Flogging Molly w/ White Buffalo
Showbox Sodo, Seattle, WA
05.06.17
Another knockout performance from Flogging Molly graced Showbox SoDo. Frontman Dave King kicked the evening into gear with a robust, “Hell to hell how ya been?!” greeting. He shared that they were glad to be back – joking that it seemed as if it had been almost a whole 8 months since seeing the Seattle crowd last. Seattle was fortunate for their return.
The crowd was treated to a solid setlist, the very first song being the new, “The Hands of John L. Sullivan.” It may be new but it sounded like classic Flogging Molly from 10 years ago. They followed that with a string of notable older favorites to please the crowd. “Drunken Lullabies” was chased by ” The Worst Day Since Yesterday” as fans screamed lyrics and danced along.
Flogging Molly’s performance beautifully drew from their expansive album history. It helped every fan have their own moment as if everyone found their inner Irishman and just wanted to have the time of their lives. The whole place was heating up from their great music – so much so that King suggested they change the name from the “Showbox” to the “Sweat Box.”
King picked random people out of the crowd to dedicate songs to, which created a fun environment and made a large group of strangers feel like a gathering of close friends. With King’s encouragement, fans belted out a loud, slurred version of “Happy Birthday” to a “Tyler” in the crowd. King followed up with,”It’s a shame when you can die for your country but you can’t drink a pint.”
With many band members over or nearing 50 years old, you would never know from their energy, their stage presence keeps getting better and better. King ran around the stage, bass player Nathan Maxwell pounded his bass with everything he had, and lead guitarist Dennis Casey explored solos beyond the standard strings. I want whatever they were drinking on stage because it seemed to be the lifeblood of their set.
A new song, “Reptiles (We Woke Up),” left fans with encouragement – for both the future of Flogging Molly music, and optimism for the state of the world. King wanted to leave the crowd on a hopeful note, requesting, “People keep the faith.” From just this preview of three new songs, Flogging Molly’s sixth album sounds like it could be their best yet. They played a new unreleased song, “Crushed,” for their encore before wrapping up the set “…where it all started with years ago,” with “Salty Dog.” As expected of a Flogging Molly concert, the night came to a close with many a howling and cheering fan.
Review by Allie Leaf
Photos by Logan Westom
Flogging Molly
White Buffalo
