Really drunk Irish music

Last night, evilnicola and I met coraline and her husband, E., (so I need to learn LJ names) went to see The Pogues at the Orpheum Theater.

Great company, but not the greatest concert experience ever. (But the Dropkick Murphys are on tap for the weekend).

I had never been to the Orpheum, and now I have sat in its upper reaches. (evilnicola) had to bow out a touch early because of asthma induced by smokers around us.

E. summed it up best when he observed that the hundreds of drunk Irish guys there probably thought it was the greatest thing ever.

This is from the Washington Post review of a past show, but it pretty well sums up what we saw and says it better than I could.

Astooped, whiskey-bottle-toting Shane McGowan appeared to be 47 sheets to the wind when he took the stage with the reconstituted Pogues at the 9:30 club on Thursday. McGowan walked up to his mike, opened his toothless mouth and said, "Blargh garhde darlgzane argha." In fact, he pretty much said nothing comprehensible other than the slurred song titles he struggled to read from the set list posted at his feet.

McGowan's legendary bad habits are what made his band mates kick him out of the Pogues in 1991, but he's somehow still alive today -- if just barely. With his choppers gone, McGowan's jaw has the scrunched-up shape of a weathered accordion bellow, and his singing has morphed from rough-voiced crooning to mush-mouthed gargling. It was sad to watch this genius of song reduced to a shuffling fool (think Ozzy Osbourne), and it was awkward to witness how the audience roared at McGowan's every slug from the whiskey bottle and his every unintelligible utterance.

Getting through the week

As Toby Keith says, "I ain;t as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was."

Went to The Pogues with evilnicola last night and it rocked. I managed to not kill any kids despite operating on 5 1-2 hours of sleep.

I am hawk-sitting, and one of the highlights of my day is to thaw the mousicles and feed the hawk. That's enough said about that. ;)

Reading a new W.E.B. Griffin book, "The Hostage," and the latest Jim Butcher, "Dead Beat."

Wow, my life's pretty boring.

We couldn't get a slot with Habitat in the hurricane area, so we may be going to South Carolina instead. Need to firm up plans.

Of course, what's gonna happen while I am down there?

The Arrogant Worms are going to make one of their ultra-rare local appearances at Club Passim.

That's all for now.