Many a great plan has been hatched in the pubs and bars of theworld, when chance deems that a few like-minded individuals shouldhappen to meet over a few pints. Thus is the case with FloggingMolly, whose members happened upon one other in a Los Angeles Irishpub named Molly Malone’s.
“We all basically met there,” said Dave King, the frontman of thethe frontman of the seven-piece outfit whose blend of punk rock andtraditional Irish music has made them among the best-known acts inthe genre.
“We kind of sat around and said, ‘Well I play this and he playsthat,’ and ‘Would you be interested in that’ and all. It wasliterally a meeting of the minds in a pub. We never had to put outthe word or anything; it just kind of happened.”
The newly-formed band started to play regular gigs at the bar,which in addition to being where they all met, became their namesake.”When we played there, we felt like we were playin’ it to death,”King said, “like we were floggin’ Molly’s.”
Thegroup grew beyond the walls of the pub on Fairfax (though it’s stilla regular haunt) and became a band in the proper sense, derivinginspiration from other like-minded hybrids, such as The Pogues andThe Dubliners, but always with an eye toward expanding the genre andfinding their own niche.
“I really believe we’re taking our influences and adding to them,”King said. “A lot of people try to emulate their influences, and Ithink that’s a big mistake.
“It’s like climbing up to the next rung of the ladder, like you’recarrying something and trying to bring it forward into today’satmosphere.”
The efforts have paid off. Flogging Molly mixes a punk rock sneerand doubletime drum beat with mandolin, tin whistle, accordion andfiddle more seamlessly and successfully than any band since ThePogues. Add to that heartfelt lyrics and accomplished musicianshipand other pseudo-Irish acts can barely compare.
“The secret is that we’re not afraid of what we’re going to soundlike,” King said. “We don’t give a f**k, really, what anybody thinksof what we’re gonna sound like, and I think that’s what makes it workfor us. We’re never afraid to put this or that in there.
“Like I’ll have an idea for a song, and have the whole arrangementin my head, and I bring that to the band and they’ll take it in atotally different direction, put in our distinct sound.
“Though the songs are written from an individual point of view,it’s very much a team effort in the execution.”
The band hopes to take its music up another rung with itssophomore album, Drunken Lullabies, scheduled for release March 19from Side One Dummy Records. Included on the disk are some songswritten shortly after their 2000 debut Swagger that have beenmainstays in the band’s set list for years — perennial favoriteslike “Death Valley Queen,” “If I Ever Leave This World Alive” and”Rebels of the Sacred Heart.”
“It’s definitely an extension of what we’re doing,” King said ofthe new album.
King said the band is very pleased with the album and that theyare much more of a band now than they were when Swagger was recorded,largely due to the amount of road work they’ve done.
And some road work it’s been. The band tours incessantly, withperhaps its most successful tour, in terms of opening audiences’eyes, being a spot on the 2000 Vans Warped Tour lineup.
And of course, St. Patrick’s Day is when the band is most indemand, and a day they often grace San Diego with.
Last year they played the ShamRock Festival, and this year theywill play at 4th and B on March 17.
“The truth is, to us every day on the road is St. Patrick’s Day,”King said. “We love to play and drink and go mad, but it’s evenbetter when everyone seems to be in agreement that it’s the thing todo on that particular day.”
“That’s all we want to do,” King said, sincere as always.”Flogging Molly started off in a bar with a few drinks, and the barsjust getting bigger and bigger.”
