Flogging Molly
March 19, 2018
Ventura Theater- Ventura, CA
Celtic punk rock band Flogging Molly released their sixth studio album Life is Good in 2017. Since then, they have been actively touring for the album and are currently on a USA tour. One of the stops was at the Majestic Ventura Theater in Ventura, California. Ventura County is known for its punk scene so it’s no surprise to see that the show sold out ahead of time. Even on a Monday night, Ventura County was all set and ready for some celtic punk rock.
Flogging Molly came out to a fully packed venue and started the show with The Hand of John L. Sullivan. With the blend of punk rock and Irish folk, the floor came alive with a mosh pit and even crowd surfers would make an appearance. Flogging Molly continued the celtic rock performance as they next played Swagger and Selfish Man. Drunken Lullabies is one of the band’s most popular songs and it was no surprise to see the crowd stay active the whole song as the mosh pits continue and groups of people would jump in sync with the music. What makes Flogging Molly‘s music special is how they incorporated fontman Dave King’s Irish heritage into the music. Aside from the classic punk sound, Flogging Molly also uses a banjo, accordion, fiddle, and tin whistles in their music. Their music makes for some good fun and to dance too as plenty of couples were seen doing. Flogging Molly continued to lay down the Irish punk as they played songs like Requiem for a Dying Song, Float, Black FridayRule, and Devil’s Dance Floor.
King took a quick break to introduce the band with one of those members being his wife Bridget Regan who plays the violin and tin whistle. King would go on to talk about his father who passed away when King was just a child. Flogging Molly next played What’s Left of This Flag and is one of the songs that King wrote as a tribute to his father. To end the show, Flogging Molly played one of their best songs Salty Dog and once again had the audience dancing and moshing. Flogging Molly left the stage and all seemed to be over. The audience wasn’t ready to go home just yet as they clapped, stomped the ground, and called out the band’s name. Oh how they wanted the band to come back out. It wasn’t long before Flogging Molly came back out for a couple of encores. The first encore was Crushed (Hostile Nations). The fans went back to moshing and the crowd surfers kept security up front busy. The show came to a conclusion as Flogging Molly played The Seven Deadly Sins. Flogging Molly proves to be a super fun band to see whether for drinking purposes, moshing, or dancing and anyone looking to have a good time should definitely catch them at a city near you.
Review By: Misael Ruiz
