Around 15 years ago, U2 played a gig at the old Boston Garden on St. Patrick’s Day. The gig is still fairly legendary in terms of Boston folklore and the number of people who actually “claim” that they were there would have doubly exceeded the capacity of the Garden. While the U2 show was a good one… it did not come close to the band's mid-80s gigs (especially a September 1987 show at the same venue when Bono and the boys probably were the best band on the planet) and does not live up to the hype the legacy of the show has left behind.
So, it was much more of a treat to the “Boston Irish” that The Pogues, who have once again reunited with original and legendary front man Shane McGowan, picked only Boston, Philly, Chicago, and New York to play a few shows at this year and making the cities the only US gigs they are doing in 2007. The thoughts of seeing the original Pogues at all, let alone playing so close to St. Patty’s Day, was just a dream for their followers for many years. Now that it has come true, it surely has made many a music loving Boston-Irish post-Punk want to break out their now most likely tight fitting old Pogues concert shirts and down several pints of Guinness.
This show, on March 11, 2007 at the Orpheum Theater, was the fourth and final night of the bands Boston run, as the group played a trio of well received shows at the Avalon in Boston just prior to the Orpheum show. It was of some concern to some Pogues fans that the band might be out of steam at the tail end of a four-nighter, but the band proved that, while they are no longer the young rebels the once were, they can still roar through a set that could make even the most cynical of observers happy. But the show also left you feeling a bit sad that they splintered in the first place, leaving a question mark for what the band could have done during all the years of inactivity.
Not just content to walk through a greatest hits set, the band charged through some great re-tellings of “Rainy Night In Soho” and versions of “Sally MacLennane” and “Fiesta” that were so emotionally stirring I hoped that younger disciples (and Boston residents) The Dropkick Murphys were in attendance to take close notes.
There's been a lot of talk about the alleged problems that have haunted Shane McGowan and his relationship with the Pogues. Well, some of this was evident this night, but McGowan did his best to once again play the Celtic troubadour of the band and was in great voice as he boastfully re-told tales of roaming Irish lads, dirty old towns, and burials at sea. McGowan preached like the elder Post-Punk statesman he is.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
I saw The Pogues last fall/winter at The Grove in Anaheim. While the other band members were stellar, professional musicians who sounded fantastic, I found Shane's antics sad and pathetic. He kept spilling his drink and stumbling off stage, and kept losing his place in the songs. He really should get some help.
2 - Leslie Bohn
This is exactly the act Shane has been doing for years. I went last year, and he's still the same as 1987. No deterioration at all. The falling down, the incoherence, the omnipresent wine bottle, the getting tangled in the mike cord and stand, these are all as familiar to fans as James Brown's cape routine.
The band was NOT "shook" and the crowd, if it was really "disturbed," must not have ever seen the Pogues before.
I've seen them 10 times over the years, and have never seen him behave any other way.