Venue: The Fillmore – Charlotte, NC March 5, 2013
Lineup: Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun, Old Man Markley, Dropkick Murphys
You know how they say “everybody’s Irish on St Paddy’s Day…” right? Apparently the same holds true at a Dropkick Murphys concert. The doors opened at 7 p.m., and by the time the first band was onstage at 8 p.m., much of the crowd was hammered.
If there was a uniform for drunken wannabe Irishmen, it would be black jeans, black or green t-shirt, plaid flannel shirt and combat boots. The bad accents were flying around like a midget at a Kid Rock concert.
Fortunately, The Fillmore scales well to handle a large crowd. We were able to find a good spot and stay out of the way of the occasional mosh pit that spun up (but seldom lasted more than a couple songs). To be honest, these guys attract a mostly older crowd, and to quote Sweet Brown herself, “ain’t nobody got time for that.”
The first act to take the stage was UK based Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun, and put simply, they were great. Playing a mix of alt-country and hardcore punk, Jim Lockey and company captured the audience’s attention from the very first note. They played a relatively short set, but the crowd was really into them and they got everyone primed for the second act.
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Next up, and one of my favorite “new” discoveries was Old Man Markley. Hailing from Los Angeles, this seven-piece, punk-bluegrass spectacle was celebrating the release of their second album on the night of the show, and were obviously in great spirits.
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The extremely charismatic front man, Johnny Carey, laughed, joked, jumped, shouted and sang his way through a moderately long setlist for a midcard act. Not one to hog the spotlight, nearly every member of the band had their time to shine (except drummer Jeff Fuller… never any love for the drummers, man.) One of the highlights of the night was Annie Detemple’s piercing vocals and duet with fiddle & mandolin player Katie Weed.
If you get a chance to see this band live, take it, and pay attention to (washboard player) Ryan Markley who is hilarious onstage and (presumably) off.
The Dropkick Murphys took the stage around 10 p.m. and Holy Shite can those boys put on a show! I’ve never seen anyone so happy to be back on the road again. It seemed like every other song was about being back in action, or kicking ass, or both.
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As expected, they nailed it, and if you think the stage was crowded with the seven members of Old Man Markley standing relatively still (except the washboard player, seriously) you should have seen it with everyone running around and jumping off various risers. It was exactly the kind of energy you expect from this great band.
All in all, it was an amazing night and I picked up CDs for the opening acts, giving me a couple of new bands to dig into further.
