Friday night, March 10, three bands converged on Harrah’s Voodoo Lounge. Flogging Molly headlined the night with support from Anti-Flag and Skinny Lister.

The venue was packed, and the crowd was electrified. When Skinny Lister, a British folk band formed in London in 2009, took the stage, the crowd was amped up and ready to go. The band went well with Flogging Molly’s brand of punk. The most interesting part of the group was Lorna Thomas, who hopped around the stage in her one-piece jumper.

She challenged everyone in the venue to an arm wrestling contest back at their merch table after their set was done. To prove how strong she was, she took on two of the stage security guards at once (one on each side) and beat them both, then proceeded to arm wrestle people in the front row of the venue for a few minutes before getting back on stage to continue their part of the evening.

True to her word, she was at their merch table after the band left the stage and would compete against anyone who wanted to.

While I had been a personal fan of these guys since 1996, Anti-Flag, the political punk band out of Pittsburgh, PA felt a little out of place with the other two folk-ish influenced groups. Chris Head, the second guitarist for the band, was missing from this leg of the tour, being replaced by a quiet and reserved back-up musician. The band’s tour manager Josh Massie informed me that Head was just at home, taking care of his children, and would rejoin the tour soon, at which time the drummer, Pat Thetic, would be taking a quick leave to return home and look after his children—a cool familial rotation.

The head of the organization Punk Rock Saves Lives, Rob Rushing (who is also Anti-Flag’s tour driver) was present with a handful of other members, taking cheek swabs to help find potential bone marrow sponsors for those who were in need. The group is located out of Denver, Colorado, and more information on the program can be found on their website.

Even before Flogging Molly took the stage, several people needed to be helped by the medical staff regarding what I could only describe as the incredibly high temperatures inside the venue. One woman had to be carried out on a gurney.

However the rest of the night was a high-energy burn, as FM exploded onto the stage. The show included the return of fiddle player Bridget Regan, who had previously been out of the lineup since fracturing her shoulder on February 4.

This show marked one year to the day since Flogging Molly had last been through the metro, with both visits perfectly timed for St. Patty’s Day celebrations—as snapshotted when frontman Dave King paused to hand one lucky fan an ice-cold Guinness.

Flogging Molly

Flogging Molly setlist
The Likes of You Again, Swagger, The Kilburn High Road, A Song of Liberty, Drunken Lullabies, No Last Goodbyes, The Hand of John L. Sullivan, Tobacco Island, The Croppy Boy ’98, Float, Devil’s Dance Floor, Life Begins and Ends (but Never Fails), Crushed (Hostile Nations), Seven Deadly Sins, These Times Have Got Me Drinking / Tripping Up the Stairs, If I Ever Leave This World Alive, What’s Left of the Flag
Encore —
Black Friday Rule, Salty Dog

Anti-Flag

Anti-Flag Set List:

Hate Conquers All, The Press Corpse, This is the End (For you my Friend), LAUGH. CRY. SMILE. DIE, 1 Trillion Dollar$, Turncoat, Die for the Government, American Attraction, Should I Stay or Should I Go/God Save the Queen/Rise Above/Fall Back Down/If the Kids are United/She/Blitzkrieg Bop/Should I Stay or Should I Go, VICTORY OR DEATH (WE GAVE ‘EM HELL), Brandenburg Gate

Skinny Lister