Flogging Molly Tour Diary (Part 2)

WHAT'S UP?
Week two of the Green 17 Tour. Things are moving along fairly well, falling into place. A week of sold out shows! A BIG thank you to all who bought tickets. I bought a camera in St. Paul,Minnesota so I'll have more photos and videos.

February 20
Cleveland Rocks! Sorry, George made me put that there. Two shows at the House Of Blues, both have been sold out for weeks. My sister surprised me with a call saying she was in Cleveland 1/2 an hour before the show. She needed 6 tickets. Stress? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely. The first show went off, all is great. Before I go on I have to tell you that there is an Irish pub called Flannery's around the corner from the House Of Blues. We've been going there for years and this year was no exception. These days 90% of the people from the show go to the pub after the show as well. It is nothing short of some of the greatest nights we've had as a band. Matt will usually start a session and tell all of us to get our instruments. He's always good at that. This time it was Bob, Matt, me and whoever else wanted to grab some spoons (or whatever was in reach) and join in. I was seeing double at this point in the night, so I played a few tunes and handed my bodhran to someone else. I proceeded to hang out with my brother-in-law and friend, Tim. We drank more whiskey and consumed more beer. As the night was winding down, Tim who was in the military gave me his dog tags. Wow, I was speechless, honored and kept asking if he was sure about doing that. Great way to end the night. Sorry no photos, I didn't have a camera yet...

February 21
Another great show. Then around the corner to Flannery's. Seemed like there were even more people there tonight. Thanks to all who bought rounds of beers and shots. I met this guy who kept buying me Irish Car Bombs. After about 4, I was well oiled. The Mighty Stef boys were there and we proceeded to sing all of Exile on Main Street in the middle of the place. And that was it. I blacked out. Don't remember anything. I was told the next day that I had a very good time. Thank you Bob for escorting me out of the bar and to the correct hotel room. Thank you Cleveland.
Here is a photo of Matt playing my guitar backstage:


February 23
St Paul, Minnesota..our first time playing the venue, Myth. It seemed to be surrounded by malls and strip malls. So I bought a camera for this blog. Here are some photos I took:


Matt's banjo, yes Matt also plays the banjo. He plays it all the time. He's been at it for about a year and he's really good now. Matt gets really good at anything he puts his mind to.
I took the photo at the odd moment he wasn't playing it. His friend put that cool design on it.


Bob backstage.



This is Steven aka "The Badger" the legend, the one and only. Check out his segment on "Whiskey On A Sunday" It's the funniest part of the DVD. I didn't take this photo, he wouldn't flip me off.



This is Angry Andy our truck driver who never seems to sleep...




This is a view from on the stage. The Aggrolites and The Mighty Stef are joining us for a song.

February 24
Kansas City has some great BBQ. We seem to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner when we are here. We played a beautiful old theatre that we've never played before called the Uptown Theatre. A guy from the Kansas City Wizards soccer team came to the show. He brought soccer jerseys with our names on them. Pretty Cool, it's my first soccer jersey!


I couldn't help but laugh a lot when I thought of us (Flogging Molly) as a soccer team. I know Dave's pretty good. Here's a photo of them.


I always like seeing our name on the Marquee. I've been taking these kind of photos for years.



Nate and a few of the boys from the Mighty Stef backstage at The Uptown.

We went to a bar across the street and had a few beers. It was a relatively quite night.


February 25
St. Louis. we are again playing a different venue and another old beautiful theatre called the Pageant . There are hundreds of photos backstage of the owner with any touring musician you can imagine and a few presidents. So many great musicians have played at the Pageant. It's an honor for us to play here and sell it out. It was a great show. We went to the bar next door after the show and got things going good...the party continued on the bus. More about that later. Here's a few photos of some, not all of our crew members. The guys who make it all happen. Hard working bastards...


The hardest working man in show business: Freddy.


Steven aka the Badger, who every day has to change strings on 2 acoustic guitars, 3 electric guitars, 2 bass guitars, a mandolin, and a banjo. He also takes care of a violin and an accordian.
6 amps, 6 tuners, I'm stressing just writing this . I'll stop now. He's worked with us the longest...6 years. He's one of us. Much respect and love.


Chris McCleary our monitor engineer. A job I wouldn't do in a million years. He's a masochist if you ask me. I think Monitor engineers take the most abuse.



Aaron's our tour manager, he makes it all happen. He's great at what he does. I hope he stays with us until the end. We're lucky to have him on our team.



Back to the party, it started in the dressing room:

Then to the bar next door ,then on to the bus. Aaron and Freddy got first dibs on the stereo, god help us. See video below.


The night wore on and the more booze we consumed the sillier it got. Jesse from the Aggrolites rode with us. Someone gave us some kind of edible fruit arrangement.


Stan our lighting designer decided to put it in his hair along with a piece of pizza. He has the perfect hair for it.


Public Enemy! This is a great video of Dave and Nate digging some Public Enemy. It's hysterical.




It was a great night indeed.
So that's almost all of our crew. The rest I'll get to. I just wanted to pay my respects to them, introduce you to them. They're a big part of what we do. The working man.
Thanks again to all who, in these uncertain times, shelled out their hard earned dollars to come to the show, buy some merch. Until the next time, Take Care.