The New York Times: Some Old Irish Songs With Punk and Pop

[MacRua]

Some Old Irish Songs With Punk and Pop
The new York Times
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: March 17, 2006
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Shane MacGowan took the stage yesterday evening, intoning some profane verses from Lou Reed's "Sister Ray," and then the Pogues fired into "Streams of Whiskey." When Mr. MacGowan removed his sunglasses, a few songs into his first performance in New York with the band in 15 years, you could look him in the eyes. Not the whites of them: he looked half-asleep, heavy-lidded, his face a slack, puffy frown surrounding missing teeth. The upper third of his face, anyway, was the most expressive part of his body.

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Robert Caplin for The New York Times
The Irish rock band the Pogues made an appearance Thursday night at the Nokia Theater in Times Square, the first of four concerts there.


Forum: Popular Music
In their seven-year run as an intact band, the Pogues amassed a cult audience around the world, fusing the sound of old Irish songs with punk and pop, bringing out the smashing force of a folkloric dance music. They made money; they had hits. They ejected Mr. MacGowan in 1991; he was only 33, but there was not much left in him, physically.

(One of his band members recently said that the end came when the singer was "leaving taxis horizontally.")

Conceivably, there could have been more life in the project. He, and other members in the band, had written a stack of first-rate songs about memory and hope and disappointment, about Irish culture moving and staying in place. With some traditional instruments, two-beats and waltzes and ballads, they sounded permanent. A little like Bob Dylan, they had created a sound in their youth that wasn't disappearing any time soon.

So the energies of the music had no problem last night, at the beginning of their four-night run at the Nokia Theater, during their first full American reunion tour. The energies of the singer did, intermittently, however. And for a Pogues show, the night before St. Patrick's Day, the crowd was more docile than one might have expected. It had aged, too, though not as sharply as Mr. MacGowan.

In a two-hour show that culled their best songs — opening with "Streams of Whiskey," running through "If I Should Fall From Grace With God," "Young Ned of the Hill," "Bottle of Smoke," "A Pair of Brown Eyes," "The Old Main Drag," and closing with "Fairy Tale of New York" and "Fiesta," they did as good a job as age and context would allow, playing well if slightly subdued.

Mr. MacGowan took breaks in the wings, vaguely restoring himself; others took the microphone to sing, including the tin-whistle player Spider Stacy and the guitarist Philip Chevron. But it was Mr. MacGowan who owned the best moments, with his lurching growl, especially in "Dirty Old Town," where the audience sang along through all four image-rich verses about kissing a girl by the factory wall and smelling the spring on the smoky wind. Turning words into syrup, he said a few unintelligible things between songs — something about Americans, something about Truman Capote and Jimmy Breslin. He drank on stage. But he appeared not to miss a word of a song.

The Pogues continue at Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, tonight, tomorrow and Sunday.
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Copyright 2006The New York Times Company

[CraigBatty]

Thanks Mac Rua!

[philipchevron]

"While most of the kids who packed the Nokia on Thursday were too young to have seen the band on its first go-around, this show found the original lineup in top form delivering a classic set". - New York Post

"And for a Pogues show, the night before St. Patrick's Day, the crowd was more docile than one might have expected. It had aged, too, though not as sharply as Mr. MacGowan" - New York Times

[CraigBatty]

Hey Mr C. Hope yer still all having a blast! I'm nursing my lump of a noggin..... Have to show ye some pics of how we throw a St. Pat's bash in a little Aussie country town. One estimate said there was never less than 100 people in the bar from 7-ish till at least 1 in the morning. NOW I know why Shane switched from whiskey.....uuuurrrgghhhhh

[dawsonn]

"While most of the kids who packed the Nokia on Thursday were too young to have seen the band on its first go-around, this show found the original lineup in top form delivering a classic set". - New York Post

"And for a Pogues show, the night before St. Patrick's Day, the crowd was more docile than one might have expected. It had aged, too, though not as sharply as Mr. MacGowan" - New York Times