Founded in Los Angeles in 1997, Flogging Molly has always defied categorization. The infectious originality of their songs is a badge of honor and key to the band’s creativity, their urgency. They infuse punk rock with Celtic instruments—violin, mandolin and the accordion—and they merge blues progressions with grinding guitars and traditional Irish music, the music of King’s youth. “We’re not a traditional band,” explains Dublin-born King. “We are influenced by traditional music and inspired by it, but without question we put our own twist on it.” Theirs is music of exile and rebellion, of struggle and history and protest. It’s music of a country torn down the middle, a deeply beautiful and wounded country that knows no quit, and Flogging Molly pays homage to that resolve in every note. Whether it’s a driving anthem like “Black Friday Rule” or the upbeat duet with Lucinda Williams, “Factory Girls”, the band’s only criteria for its music is simple and bone-deep: that it matter.
We caught up with Rober “Bob” Schmidt (Mandolin, Mandola, Tenor Banjo, Five String Banjo, Vocals) before the show! Bob is a man of few words, but insanely talented to say the least.
What’s the first gig you ever attended?
Cheap Trick at Magic Mountain.
What is the best gig that you ever played/performed?
Thats a hard one to say really, but maybe when we (FM) played Red Rocks in Colorado on my birthday or when we sold out the Arena in Vienna, Austria for the first time.
What is the best gig you have ever seen?
Another tough one, but Leonard Cohen or Radiohead.
Gig you would most like to play?
Opening for AC/DC
What would be the lineup for your dream gig?
Flogging Molly, Led Zep, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead, Leonard Cohen, and the Rev. Peyton and his Big Damn Band. Kind of a festival show.
See Flogging Molly at the Tabernacle this Saturday, February 9th!
