Irish Eyes Are Crying

Sorry I have gone so long without posting (don't say I didn't warn you) but this last week-and-a-half has been a beast. I have had to travel out to Newark, shit hole of the universe, everyday and end up getting home pretty late after being gone for over twelve hours. On Monday I had the added bonus of having to go straight from Newark to the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn for an evening session I run for students at SUNY Downstate Medical School. For those of you who don't know New York, trust me when I say this is no short hop.

And I had that day after spending the night before out at The Pogues show at Roseland Ballroom.

I had originally gotten tickets for the Saturday night show when they went on sale months ago. But last month Billy Bragg was added to the bill for Sunday night, so I found someone on The Pogues message board to buy the Saturday tickets off of me (thank you Internet!) so I could get tickets for the Sunday show. I couldn't let one of my two favorite singer-songwriters swing through town for a one-off show like that and not go.

The show overall was a pretty big disappointment, though. On paper it looked to be one of those magical, tell your grandchildren you were there, kind of shows. It wasn't.

Billy was great, as he always is, but the room was so fucking big. Roseland is a huge, cavernous space that is not a perfect venue for a guy standing onstage alone with his guitar. But Billy did a great job with his 45 minute set. The crowd was annoying at times while he was playing. Sure, they went nuts and loved it when he pulled out "Power In A Union" or "A New England," but when he played a song off his new album (due out April 22nd) most of the crowd became Chatty Cathys. It happens when you are the opening act, but this is Billy fucking Bragg! Show some damn respect.

I guess I'm just not used to seeing him under such circumstances. Fans at Billy Bragg shows are my favorite concert crowds. We're all Socialists, so we are all really respectful of each other. Nobody talks during the performance and everyone there is really interested in hearing the new songs and listen to Billy explicate his view of the world, not just to hear the "hits." He also usually plays an intimate theatre that holds a few hundred people and not a huge hall that holds several thousand.

But he was still great, so I'm glad I exchanged the tickets.

Then it was time for The Pogues. My wife and I had seen them when they toured the States two years ago, our first chance to see them since they let Shane MacGowan back in the band, and they were great. We had first seen The Pogues about 19 years ago (I can't believe I'm writing that) so we have been fans for a long time. Shane could barely stand up that night in Boston two years before, but he could still sing the shit out of the songs. It was really a sight to behold since he probably should have died from alcohol poisoning many years ago. The crowd was pretty obnoxious that night, but I wrote it off as a Boston thing since most people that live there suck.

It wasn't just a Boston thing, and alcohol-ravaged Shane can no longer sing the shit out of the songs.

The crowd at Roseland was awful. Sometime between when the Pogues broke up to when they got back together they picked up a huge asshole frat boy-type contingent of fans. There were so many backward caps on heads that night I lost track. And they were there more to get drunk than they were to listen to a band. Most everyone was double-fisting beers all night, this being a way to do something Irish for St. Patrick's Day - The Pogues and alcohol. The Roseland was packed with drunk pricks and we couldn't really get away from them. They oversell Roseland so much that the crowd was still packed tight even at the very back.

Don't get me wrong, I have done my fair share of drinking too much at shows. But it getting shitfaced was never my goal. It happens because I forget to pace myself. This crowd was made up of people that were obviously trying to get as drunk as they could as fast as they could.

I just don't remember this from back in the original days of The Pogues. These types of guys were the ones who never heard of them back then. This was such an drunken, testosterone-laden, mosh-pit loving crowd that I felt like I was at a Megadeath show. This was so annoying and it has to be somebody's fault.

I blame the Dropkick Murphys.

This dickhead fan base was created by the likes of Pogues-wannabe bands like the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. They introduced their idiot fan base to their weak-ass version of the kind of Celtic rock The Pogues introduced to the world, and now those fans fill up the shows and fall or sway drunkenly on top of my poor wife.

Well it helps The Pogues make a bunch of money I guess. And they don't have to actually be any good anymore to thrill the moron masses that now make up their crowds. They are just phoning it in. The set list from night to night on this tour has stayed exactly the same and the songs just sound tired. They sound more like a band trying to sound like The Pogues than the actual Pogues themselves. At this point a Pogues cover band would probably be better.

And Shane? The tragic genius that is Shane MacGowan is losing the genius part. I mentioned before that two years ago he could barely stand but could still sing the shit out of the songs. Well now he can barely sing the songs and can no longer stand all the time, apparently.

He actually fell down on stage that night. He wasn't dancing around or anything, he just fell down at the microphone during "Turkish Song Of The Damned" and had to be helped up. It was a pathetic sight.

It is really a shame to see a band I really love become something so weak and pedestrian.

But I guess as long as the drunken fools will still dance and mosh along in their green hats at $55 a ticket, I doubt The Pogues give a shit anymore.

And that's the problem.