Those Crazy Irishmen

The Pogues show was much fun. I think it would have been more fun had I been completely trashed like the rest of the crowd, but since I did that last Friday night, I decided to stay relatively sober on this night.

We met up at Fado's beforehand for some irish grub, then walked down to the venue. William Elliott Whitmore opened, who is just fantastic. I saw him at the Tractor Tavern last month, which was much better show because the Tractor was is a lot smaller than the Showbox.

Anyway, we stood up and back in the bar area, rather than down on the main floor with the crowd. Which was just fine with me. We still had a great view, we still danced around, we just didn't have to mosh with the sweaty, drunk guys.

The most entertaining part of the show was watching the stage hands lead Shane McGowan onto the stage and place him in front of the mic. He was already trashed before the show and he smoke and drank for the duration. And through all the three encores. The old school Pogues fans said they were surprised he was even still alive. And apparently, he has no teeth. But his "singing" was still dead on and he didn't seem to forget any of the lyrics. He tried to banter between songs, but you couldn't understand a word he said. After the final encore, and they started wandering off stage, a band member said into the mic - "Thanks for your understanding." Which is weird as I type it, but at the time I took it to mean, yes, we know he's a handful. Thanks for coming out anyway.

All in all, it was still a good show with great music. But a very late night.
So I went into work at 10am Friday. Not a bad Friday at all.