Flogging Molly Tour Diary (Part 5)

March 16
Chicago, Illinois. We played a sold out show at the House Of Blues. The show was added because our St. Patrick's Day show at the Congress Theatre sold out well in advance. Great venue, one of the best House Of Blues in the country. Steven aka the Badger had a slew of problems before sound check. The night before, Bridget broke a string so he had to change her strings. Changing the strings on a violin is way different and more difficult then on a guitar. It takes a lot longer as well. Matt's accordion broke, Dave's acoustic guitar was sounding awful, the bass was cutting out and my amp blew up. No wonder he has grey hair. It's all part of his job. We tour pretty hard, things get broken, but Badger always has everything fixed them by show time. We had a good show. After the show we went to a few bars, I don't remember the names of all of them, except the last one "The Exit." It's a 4am bar, so I did some damage. The Aggrolites were there. It was punk rock night and the DJ was spinning some good tunes. So as usual, after a night out on the town in Chicago, what else do I do? I hunt for Chicago pizza. $30 in cab fares later I found a place open. I had a feast.

March 17
Happy St. Patrick's Day. I woke up not so well. What did I expect after a long night of drink and 3 pieces of stuffed Chicago pizza? I was better by sound check. I did have to take a photo though of the first people in line. They were there hours before doors. I met them all. It was great meeting them. I ran into our super fan Rachel, who was in the line. She was at the last 7 shows in a row (She's been coming to shows for years, always in front, always many shows in a row).


This is a big day for us and our fans. It's funny though, because I remember Dave saying through the years "Every day is St. Patrick's Day when you're in Flogging Molly. " There is a lot of truth in that statement, even though he was saying it as a joke. The show's the same, we don't drink any more or less than usual, or have any special effects... You guys are what make it special. For example, I took this photo from the balcony. Look how many people were wearing green!



And that's only one angle. There were a couple thousand people behind me. People came from all over the country. Dave has said over the years that when he was growing up in Dublin, his memories of St Patrick's Day were going to Mass and then a small parade where the highlight was a couple of Irish Wolfhounds. It's different here in America. People really celebrate the day with big parades, dying rivers green, wearing green and not to mention many people getting drunk. Flogging Molly gets to be a part of the celebration every year in some city. We love it, and always have a great time. Green 17 2009 was a great tour. Thank you to all who came out and made it a success. You keep us going. Thanks for reading this, I hope it wasn't too boring. Flogging Molly will head over to Japan then Hawaii in April. We will be back on tour again very soon. Keep an eye out for us. Until then, Take Care.

Dennis

Flogging Molly Tour Diary (Part 4)

March 9
Richmond, Virginia at The National. It's a great venue that has been fully remodeled. Backstage has many rooms, a pool table in one, a sauna in another and even a Jacuzzi in another room. Too bad we didn't have much time to hang out there. We had to head up to Boston. A few old friends came down to the show, which is always nice. Carina who worked for us selling merch many many years ago was there. Our good friend and all around great human being Josh from the 9:30 club also came down. I look funny standing next to him. I look funny period...



March 10
Shipping up to Boston. after a long drive we arrived at the new The House Of Blues. Not bad, but backstage area is very small. It was a busy day, our good friend Ken Casey from The Dopkick Murphy's invited us down to his pub McGreevy's for a pre show party. We did a sound check and then headed down there. Nice place with Magners cider. A favorite of mine. There was a lot of people there. I had no idea so many would come! Had a great time hanging out meeting new people, drinking Magners on ice. We made our way back to the venue, only to be greeted by many old friends. Ted from Rhode Island, who used to let us stay at his house after we played in Boston. Patrick Lynch, who is James from Dropkick Murphys' father. He is always good for a few hundred laughs. The Cote family with homemade cookies. Cort Johnson my friend who is always trying to get me on Twitter. Lori The Legend, who used to work at SideOneDummy. She's a riot, haven't seen her in years. We used to live in the same building in LA. After the show I tried to hook up with Ken Casey but he was not in town yet. Although he did call as were driving on to the expressway and asked if we were in a black tour bus. I guess we just passed him. Oh well, would have been nice to see him. Next time. How great of a line up would this be?
Flogging Molly
Dropkick Murphys
The Pogues
Boston is a great city. I remember when we first played Boston at Bill's Bar. We played early at 8pm and there were about 100 people outside just coming in after we finished. They were pissed. Someone got the idea to play again at the Cambridge Port. We were into the idea and went down to this dive bar and played again. Those were the days....
Thanks Ken and McGreevy's for a great pre-show party!

March 11
Rochester, New York - Water Street Music Hall. We were supposed to play one show here but it sold out in less than a week, so we added another show. Two nights in my hometown turned out to be a great time. Many, many friends and family at both shows. The show was good, Dave and Bridget were suffering from a cold. Being sick on tour is no fun. There was an after party at O'Callaghan's Pub for 94.1 The Zone, where some of us planned on playing an acoustic session. Nate, Matt, our crew, and I went to the after party. Holy Shit! I couldn't believe how many people were there. The placed was packed and people went nuts when we walked in. They set up an "area" for us but I never like going behind some rope and separating myself from our fans at these events. So I just headed in and went to the bar. After a while, Matt and I pulled out our instruments and started playing. The whiskey was flowing along with the Guinness. We played a few tunes, then Nate came and sang a Bob Marley song. "No Woman No Cry." After that I think we played a few Flogging Molly songs and a fan sang them with us. We had a great time. Thanks O'Callaghan's! My friend Laura took these photos.




March 12
Rochester second show. We were feeling a bit under the weather today after last night's party at O'Callaghan's. Nothing a few whiskey and red bull's wouldn't cure. We call those Irish baby shakers. Matt jumped up and played the organ with the Aggrolites. Laura took this photo as well.




Laura took this photo as well. I liked it, Dave and Bridget singing together on stage and Bob sitting. I think it's unique and I just like it........



March 13
Atlantic City House Of Blues. We had some friends bring us some Pal Joey's sandwiches. Bob Shuhart and his neighbor do this every time we play New Jersey. He's the father of our former agent Shane Shuhart. I have to say that those subs are the best I've ever had. Everyone usually agrees after having one. I ate 2 and a half at the end of the night. After the show we were invited to try to kill a $1000 bar tab in the foundation room. Great views of the ocean from up there. Don't know if we used up all of the $1000 but it was fun trying. That night on the bus Dave, Bridget, and I stayed up till 5 am singing the Dubliners. Well, Dave wasn't allowed to because he was losing his voice. You should have seen him trying NOT to sing along to some of his favorite songs.

March 14
Washington D.C. ShamrockFest. It was cold, wet and raining all day. Add in about 26,000 drunk people wearing green and you have the ShamrockFest. It's a lot of fun. I was hanging out at our merch booth for a while and got to meet some interesting and fun people. Then this guy walks up.




This is Chaz. He is a legend, great friend, and all around good guy. He's been coming to shows for 10 years or more. He'll show up in the oddest places. He flew to Amsterdam once to see us. He's had our song "Selfish Man" dedicated to him more than anyone it seems. He's bought dozens of tickets when they go on sale and then hand them out to people trying to get in. First time I met him we were playing at a club called Peabody's in Virginia Beach. He bought the whole staff of about 20 girls and 10 guys Flogging Molly shirts to wear the whole night. I didn't know he did it and was wondering what the hell was going on. Why is the whole staff at the venue wearing Flogging Molly shirts? At the end of the night our merch guy told me it was that guy over there. That's how I met Chaz. He'd always show up with bags of the coolest vintage clothes for us. He's thrown parties for us. After the show this night, he took us to his new bar called The Pug. Great place. Cheers Chaz.

Pre-show Shots of whiskey.




The show itself was cold and it was raining. Then the PA system would shut off during songs. I guess the generator was in too much water. I don't know. We didn't stop playing though, it was interesting watching the reactions of the thousands of people watching. All in all I think they had a good time. I did.

Oh yeah, one last thing. We dared Feddy our merch guy to get an afro/perm. He did it.




March 15
On our way to Chicago to play two shows. Thanks for reading this and thanks to everyone who came out to the shows and parties.

Flogging Molly Tour Diary (Part 3)

February 27
Houston, Texas. It was a hot, humid day. Tobe from Street Dogs called me up and let me know his band were in town rehearsing for their upcoming tour. He told me he organized an after- party and all of the Street Dogs were coming to the show. Always great to see our good friends in Street Dogs! They have to be one of my favorite bands to tour with. I think we will tour with them in Japan. The after-party was great. Tobe was the DJ, and there was lots of drinking and dancing. End of the night photo:



February 28

Austin, Texas. We played Stubb's--an outdoor venue with a great vibe. We always like playing there and it was a sold out show. Many friends were in town: Johnny Madcap and Lee from the band Madcap and Victor Ruggiero from the Slackers to name a few. Vic had a gig in town as well, he was playing later than us and invited us down to the show. I took a couple of photos of the show. Vic is a very talented guy, he had this one man band thing going for the first half where he played drums, guitar and harmonica at the same time. Then, he invited a guest drummer and guitar player to join him to finish the set. We brought a lot of fans from our show down to his. Many people bought us shots and beers, thanks to all of you.




March 1
New Orleans, Louisiana. The first of a three-day stay. Two sold-out shows at the House Of Blues. Flogging Molly and New Orleans go together quite well, it seems. Many locals come to our shows and have been for years, so it's always great to be able to stay in town for three days and get to hang out with old friends. The first show was the Mighty Stef's last of the tour. They asked Bridget to play a song with them and she did:



They asked Matt and myself to play Dead Flowers with them:



It was really great to play with them, especially seeing it was their last night. They are a great bunch of guys with a great band. Hope any who saw them liked it and I hope we get to tour with them again soon. After the show, we all decided to go a few doors down to Ryan's Irish Pub. Ryan's is close and we've been going there for after shows for years. As you know, New Orleans is the place to go to fall on your face drunk. Dave, Bridget and I stayed til 6 a.m. singing at the top of our lungs, screaming and dancing. I was trying to wrestle a rather large fan/friend I don't remember his name, I hope he sees this and tells me. I also had a bullfighting match with his friend:







I was was just having fun... We all did, I was in rough shape the next day.

March 2
The second New Orleans show was looooose and sloppy but a great time. Everyone went out late the night before and were feeling it. Dave had a great time. He gave a security guard in front of him (and most of us) a hard time. It was funny! I was told by many who saw both shows that this show was better. Mistakes were made but it didn't seem to matter to us or the audience because we were having so much fun. Before the show, our friend Tom brought his accordion backstage to trade a few tunes with Matt. He had a really cool accordion. He was showing him a few cajun tunes.



After the show it, was off to Ryan's again. Another late night of the same. No wrestling or bullfighting though.



Brendon of the Mighty Stef was going around to all who were at the bar saying "Fight Ya, Beat Ya, Pleased to meet ya," Crazy Irishman.



March 3
Day off in New Orleans. Took a trolley ride with Bob through the Garden District. Got back and went to K Paul's for dinner. I got on my bike and decided to head down to Frenchmen Street. A friend recommended that we go there to hear local musicians. Some of the guys had tickets to see Terence Blanchard. It was sold out by the time I got there. The guys who went said it was "amazing" oand ne of the best shows they had seen. I locked up my bike and headed for the live music. Frenchmen Street has many clubs with live bands playing with no cover charge, you just tip the band. I ran into Nate at the first bar where there was a New Orleans/Dixieland jazz band playing. These guys were seriously good musicians...no mics, no pa, no light... just them playing their asses off in the corner. Nate and I went into every club that had live music playing: some funk, some roots rock, some jazz, some blues. It was a great night. All this music on one street, great musicians everywhere.

March 4
Atlanta, Georgia, at the Tabernacle. It's a beautiful old theatre that was seriously damaged last year in a storm. I'm glad it's up and running again. What a great venue, with a great backstage area. Pool table and large rooms. We usually hang out backstage after the show, get extra beers and have a party. My friend Tom Sylvester who has given me a few great tattoos over the years was there. Our friends from the band "All Night Drug Prowling Wolves" and a bunch of others were there as well. I went outside to grab some more beers for our party and ran into this dude with a guitar, I grabbed it and started playing the shit out of it. He wanted me to have everyone sign it. I obliged and proceeded to find all of the band members to sign it. I got held up at the party as Jesse from The Aggrolites and I traded Chuck Berry riffs on it. As I emerged with the signed guitar I was confronted by 2 kilt wearing fans wanting autographs. What a sight. Off I went!




March 5
Orlando, Florida. We played the House Of Blues in Disneyland. Many family and friends at these shows. Good times had by all. Great after show party . On the way to Pompano Beach I got out and helped wash the bus.




March 6
Pompano Beach. We were supposed to play the Langerado Festival but it got cancelled, sowe booked our own show. We added Against Me! to the bill and were stoked about that. We have wanted to play with them for a long time. We did a press conference/interview with the whole band that day for a program on SweptAwayTV.com's "The Rock Show." I don't think it's up yet, I couldn't get a link to it. It's the first and maybe last time you may see an interview with the whole band. I don't think we've ever done that. I'll post a link if I get one. Show was great, Against Me kicked ass/ I hope we will tour with them one day. We played the encore and somehow ( we still don't know who was behind this), a huge devil appeared in the background during Devil's Dance Floor. Dave could hardly sing because he was laughing so hard. We were all surprised and very amused.




We hung out after the show with Against Me. I had a great conversation with Tom, Warren and Andrew about politics, music & the new U2 record. James and I got into guitar gear talk blah blah blah.

March 7
Orlando again. Dave, Bridget, Matt, and Bob did an acoustic session at the pub Raglin Road. The show that night was great. Hung out with family and friends afterwards. A highlight of the night was when Nate sang one of his songs with The Aggrolites. I got a snippet of it here.



Nice job brother. That's it for this week.

This is some music I've been listening to;

James Booker- Manchester '77
U2- No Line On The Horizion
Dan Auerbach- Keep It Hid
Cajun Early Recordings Boxset

Thanks everyone who have come to the shows and who read this.

Dennis

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.

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Tour Diary (Part 1)

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus check in from their world tour!

Japan


Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Tour Diary (AltPress Exclusive) from Alternative Press on Vimeo.

Brisbane, Australia

We arrived at the airport around 7 a.m. after a ridiculously long flight from Japan. The climate nearly mirrored that of summer in my hometown in Florida, a drastic difference from the Japanese winter from which we'd just left behind--a comforting attribute when you've spent so many days and nights from your own home.

First things first, we had to see some "roos," so I, along with the rest of the guys, piled into two taxi cabs and we were all off to the Lone Pine Koala Reservation. The walls of the gift shop were lined with photos of all types of artists, bands and celebrities--which was why we were all invited by the staff to visit their park.

After each of our individual koala cuddling photos, we gathered for a group picture that will eventually be added next to the rest of the musicians, actors and royalty that covered the the interior of the gift shop.

Koalas weren't the only residents at the reservation; exotic parrots, indigenous reptiles, kangaroos and wombats roamed the grounds that we explored for the better part of three hours. The creatures here are so different from North American animals. It was intriguing to finally see them all up close and not on a television screen or through glass at zoo. The kangaroos were surprisingly docile and accepted food from our hands and scratches between their ears. Being one of the most incredible things I've gotten to do on tour, I would suggest the Lone Pine to anybody planning a visit to Australia.

Later that night, we caught the Fall Out Boy show (which kicked ass) and got to hang out backstage afterwards. It was the first time I had ever met Patrick or Pete and both were so amazingly cool. I honestly was quite shocked and humbled to hang out with them. They definitely deserve all of the success they have achieved in my opinion.

Our first order of business was to kick off the Soundwave Festival at the RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. I was pleased to see we'd be sharing a dressing room with some old tour mates: Madina Lake, a band we'd met and become friends with in the states. We were pumped to be performing for the first time in Australia on such a well known tour, and the lineup was filled with acts we could enjoy all day before and after playing. After playing a huge show that day on one of the two main stages, we stuck around to catch Alice In Chains and Nine Inch Nails, both of whom sonically and visually blew our minds. We then departed for the hotel, tired but stoked as hell. So far, Soundwave has been amazing for me and the rest of the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

peace-RnS-Winter