The Pogues | Axis | July 2, 1986
By PHOENIX STAFF | October 25, 2006
The Pogues |
Anyone who’d seen the Pogues in London was already aware of the boozy, sharp-edged mayhem this bunch could create with tin whistles, mandolins, accordions, and the like, not to mention the, ah, tipsy mannerisms of ever-swilling singer-songwriter Shane MacGowan. But for most, this, the band’s first Boston gig, was a revelation. Expectations had been building ever since word of a punkish Irish band fronted by the hard-drinking MacGowan started filtering into local pubs. So Axis was a mass of sweating, drinking, Guinness-tossing celebrants as the Irish and punk communities seemed to fuse into one entity — the very same that would give birth to Dropkick Murphys a decade later. The surly, yet poetic MacGowan was at the top of his shambolic form, spitting out anthems like “Transmetropolitan†— “I’m gonna kick up bloody murder in the town we know so well†— and “The Boys from County Hell,†where MacGowan offered the come-on “Lend me ten pounds and I’ll buy you a drink.†Those songs summed up much of the intent. But the showstopper played near the end was the Pogues’ roughshod-but-reverent version of Eric Bogle’s “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda†— a powerful anti-war song sung from the point of view of a legless vet from “a forgotten war.†|
Were you there? Wish you were? Seen better? Tell us about it below.
Related:
In the moment, Regaining Shane, Regaining Shane - side, More 
- In the moment
The Pogues live in the moment, and last Thursday that moment lasted two hours at Avalon.
- Regaining Shane
It was 1985 and it was time for a new kind of kick. I did not expect to find it with guys playing tin whistle, banjo, and accordion, and a guy who used to sing for the B-level punk band, the Nips ( nés Nipple Erectors) — that would be the dentally challenged Shane MacGowan.
- Regaining Shane - side
Â
- 30 songs to spill beer on your iPod to
No song captures the quiet desperation of a hard-drinking, hardscrabble nowhere town better than this one.
- 30 songs to spill beer on your iPod to - side
Â
- Irrish guys are smiling
I’d searched for Shane MacGowan all afternoon.
- The best of times
On Boston Harbor’s Long Island, two miles out in Quincy Bay, the Curley Building stands hulking and decrepit.
- Doin’ it live
The winter concert scene’s got something for everybody, from Averi to Zakir Hussain. Okay, I couldn’t resist that bit of alphabetical hackery, but it’s true.
- Various Artists | Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966–1970
Girl-group records are great and everything, yet the countless compilations out there were becoming a little hit-or-miss until 2005, when the great Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found box set finally gave this diverse genre a proper taxonomy.
- Sushi-Teq
PerSushi-Teq starts with a really mediocre idea — pairing sushi with tequila and salsa music — and drops it into a glass cube with a two-wall color organ.
- The Irish rovers
"The Pogues and Boston go together in ways that belong in the realm of the unexplainable."
- Less
Topics:
Live Reviews
, Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, More
, Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, Singer Songwriters, Dropkick Murphys, Elliott Smith, The Pogues, Celtic Music, Regional Music, Shane MacGowan, Less
