skittermagoo!

Pogue Mahone! October 31, 2009

Last night B and I had the distinct pleasure of going to see the Pogues (one of my favorite bands ever), and I’m happy to report that the show was FANTASTIC! (B’s writeup is here)

We started the evening off with dinner at the House of Blues (the show venue as well), which was surprisingly good . . . also, our waiter reminded us both of Mickey Dolenz (of the Monkees).

Our seats were in the balcony, which is the only thing I might change about the night if I were to go back in time . . . when we bought the tickets I briefly considered buying General Admission, but then thought, “Nah, I’m too old for that sh*t”.  The balcony audience turned out mostly to be a little tame for us, so we probably would have been better off down in the pit.  In any case, the seats were great.

Opening was Justin Townes Earle (Steve Earle’s son), whom I’d heard of, but never listened to his music.  I can say now, though, that I will probably be buying some of his music very, very soon.  He was pretty entertaining to watch, too — very tall and thin like a folk/country-music-playing stork,  he shuffled around the stage while he played, at one point unplugging his guitar lead.  I don’t know how he did it, but he made one guitar sound like at least four separate musicians.

As usual, I did a fair amount of people-watching at the show . . . there was a couple in front of us (who were the only ones in our section as “into it” as we were) who were kind of interesting.  He looked like he could have been Jamie Hyneman’s dad; she was disproportionately young and pretty.  Indeed, both B and I thought she was his daughter at first.  Also nice was seeing the parents who brought their young daughters (maybe 6 and to the show.  We dubbed them “Coolest Parents Ever”.

Okay, so on to the actual show . . . let me preface by saying that my expectations were very high (I’d seen the Pogues a couple times before, so I knew they put on a good show), and I was not at all disappointed.  They came on to the song “Straight To Hell” by the Clash (no doubt one of several nods to Joe Strummer), and played an incredible playlist of songs mostly off their first three albums.  Shane MacGowan was resplendent in a purple shirt and red cowboy boots (and some sort of pants); James Fearnley was wearing an incredible red satin suit (!), and Philip Chevron had on some really cool black and white wingtips.  OH!  I can’t pass over Spider Stacy’s black duster coat, either.

Last time I saw the Pogues play was about 20 years ago, and it was a great show, but last night definitely topped it — the band was tight, and also did not stand still and let Shane steal the show.  Fearnley was all over the place with his accordian, sliding on his knees onstage (and wearing holes in his red satin trousers), and the rest of the band played it up, too . . . they looked like they were having a lot of fun up there.  Shane was not sloppy drunk (you never know), and though he took several breaks (filled in with other band members singing, which was perfect), he did not disappoint at all, banshee screams and all.

They played all my favorites, and there was not one song that I wanted to hear that they didn’t play, except for Fairytale of New York, which I did not expect to be on the setlist anyway.  I cried a bit during Pair of Brown Eyes (a personal favorite) and during Thousands are Sailing (which was sung by Chevron — appropriate since he wrote it), and at many points during the show I had the shivers because their performance was Just. That. Good.  I don’t think I sat down once the whole time except for maybe between the first and second encore.

Incredible.  I hope they come back before 20 more years have passed.