Flogging Molly flogs House of Blues

By Joseph Difazio, Muse Staff Writer

Celtic punk favorites Flogging Molly came to the House of Blues on Tuesday as part of their Green 17 tour, following opening acts The Devil Makes Three and Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears.

Flogging Molly opened with their most popular song “Drunken Lullabies” and from the very start all the Boston “Yah dudes” were pounding Guinness, moshing, yelling along with the lyrics and raising their newsboy caps in toast.

Their set spanned their entire career, but they borrowed heavily from their most recent album, Speed of Darkness; “Revolution,” “Saints and Sinners,” “Oliver Boy,” “The Power’s Out” and the title track all made the set.

The show seemed extremely polished. It felt like they had practiced a particular routine that they would play every night. While entertaining, (especially the solos/tricks of the guitarist Dennis Casey) it’s unfortunate a rock band wouldn’t allow for a little more spontaneity. Singer Dave King mentioned Boston about thirty times and after learning about the repeating set lists, it couldn’t help but make me think it was a formulaic ‘What’s up (insert city here)’.

Then again, they are mostly playing at House of Blues on their tour, which is the pantheon of taking the soul out of music. In my opinion, the House of Blues is the worst and most corporate venue in Boston. I miss the old Avalon Ball Room that stood where the House of Blues stands today. It was a grungier, more honest venue that would have been more fitting for a band like Flogging Molly.

While their set was pretty captivating, it was sort of monotonous. They tried to break it up by doing an acoustic portion in the middle, but the songs didn’t really change pace much. Again it seemed formulaic.

Despite all my complaining about disgusting big corporation ruining music, and the relative repetitiveness of the set, it was pretty fun. Frontman Dave King is an entertainer.  The small Irish man was full of energy and running around stage with excitement.