The Pogues - Saint Patrick’s week - New York City
Tuesday 15th March 2011 & Thursday 17th March 2011
The Pogues @Terminal 5, Manhattan
If you read my Saint Patrick’s week Pogues preview below, you will be aware I was rather excited at seeing the ramshackle Irish folk punk outfit twice in one week, culminating in the last date of the tour, on Paddy’s Day, with one of my very best friends Rich in town from London. Indeed, if guitarist Phil Chevron was to be believed, courtesy of the Pogues official website blog, this would be the last US tour by the Pogues for some time, most likely ever. No wonder the tour was called “A Parting Glass with The Pogues”.
The first night was a solo gig. My mate Rich had landed that day, and had organized himself a different gig in Brooklyn, so after going our separate ways at the local subway station I headed uptown to Terminal 5. I have already remarked on Terminal 5 below.But let it be said I think it is a venue that gets unfair press for not being “hip”. Frankly, I would prefer a good clear sound system and that is what you get at T5.
I cannot say I cared much for the support band, Titus Andronicus . Other than to google their name to be informed that they took their moniker from a Shakespeare play, I was more distracted by my virgin use of Tumblr for iPhone (to blog for Sticky Carpets) than their generic shouty-quiet indie punk ramblings. That said they received a good reception, no doubt due in part to their local band status, hailing as they do from Glen Rock, New Jersey.
Then on to one of my favorite parts of a gig: waiting. Waiting for the roadies to finish up, waiting for the lights to go off, those few seconds of cheering and whistling – of pure stand on the tips of your toes tingling with excitement however young or old and jaded you are anticipation – and then the act you have paid to see and know intimately well through your speakers and headphones walks on. The Pogues standard walk on routine is to turn the lights off with “Straight To Hell” by the Clash playing over the PA. There is long Pogues history with this track. Written by Joe Strummer, who would go on to produce the band’s fifth album ‘Hell’s Ditch’, the track featured on the Clash album ‘Combat Rock’, was a single (with “Should I Stay or Should I Go” as a b-side – most know the latter from its re-release and Number 1 a few years later) and featured as the title track of the Alex Cox film of the same name.
I love an empty lit stage:
The band filed out on to the stage from an entrance stage right. Looking those few years older, that little bit greyer; I was struck at how respectable the band looked – in a conservative way. Pogues deputy chief, Jem Finer, resplendent in a good suit and open neck shirt, looked like dare I say it a friendly headmaster. Of course, as is another Pogues standard, Shane MacGowan always shuffles on after the rest of the band. Perhaps everyone else needs to be in position to aid Shane to his mic stand? If so, all he needs to do is aim for the mic with a table of drinks arranged on it. Pints of gin and tonic legend has it. Gone was the long trench coat of a few years ago. Shane looked every bit the inebriated rebel in all black, shades and what looked like one leather glove. Jacko eat your heart out.
With MacGowan in position the band launched into standard opener “Streams of Whiskey”. Classic opening, captured from a vantage point on video here
I won’t bore you by detailing every song – the set list is below – except for a few observations. Being by myself, I was somewhat contemplative, studying the band and listening to the songs, watching the performance intently as I quietly strummed my air guitar. The thing that really hit me not having seen the Pogues for 3 years is how loving and close the band seems towards MacGowan. He is like an errant genius uncle. He can be a handful but they look on admiringly. Lovingly even. They have every right to the songs this man has written. He is barely comprehensible between songs, but his singing voice sounded as good as I have ever heard it. The band also played a few songs I either haven’t heard in two decades or indeed never before: “London Girl”, from the “Poguetry in Motion” EP, “Repeal of the Licensing Laws” the b-side of the second single “The Boys From The County Hell” and “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, a slower number for which Shane needed to rest his legs for the 8 minutes stretch:
Take a seat Shane.
Personal highlights for me on the first night were the faster chaotic numbers “Boat Train” and the mighty gambling song “Bottle of Smoke”. Watch for yourself here.
“Thanks and praises
Thanks to Jesus
I bet on the Bottle of Smoke
I went to hell
And to the races
To bet on the Bottle of Smoke”
All round a truly bloody brilliant gig. That’s what the Pogues are, a great live band. Age, alcoholism or receding hairlines cannot dim such a rich canon of work, with a true genius songwriter at the helm. Raise a glass for Mr. Shane MacGowan. God bless you Shane.
Set list:
Streams of Whiskey
If I Should Fall From Grace with God
The Broad Majestic Shannon
Boat Train
A Pair of Brown Eyes
Tuesday Morning
Lullaby of London
Sunny Side of the Street
Repeal of the Licensing Laws
And The Band Played Dancing Matilda
Body of an American
London Girl
Thousands Are Sailing
Dirty Old Town
Bottle of Smoke
Sickbed of Cuchulainn
Encore:
Sally MacLennane
Rainy Night In Soho
Irish Rover
Encore 2:
Poor Paddy
Fiesta
——————————————-
For the second gig, on Saint Patrick’s night, I was joined by two friends. One longstanding partner in gig crime Rich (we were there together on a field in Reading for the Pogues headline slot in 1989) and a newer friend, Zack a man with impeccable tastes in music, and a disciple of the vinyl tradition. If I doubted Zack’s propensity for gigs, that doubt was shattered when he went to see the psychedelic stalwarts Phish 5 times over New Years Eve at Madison Square Garden. As a man who has seen the Wedding Present nearly 30 odd times I admire such devotion.
Just before the gig started there was a truly staggering tweet from Spider Stacey, tin whistle player, and the Pogues member who conducts the between song banter. Shane was missing:
Now that would be classic wouldn’t it. A sold out Paddy’s day gig and Shane goes walkabout. Even Rich turned to me and said “he isn’t turning up”. But thankfully, the next tweet arrived:
How superb is that! The combo of a renowned hell raising front man and socially media conscious sidekick. As it turned out Shane went out for a late lunch, nothing more than that.
The set was exactly the same as two nights before. That did not make it any less thrilling. This was Paddy’s Night and every American in the audience had an Irish bone in them that night. The Pogues in New York City on Paddy’s day. You don’t get much better than that. One such American was Zack, who had never seen the Pogues before. One of the things I love about going to gigs with friends is sharing their thrill in seeing a band mutually loved. Zack was impressed and being occasionally stage blocked by three guys whose height suggested NBA players were in agreement with him did not dampen his obvious fist pumping, head shaking enjoyment.
One song that went down incredibly well was, unsurprisingly given its title and lyric content, “Body of an American”:
“Fare thee well going away
There’s nothing left to say
Farewell to New York City boys
To Boston and PA
He took them out
With a well-aimed clout
He was often heard to say
I’m a free born man of the USA”
No Turkish Song of the Damned on either night. Oh well. Beggars most certainly cannot be choosers.
Stickycarpets USA gives the Pogues 11 gin and tonics out of 10
Notes
stickycarpets-blog-blog posted this
