Flogging Molly came to Oakland’s Fox Theater this past weekend and unleashed a serious can of Irish whoop-ass (also known as Guinness) on everybody. The seven-piece Celtic Punk group has been recording and playing for nearly 15 years now and their hilariously fun and boisterous live show reflects both their talent in musicianship as well as their combined love of a fun loving drunken good time. Lead singer Dave King came on stage toasting the crowd, Guinness in hand and a 4 pack stock behind him, and immediately gave his thanks to all those familiar faces and beautiful people in the audience that make this show exactly what it was. He couldn’t have been more on target. The group’s energy is amplified tenfold by a never-ending onslaught of crowd surfers and mosh-pits. A mosh was even going throughout few of their more somber ballads like “If I Ever Leave This World Alive,” and “The Worst Day Since Yesterday,” to which King toasted, “You bloody people can dance to anything!”
The band played a wide range of their older high-energy Celtic Punk anthems like “Devil’s Dance Floor,” “Black Friday Rule,” “Selfish Man,” and an epic encore of “Salty Dog,” as well as a fair amount of their sometimes Catholic influenced acoustic jams like “Saints and Sinners,” “Power’s Out,” and more. My general rule of thumb for great music is that if the band is better live than they are on the record, they are epic. Flogging Molly’s live show far and above exceeded my expectations and left me with an experience I will not soon forget.
Setlist:
1) Another Bag of Bricks
2) Paddy’s Lament
3) Revolution
4) Selfish Man
5) Heart of the Sea
6) Drunken Lullabies
7) Kilburn High Road
8) Saints and Sinners
9) Requiem For A Dying Song
10) Power’s Out
11) Wanderlust
12) Present State of Grace
13) Prayer For Me in Silence
14) Float
15) Tobacco Island
16) The Lightning Storm
17) Rebels
18) Devil’s Dance Floor
19) The Worst Day Since Yesterday
20) Within a Mile of Home
21) What’s Left of the Flag
22) Seven Deadly Sins
Encore
23) Salty Dog
24) World Alive
