lurkerwithout | All rocked out

Back from the concert. Well actually back an hour ago, but was watching Rome. How to best describe it? Escalating. Yeah, that works...

Starting at 4:30 was local punk band Numbers on Napkins who played for about half an hour. Decent band, kind of Bad Religion sound to them. Though they have the problem as many punk bands, where the power bass lines tend to overwhelm the vocals. Managed to get a few good reactions from the smallish crowd present. And like every following band made reference to see who was still hungover from the St. Patrick's Day concert. Even the start of a small mosh going...

The next band, The Liar's Handshake, had a more folk/punk thing going on. Little bit like The Dropkick Murphys. They had a slighter larger bunch leave the stands for the field area in front of the stage. And they also managed to get the crowd going somewhat. Even bigger mosh group, slightly bigger crowd pops. Both these bands were fairly good and I'll probably see if I can track down some of their work online...

Then the Voodoo Glow Skulls hit. They didn't even try and get the crowd going. They just assumed that everyone would follow their lead. Which pretty much happened. Actual spontaneous crowd reactions and a real mosh started going. Band is all high-octane energy and ska/punk fusion. Plus they had what was the most aggresive horn player. Until now I'd never thought of the damn trombone as a hard-core punk instrument. But their guy just worked that horn like he wanted to batter everyone into submission...

After them it was Authority Zero, who opened with "Drunken Sailor" to a HUGE fucking pop. They started hard and just kept hammering away and carrying everyone with them. Their lead singer thrashed around like he wanted to smash the stage beneath his feet. Now the field crowd really filled up. Mosh pit, the crowd yelling back lyrics, even crowd surfing. Authority Zero finished up with their lead stage diving and crowd surfing thru their finale. Now the crowd seemed fired up fully...

Not. Even. Close.

Opening with "Screaming at the Wailing Wall" Flogging Molly got an explosive crowd reaction as all of us rose to our feet. And it was a reaction that didn't let up as they played for close to an hour and a half. Giant fucking mosh. Pretty much always two to four people crowd surfing. The field in front of the stage packed. And everyone screaming along with the chorus. I'm still a little hoarse. They even debuted a couple of new songs, "Reqieum For a Dying Song" and "Afloat". They even came back for an encore after the crowd began chanting; Flogging Molly! *clap clap clap* Though at first I thought everyone was chanting "Lets go Murphys". Which would have been odd...

Fucking awesome show...