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ACL 2009 preview: Flogging Molly
Dennis Casey is still the new guy in Flogging Molly and he has been there 10 years.
Started by former Fastway singer Dave King, the band — which plays at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, on the AMD stage at the Austin City Limit Music Festival — cranked to life in 1993, a Celtic rock outfit based in Los Angeles in the tradition of traditional Irish music on the Celtic end, the Clash and Stiff Little Fingers on the rock end and the Pogues smack dab in the middle. The crew took its name from Molly Malone’s, the bar the band played in every Monday night. They cranked out a live CD in ‘97 and their first of four studio albums in 2000.
Casey joined in 1999, right before a West Coast tour. “First and foremost, I am electric guitarist,” Casey says. He’s calling from Rochester, N.Y., where he’s visiting family. It’s been years since the band was all based in Los Angeles. King and his wife, Flogging Molly fiddle player Bridget Regan, live in Ireland. “We’re all over the world now,” Casey says.
Casey headed to Los Angeles from New York in ‘91 and kicked around in various outfits before hooking up with King and the Molly crew. He wasn’t all that versed in Irish music.
“I think I was asked to join the band for my energy and passion and ability to make a lot of noise,” Casey says. “The bass, drums and guitar are the noisemakers in this band, it’s not really the polka element.”
It was only after he started playing the stuff that Molly accordion and concertina player Matt Hensley started turning Casey on to the traditional stuff. “I’ve definitely come to like it and appreciate it,” he says.
Even with four excellent records under their belt, Flogging Molly is first and foremost a touring act, often an explosive one, brimming with Celtic fire. (Casey is the one who jumps and kicks a lot.) They usually playing a minimum of 100 dates a year with more than 20 shows in February alone for their annual “Green 17” tour.
“I don’t think much is missed not living in the same city anymore,” Casey says. “We tour excessively; we see each other more than we see our families, When we take time off it’s time off.”
Their most recent album, “Float” (Side One Dummy, 2008), hit No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart, easily the band’s highest charting album. Their 2002 album “Drunken Lullabies” went gold this summer.
Plenty of reviews characterized “Float” as a darker record leaning more on folk than rock. Casey seems to audibly shake his head over the phone.
“I find this fascinating. On every record we make I hear the complete opposite of what other people hear,” Casey says. “I can’t hear dark at all here. No idea why. We wrote it and recorded it in Ireland, but when we get in the garage at Dave’s house in Ireland and close the door it could be anywhere.”
That being said, Casey says the anti-war “Requiem for a Dying Song” and “Float” are among the most played on this round of touring. “A good song is a good song,” he says. “It connects with people. ‘Float’ is about keeping your head above water. It is very poignant and telling and lyrically it’s definitely a different direction for us.”
Well, Lord knows plenty of people are trying to keep their heads above water right now. In the best traditions of Irish culture, Flogging Molly’s music allows for catharsis and reflection in the same moment and we look forward to exploding along with them.
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By Ryan
September 27, 2009 2:34 PM | Link to this
Flogging Molly are worth the money and it’s few and far between you can say that and mean it these days! Their live shows are amazing, night after night, they never miss a beat or mail it in. I have been at Stubbs for Green17 the past 2 years and pray the come back to town for it in 2010. Their music tends to be pigeonholed as some sort of novelty act, but that’s done by folks who just don’t appreciate great music for being great music, feeling the need to categorize. It’s great drinking music, party music, driving music, running music, just GREAT MUSIC!