorts.�

During �If I Ever Leave this World Alive,� a crowd member decides it is a good idea to throw ice at Dave. The tour manager and roadies decide it isn�t. Dave responds with, �OK, whoever the bastard is that�s throwing the fucking ice at me you better fucking quit or I�ll throw a bottle of whiskey at ya, alright?� A roadie disappears into the crowd in search of the offender and curiously enough, ice stops flying through the air.

After an impressive set, the Molly�s exit the stage in a rush and the house lights remain down. After only a few short minutes of �Ol�� echoing from the crowd, accompanied by stomping feet, the band re-emerges, prepared to bring the show home. They launch into the title track of their new album, �Within a Mile of Home�, followed by fan-favorite �What�s Left of the Flag.�

After a thousand thanks from Dave to the opening bands and the crowd alike, he comments, �We�ve had an absolutely fucking fabulous time, once again. You�re an amazing bunch of people. I hope we left you with a smile on your face and a little dance in your feet. Good night, God bless, let�s do this again � here we go!� The band careens into the addictive melody of �Sentimental Johnny� as the crowd musters all its remaining strength to flail and punch the air with as much ferocity as possible.

About eight minutes later, with a cymbal crash and ringing guitar chord, the show is over. Some band members leave the stage faster than others. Some hang around to toss leftover Guinnesses off their amps to lucky fans. The house lights come up and the crowd begins to disperse. The floor is littered with crushed Guinness cans and randomly enough, ping pong balls. Don�t ask me where those came from. We float out of the venue, sweaty and disgusting, with smiles a mile wide.

�We�ll have us a beer�

While walking down Decatur, we spot Dave talking with fans, a bottle of Jameson firmly in his hand. He is pulled away by someone with the crew and he remarks while walking to the bus, �We�re going to Ryan�s. Come. We�ll have us a beer.� I am still lacking photos for this piece, so I craftily realize my opportunity. I go back to my car to retrieve my camera and settle on getting some shots at Ryan�s.

Surprisingly enough, two members of the band, Dennis and Nathen, are already in the pub, chatting with fans. Feeling like the obnoxious girl with the giant camera, I approach Dennis and explain my situation and lack of  photos for this piece. He tells me to take pictures of them in their natural environment. That, after all, would be better than some corny posed picture. So that�s exactly what I do. Dennis does an Irish car bomb (drop a shot of Bailey�s in a pint of Guinness and shoot it back � quickly that is, before the Guinness curdles the Bailey�s). I find this quite a fitting photo op. Bob walks into the pub and I thank him again for the interview. He chats with me and my friends for a bit then heads off in search of the Guinness people.

After conversing with and hugging not only some of the band members but a few random pub-dwellers as well, I decide that instead of being the obnoxious girl with the camera following the band around the pub, I will call it a night. My friends are practically fainting in the corner, and that bruise I sustained on my hip from a flying fist is starting to ache a bit. I survived my first face-to-face interview without making a total fool of myself, and I believe I have discovered the key to both music journalism and punk shows: roll with the punches.

*This piece is written in memory of the good doctor � just another freak in the freak kingdom.*