Gaelle wrote:Getting the s*** kicked out of you (aka A Night with the Pogues)
Well that basically summed up last night's concert. That and utter surprise at how violent a 'folk concert' can be!
I don't think I've ever been that afraid in a mosh pit before, and this was even before the band got on stage. Usually, with your other concerts such as Oasis or the Foo Fighters, you generally have to deal with fighting against people your own age, or at most five or ten years your senior. Here, it was huge 50 year old hooligan-like Irish men (who had had a bit too much Whiskey and beer for your own safety).
That said, I had a blast!
I don't think I've ever been shoved around, drenched in beer, yelled at and basically had the shit kicked out of me all at once before but man, what a concert. And it wasn't the usual mosh pit either; it was actually an irish dancing mosh pit! Seriously, people were doing some awesome jigs while they shoved and punched each other, it was so odd yet amazingly awesome at the same time!
Shane MacGowan was absolutely smashed off his face (as usual); he would hobble onto the stage with a bottle in his hand, hobble off during some songs, then he was back again. In between slurrish songs and throwing microphone stands around, he attempted speaking but you couldn't understand a bloody word (see video below).
We got to the concert right when the doors opened and since it was quite empty, we ended up right at the front. However, the second the Saw Doctors started playing (the opening band), of course a few really drunk and creepy old men ended up right next to us. I swear I nearly got elbowed in the face a few times, not fun. Apart from one good song (and the fact that the singer looked suspiciously like King Theoden), it was ridiculously boring.
But yes, after that it was bullying and shoving from everyone around for about half an hour until the Pogues. If I hadn't been so excited about them, I would have been tempted just to fall back. Which we inevitably did; once they came on, we nearly got run over by the crowd so I ended up yanking us out of there but grabbing onto my sister (and my camera) as I desperately tried to avoid either of them being trampled to death. Lol. I always tend to do that at concerts; start up really close because for some reason I don't think the mosh pit will be that bad, then fall back once it starts, then get closer and closer towards the end.
The show was a bit slow at first, I didn't know some of the songs and it wasn't until the first encore that it began to get really good. The classics started dropping; Dirty Old Town...
... Irish Rover, Sally MacLennane, White City, Thousands are Sailing, and of course, Fairytale of New York. Or "faleoshfntaal oph nawyoorr" as Shane MacGowan put it. They got this girl to sing it but meh, nowhere as good as the original. And since it was Spider's birthday (whom I think might possibly be my favourite member of the band, I fell in love with his hat), they closed with Fiesta.
I love how after you see a band in concert, you fall in love with their music all over again (even the songs that you didn't really like).
Good times.
SOURCETom wrote:The Pogues were in Nottingham last night, and I went with Graham. They were terrific, even in a crappy old shed like the Nottm Arena, which is hardly a patch on the Brixton Academy (St Patricks Day 1988) for atmosphere. Most of the band are now bald and trim and teetotal, apparently, and perhaps as a consequence they play fantastically. MacGowan is still a wreck, but (largely) comprehensible for most of the time. At one stage he had to be reminded which tune was next, but with a few trips off stage for a refreshing light ale, he was relatively sprightly.
The setlist on this 'reunion' tour is full of old stuff from the first three albums, including tracks from Red Roses For Me which I have never heard live before, alongside favourites like Body of an American, Bottle of Smoke, and the Sickbed of Cúchulainn. There was a lachrymose version of Fairytale of New York to end with, resulting in Mr Ward getting a thorough dousing of fake snow, and some concerned enquiries in the pub after the gig...
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