Flogging Molly Coming To Oakland

Their ideas are as radical as their music. "Flogging Molly," a rock, punk, blues, irish keltic, unique band comes to the Bay Area March 10th, 2012, on their "Green 17 Tour."

Flogging Molly first came to my attention when I met this Irish chap sporting a t-shirt with a killer keltic image. We talked and he suggested I check out the band online. Well, I listened and though the music isn't quite my style, being a Raiders fan I like the bawdy, rhythmic, pirate sound and lyrics.

When I recently checked the Flogging Molly website I was impressed with their political awareness and support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Like their music, the band has a wide range of ideas and opinions on world issues.

Don't know if I'll make it to their concert at Fox Theatre in Oakland come March, but I just might swing by to buy a killer t-shirt and support their cause. Below is the band's statement on their new album that was made to bring about economic awareness. Right On Flogging Molly!

THE LIGHTS HAVE GONE OUT ON THE WORKING CLASS

Three years ago, hard working men and women the world over were collectively under the assumption that their nest eggs were secure, their homes were the safest of all investments, and that the economy was on the upswing. Then, with virtually no warning, their lives were turned upside down, as an entire generation saw their dreams dashed and plans dismantled. It all happened with the Speed of Darkness.

Nothing has mattered more to Flogging Molly than their new record, Speed of Darkness. "It wasn't the album we set out to write," vocalist/guitarist Dave King says. "It became the album we had to write." Musically and lyrically, Flogging Molly has never sounded so mature or rousing, nor have the messages of alienation and hope behind their songs ever been so relevant. Speed of Darkness was written over several months when the band would descend into the basement of King's Detroit home—a home he shares with his wife, Flogging Molly fiddler, Bridget Regan (they maintain dual residences in Ireland and Detroit, where Bridget was born and raised). As the country struggled to stay afloat, the songs evolved into odes to the working man and battle cries against the elite establishment that so quickly and callously cast him aside. "I write from my surroundings," King says. "I wanted people who've lost their jobs to know I was paying attention. We're singing for them, all of these good people brought to their knees." Nowhere is this more apparent than on the charging and bluesy track "The Power's Out." ("The power's out, there's fuck all to see/The power's out, like this economy/The power's out, guess it's par for the course/Unless you're a bloodsucking leech CEO").