Must-See Bands of Coachella 2011: Flogging Molly

There is a little over a month remaining until the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival takes place this year, and there are hundreds of artists and DJ's performing at this year's fest. How will you prioritize and decide which artists you want to watch? Over the next several weeks, I will discuss some of my favorite the bands on the lineup and give you some reasons why you should make an effort to see them.

The first of those bands is Flogging Molly, a seven piece outfit that formed in Los Angeles, CA back in the early 90's. They began by playing a mix of Irish traditional music, punk, and rock. The band takes their name from the Los Angeles pub Molly Mallone's, where they built a strong following playing every Monday night for several years. In 1997, the band released a live album called Alive Behind the Green Door which helped them on their way to being discovered.

One Monday night, the owners of SideOneDummy records attended a show and loved the bands intensity and energetic live performance. They signed the band and Flogging Molly's first studio album, Swagger , was released in 2000. (I was interested to discover when I bought my copy of Swagger that it was engineered and mixed by Steve Albini, who also worked on such albums as The Pixies' Surfer Rosa and Nirvana's In Utero. )

I had the pleasure of seeing Flogging Molly in Los Angeles a few years back, and it was one of the most energetic and boisterous performances I have seen. There are several instruments onstage that would ordinarily be strange to see in a punk band: an accordion, a banjo, a mandolin, a tin whistle and a fiddle to name a few. Bridget Regan's beautiful fiddle playing is one of the most unique aspects of the band: there a six sweaty guys running around on stage playing their hearts out, and then one single woman carrying the melody and grounding the whole bunch. They played each song about twice as fast and twice as loud as the album versions, and the audience was going completely crazy. I'm a fairly peaceful girl and not usually one for moshing. The crowd was getting whipped up into a frenzy, though; people in the back were dancing like maniacs, and the entire front half of the audience was one giant mosh pit.

The video above is of the band performing "Drunken Lullabies" live at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in 2010. With more than a decade of recoding and touring together under their belts, these guys (and gal) have become incredibly skilled musicians and charismatic performers. They are just pure fun. I for one can't wait for another chance to see them live at this year's Coachella festival. I'm less afraid of mosh pits now, so I think I may try to jump in there and throw a few elbows... If this will be your first year at Coachella, you should make a point to see Flogging Molly on Friday, as their live show will get you energized for the whole rest of the weekend.