Flogging Molly have reached the 25th anniversary of when singer/guitarist Dave King and fiddle player (and future wife) Bridget Regan formed the band. Having survived the pandemic, these veteran Irish rockers are back on tour supporting their latest album, Anthem.
It’s been almost that long since Flogging Molly played its first show in the South Bay, on the bill with longtime San Jose band the Odd Numbers at the Usual nightclub (now the Ritz). Over the years Flogging Molly has appeared at the Cactus Club, the San Jose State Events Center and Music in the Park in what was one of the series’ best attended shows.
As Odd Numbers member Dave Baisa recalls, his band invited Flogging Molly to come up from LA for the Usual date. “They kind of blew our minds,” Baisa recalls. “The place just went nuts.”
“It was their first dose of seeing what their potential was,” Baisa says.
Over the years the two bands have stayed in contact, playing on the same bills in San Jose and even joining Flogging Molly’s Salty Dog Cruise.
Flogging Molly returns to San Jose for an Oct. 11 show at the San Jose Civic Auditorium—and the Odd Numbers will also be on the bill. “This is kind of the pinnacle—playing the Civic, you know,” Baisa says. “We don’t get to play the big places too often.”
The road has always been a second home to the seven members of Flogging Molly, who have steadily built a large following and stable career the old-fashioned way—by touring and word-of-mouth raves about their highly entertaining and raucous live shows.
The talk of the early days is appropriate, not only because Flogging Molly have reached a milestone, but because Anthem marks a return to their roots in very tangible ways. It marks a reunion with producer Steve Albini, who recorded the first two Flogging Molly albums, Swagger (2000) and Drunken Lullabies (2002). (Albini passed away this past May.)
The four studio albums that have followed have seen King (the band’s main songwriter) and the rest of Flogging Molly embrace a wider variety of tempos, instrumental settings and musical styles while retaining their Irish punk musical foundation.
But having been forced off the road and into isolation by the pandemic, King, Regan and the other band members—Dennis Casey (guitar), Matt Hensley (accordion/concertina), Nathen Maxwell (bass), Spencer Swain (mandolin/banjo/guitar) and Mike Alonso (drums)—wanted to go back to how Flogging Molly started, by playing together in the studio live with no attempts to dress up the sound with studio finesse. They wanted no outside input filtering into the project from a producer, record label or any other source. And that meant Albini, who was famous for simply recording bands live with minimal overdubs, was the man for the job.
“We wanted to go back to our first couple of albums we did with Steve,” King said. “The band is always in control when you’re working with Albini. It’s not like you’re bringing in somebody (to produce) and they put in their little two cents, which is great sometimes. But we felt that we didn’t want that this time. We felt we wanted to put all of our energy into the album and not be, I don’t want to say hindered, but we have seven opinions in this band (already). And for right now, those seven opinions were what we wanted for this album.”
By the time Flogging Molly arrived at Albini’s Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago, the band had written and arranged nearly all of the songs for Anthem—one exception being the album’s closing song, “The Parting Wave,” which was written and arranged during the recording session.
It took only 14 days for Flogging Molly to record the 14 songs on Anthem. Mission was accomplished.
“As a band, we’re really, really happy with it,” King said. “Working with Steve has always been a great experience, and then we got Atom Greenspan to mix it. He did an absolutely phenomenal job, absolutely above and beyond, a brilliant job.”
Chances are, Flogging Molly fans will agree with that assessment of Anthem. There are plenty of songs—“A Song of Liberty,” “This Road of Mine” and “(Try) Keep The Man Down,” to name three—that continue the band’s tradition of crafting rowdy Irish-accented punk songs with strong melodies and solid playing. Such songs are balanced by ballads like “No Last Goodbyes” and “The Parting Wave” that share the Irish feel, but with a sturdy and folkier feel.
Flogging Molly won’t be shy about showcasing songs from Anthem during the current tour.
“We’re going to be doing new material from the (Anthem) album because we feel very strongly about it and I think people will as well,” King said.
Flogging Molly, Rumjacks and the Odd Numbers play at 8pm on Oct. 11 at the San Jose Civic Auditorium, 135 W. San Carlos St., San Jose. sanjosetheaters.org
