Flogging Molly @ Velký sál Lucerny, Praha, 4. 9. 2018
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A handful of random observations...
- Doll Skin, the support act, were four very young American girls trying very hard to play tough punk-rockers. Alas, although their hair boasted vivid colours of the rainbow and their stage act included a lot of jumping, headbanging and running around (the lead singer even repeatedly jumped on a piece of equipment in front of the stage to get closer to the audience), they still resembled a bunch of good schoolgirls. Or animated dolls. May it be the acoustics of the place or the girls’ repertoir, the music blended into noisy mass where one song was indistinguishable from the other. But the girls definitely didn’t lack energy, and when they took a selfie with the impressively full hall behind them, their enthusiasm seemed genuine.
- For once, the headliners didn’t let people wait for too long for their appearance. Yes, it might have taken some half an hour to dismantle the equipment of the support act and get things ready (with roadies performing such crucial tasks as fastening black cables together with a bright orange sticky tape that would become the highlight of all photos), but soon afterwards the curtain was raised, revealing the giant logo of the band and their “Life Is Good” tour, and the heroes of the evening entered the stage to the sounds of their own song “There's Nothing Left Pt. 1”, the opener of their latest album.
- Moshpit, wildness is your name. Moshing started already with the very first song and didn’t stop till the very end. Jumping, pogoing, people stepping aside to create empty circles in the middle of the floor and then running headlong against each other to collide in the middle. Crowd surfing. A lot of crowd surfing – men and women alike, always passed to the security barrier to be saved by the guards and allowed to run back to the audience. At one moment I spotted a guy waving a shoe in the air – while wearing both his own shoes. Who was the unlucky owner of the third one? Did he have to walk home (semi-)barefoot?
- Plastic cups with beer were flying and some of them reached quite impressive heights. One landed straight on the sound engineer’s equipment. Actually, the cup seemed empty but judging by the sound engineer’s horrified reaction, there must have been some leftover golden drink at the bottom. He threw his arms in the air with “what kind of an idiot are you?” expression in his face, promptly took off his t-shirt and used it to briskly wipe the desk, its front, its back, every nook and cranny of it. Obviously not much harm was caused as the gig went on uninterrupted. But the sound engineer’s eyes screamed murder.
- During
“Float”, perhaps the only slow song in the set,
people in the moshpit spontaneously sat down on the floor and began to
imitate rowing. More and more joined until a good one third of the floor
turned into a mighty pack of rowers. Row, row, row your boat... even
if it’s a concert venue.
- Are Flogging Molly – or at least Dave King – fans of Monty Python? “And now for something completely different...” when introducing a song could have been just a coincidence. But “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” (played from the loudspeakers after the encore, Dave King joining with his vocal, towel on his head and can of Guinness in his hand) definitely wasn’t – and it was a brilliant finale of the brilliant performance.
- Does Lucerna’s Great Hall have any air conditioning at all? Who knows. The combined energy of the band and thousands of spectators managed to slowly turn the whole place into one giant sauna. The air got stuffy, clothes got sweaty... but the most amazing sight was the completely wet floor after the gig ended. Not just the floor of the moshpit where much beer had been spilled, but the floor of the balconies and even the vestibule as well – all glistening as if wiped clean by an invisible army of industrious cleaners. What a shiny dot after the memorable evening. At that time, life was good indeed.
Setlist:
(No More) Paddy's Lament, The Hand of John L. Sullivan, Drunken Lullabies, The Likes of You Again, Swagger, The Days We've Yet to Meet, Requiem for a Dying Song, Life in a Tenement Square, Float, Black Friday Rule, Life Is Good, Rebels of the Sacred Heart, Devil's Dance Floor, If I Ever Leave This World Alive, What's Left of the Flag, Seven Deadly Sins, Encore: Crushed (Hostile Nations), Salty Dog
My photos are HERE
A Czech review of the gig (with a photo gallery) can be found HERE
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