Just as I was getting ready to graduate high school way back in 1983, also known as the Pleistocene Age, the Violent Femmes self-titled debut album was hitting the shelves in record stores. (For younger readers, record stores were where you went to buy vinyl discs on which music was magically stored.)

The spare, three-piece arrangements; the scratchy, angst-filled vocals; the trebly, hard plucked bass-lines; the driving rhythms, played almost entirely on a snare drum, were like nothing I’d heard before. I can still remember dancing to Gone Daddy Gone, featuring a xylophone — a xylophone! — at the Left Bank in Mt. Vernon, New York. My only regret was having never seen the Femmes live.

So when Kristen said, “Hey, Stacey and Chris are going to see the Violent Femmes and Flogging Molly at the Mission Ballroom in October, You wanna go?” I didn’t hesitate before answering with an emphatic “Hell yes!”

Thick

There were four bands on the bill: Thick, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Violent Femmes, and Flogging Molly.

After meeting the aforementioned Stacey and Chris for drinks and a bite to eat at the Blue Moon Brew Pub, we arrived at the Mission Ballroom a bit late. My apologies to Thick for missing their set. As a guy who spent his youth playing in bands, I feel I’m being disrespectful when I arrive late for a show. Trying to atone for my sin, I checked the band out on YouTube after the fact. Their music is fun, melodic punk that kind of remindes me of both Husker Du and Hole.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

We did arrive in time for the second band on the bill, who promised to be a cheesy, gimmicky act that, I had been told, takes classic/standard songs and “punks them up.” I stood with arms crossed and eyes rolled as the lead singer, Spike Slawson, took the stage with a ukulele. By the time the full band joined Slawson on stage, I was completely hooked.

The Gimme Gimmes, featuring notable punk/alt rockers from other bands  (including CJ Ramone), tore through a set of covers that included Olivia Newton John’s Have You Never Been Mellow, Elton John’s (no known relation to Olivia Newton) Rocket Man, and Science Fiction Double Feature, the song from opening credits of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Best of all, MFGG did a punked out cover of John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane. This held special meaning for me, as my band, Woofing Cookies, did a tricked out version of Jet Plane in the early-/mid-1980s.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of Slawson, who completely owned the stage. His banter was funny, the aesthetic was campy, and the music kicked ass.

The Violent Femmes

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes did their job; they put me in a great mood for the Violent Femmes. This is the band I was here to see, the reason we had shelled out our precious (and dwindling) money for tickets. The lights went down, the crowd cheered, and the band — including two of the original three members, Gordon Gano, now sporting a mullet, and Brian Ritchie — took the stage.

“Daaaaaaaaaaay, after daaaay…” Gano’s haunting vocal, the opening line in Add It Up, filled the theater. When the song kicked in, the crowd went wild.

But for some reason, that song was the highlight of their set. Don’t get me wrong, the band was incredibly tight, and they played most of what we’d come to hear, but there was something missing. Maybe it was having to follow the Gimme Gimmes, who might just be the best party band since Those Melvins. Maybe it was Gano’s lack of connection with the audience (other than one heartfelt comment about Jesus after the band played a spiritual bluegrass song, he said precious little to us). Or maybe, just maybe, the band, with the exception of Brian Ritchie, wasn’t having all that much fun.

Whatever the reason, I found myself looking forward to the set ending. Again, they were good, and the songs are still great, but there was just something missing.

Flogging Molly

I’ll admit to not being very familiar with Flogging Molly‘s catalog. Other than The Worst Day Since Yesterday, my knowledge of the band wasn’t much more than an overall impression of their music. I liked what I’d heard, but had never really sought it out. That changed Wednesday night.

When the seven piece Celtic-punk combo took the stage, they owned — abso-fucking-lutely owned! — the Mission Ballroom. Front man Dave King, with his gray hair, beard, and mustache, and gray suit over a black shirt, looked more like a professor of Irish history than the leader of a high-octane rock band. Each song was more energetic than the one that came before, with King wooing the crowd between numbers. The entire set made you feel good. It was the same feeling I have at the end of an episode of Ted Lasso, that I’ve seen something meaningful, that the world isn’t quite as fucked as it appears to be.

And the band never let up, not for an instant. It was the kind of set where most of the audience sings along with each and every song — other than the one new tune Flogging Molly debuted, which was also great — and the kind of set where you can see that the band is having fun. They even stayed on the stage when the lights came up and Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” came over the PA, with King strutting and lip-synching along.

Where the Violent Femmes seemed like they were in the house to play some songs for us, Flogging Molly was in the house to play music they loved, and well, if we happened to be there too, and wanted to have a good time listening, all the better.

In short, Flogging Molly was one of the best live bands I’ve seen in a long time, and maybe ever, and I cannot wait to see them again. With any luck, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes will open that show, too.