Drinking anthems

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THE PUNKISH IRISH ROCKERS CELEBRATE A QUARTERCENTURY AS A BAND WITH A HEADLINING TOUR AND A NEW ALBUM RECORDED BY STUDIO WIZARD STEVE ALBINI.

By Alan Sculley

Flogging Molly are celebrating their first quarter century as a band by heading out on a headlining tour to support their new album, Anthem. Singer/guitarist Dave King and fiddle player (and future wife) Bridget Regan formed the band and, 25 years later, having survived the pandemic, these veteran Irish rockers are ready to roll into the Diamond Ballroom on March 8 with Anti-Flag and Skinny Lister. The road has always been a second home to the seven members of Flogging Molly, who have steadily built a large following and stable career the old-fashioned way – by touring and word of mouth raves about their highly entertaining and raucous live shows.

“I remember when we first started, I won’t mention the radio station, but they did a battle of the bands and they’d play four songs by four bands. Whoever had the most requests at the end of the week would be immediately put on their playlist,” King said. “And we won hands down and they refused to play the song on the radio. Their excuse was, ‘Well, it’s only your fans that are calling in.’ From then on, we knew we were never going to get any favors.

There was nobody going ‘we’ll put you on the radio for this and that.’ That was never going to happen with Flogging Molly. Everything Flogging Molly had to do, with the help of our fans, we were going to have to do it ourselves.

“I feel very proud, to be honest. I think we all do. I think we’re very proud that we have done it the old way,” he said. “We’ve done it (going through) the grind.”

The talk of the early days is appropriate, not only because Flogging Molly is reaching a milestone, but because Anthem marks a return to their roots in very tangible ways. It marks a reunion with producer Steve