Broadcasting live from Dublin City’s infamous live music venue, Whelan’s, Flogging Molly will be firing on all cylinders bringing us a St Patricks Day event that will be no doubt be packed to the brim with bangers from the bands’ impeccable discography.
We caught up with band members, Dave King and Bridget Regan to find out what’s in store for the show…
OD – Tell us how this live streaming event came into place?
BRIDGET – As far back as December! We talked about doing it in Dublin back in December and it’s taken that long for all of this time to get the logistics in place which has been very challenging at times.
OD – With regards to the venue, was Whelan’s always the first choice?
DAVE – We were very lucky to get the venue. Whelan’s was one of the very first places in Ireland where Flogging Molly performed. I was thinking; “If we could get that venue, it would be fantastic“, and to be honest, they were very accomodating about it all and it really worked out for us.
BRIDGET – Also, there’s a particularly crap movie that has a scene filmed in Whelan’s that has our music in it, so it’s like full-circle [Laughing].
OD – Which movie is that?
BRIDGET – ‘PS I Love You‘. [Laughing]
OD – Are the rest of the guys over from the US and if so was that a complicated process due to the cover situation?
BRIDGET – Yes, the rest of the guys have had tests prior to flying and then they have been tested since arriving and are in quarantine. Everything has been done by the book. We will have a Covid compliance officer on site for the whole event and anyone that comes into the building will have had to have a test with proof, or they will have to do a rapid antigen test, which takes just 15 minutes.
It’s difficult to put something like this together under normal circumstances, but with all the restrictions and guidelines also, it’s been a real battle at times.
DAVE – We’ve never played a show on St Patrick’s day in Ireland, ever! With the Pandemic it’s really been a huge challenge. So many logistics to consider. It’s been a real struggle at times but I’m delighted that it’s all come together and it’s finally become a reality.
OD – What can fans/virtual ticket holders expect from the live stream as I believe there will be lots happening?
BRIDGET – Yes, we will be undertaking a series of one-on-one Facetime/Zoom video ‘Meet and Greet‘ calls with people who have purchased those options. This will happen after the show on St Patricks Day.
OD – What can we expect from the setlist on the day, any surprises you can let us in on?
DAVE – We’re gonna play stuff that we’ve not performed in years as well as some acoustic stuff… This is a one-off very special event. It’s a big deal for us to be playing in Ireland on St Patricks Day.
BRIDGET – We’re gonna play all the hits… but we don’t have any [Laughing]. About this time last year, we were just about to kick off a new tour in America. We had just finished three days of rehearsals and had arrived at the first venue on the tour. The trucks with all our stuff arrived and the crew had loaded everything into the venue and all of a sudden, the show gets cancelled.
So the setlist we were meant to do on that tour is a starting point for us. There was a lot of stuff we were looking at performing on that run of dates, still, we’ve not performed in a long time.
OD – Will you guys have time to rehearse prior to the show due to the quarantine restrictions with the rest of the band?
DAVE – Yes, we’ve factored all of that in and we’re getting in some warm-up rehearsals to dust off the cobwebs. We can’t wait to get stuck in. I’m really excited about it.
OD – Since the lockdown, I understand you’ve both been in Wexford [East Coast Ireland]. Has there been a creative burst over the last year and if so, how many tracks are in play at the moment?
DAVE – [Laughing] When we came back to Ireland last March, we thought: “We’ll only be here for about 3-months” but then we began to realise that it was much more serious than we initially thought.
BRIDGET – We’ve been keeping ourselves busy over the last year. If you want any gardening advice or tips on making great sourdough bread, just ask! [Laughing]
DAVE – We’ve been working on new material and new ideas over the last year and we just can’t wait to get together with the band again and actually start performing again. We’ve talked about writing remotely and to be honest, it’s hard for us because we love to just get into a room together and feed off that energy. It’s a huge part of what the Flogging Molly sound is all about.
I think at this stage we could knock out an album as soon as we’re all back to some kind of normal.
OD – When things come back to some kind of normal, what are the immediate plans for Flogging Molly going forward?
DAVE – We are gonna be jumping straight back into things. It doesn’t take a lot of logistics for us to record an album. We just plug in and let rip. We feed off each other and the spark/chemistry is the catalyst.
So hopefully we’ll have a good body of work as soon as we all get together.
BRIDGET – Some bands are releasing bands during this time but for us, a huge part of who we are is based around performing live and if we’re not in a position to be able to do that, then we have to just sit it out until things improve.
Flogging Molly’s St Patricks Day live stream will be taking place on Wednesday, March 17th from 12 pm [PST], 3 pm [EST], 7 pm [GMT] and 8 pm [CET]. Tickets are available via this link with an array of options to choose from including meet and greets.
If you’re feeling lucky, you can try your luck and win a virtual ticket courtesy of Overdrive and Flogging Molly. All you have to do is:
The winner will be picked at random and contacted tomorrow [Tuesday, March 16th] at 4 pm.
Oran O’Beirne
www.overdrive.ie 2021
