The Pogues and Frat Boys Don't Mix

Wow. Ok. Um...

So last night The Wiff and I ventured into Boston to see The Pogues play at the Orpheum. I used to have a job where I drove around Boston all day so I was pretty sure that I'd be able to find a place to park fairly easily. Yeah, wrong. I haven't been driving in Boston in probably 5 years but holy hell! Where'd all the parking spots go? All my super secret spots had vanished or transformed into not-so-secret restricted parking. Everywhere I looked there was another restriction: No Parking from 4-6 PM, No Parking Loading Zone, No Parking Fatty, etc. So I abandoned the downtown area and headed for Back Bay. After battling the jackasses rushing to get home (oh, and by the way pedestrians? Yeah, hi, I'm the guy in the car. I have to obey the rules of the road so could you maybe do the same? Stop frickin' walking across the street randomly), I found a spot on Beacon St. by the Common. Not too bad of a walk, just right across the way from Tremont.

Then we went to grab something to eat. I haven't really thought about going out to dinner in that part of Boston in quite a while so I had no idea what was around. We stopped in a couple of places but at 6-ish on a Thursday, most of them were packed. I don't do packed. We ended up at this restaurant/bar called Kennedy's which I can't really recommend. I think that if we had sat in the bar area (which we usually do at places like this) we would have had a good time but we sat in the restaurant area and had a waiter who clearly did not want to be there. I wouldn't want to be a waiter either but that's why I'm not one. This guy just had no interest in making our time there enjoyable. But whatever right? I'm going to see THE POGUES! Hooray!

Yeah, about that. The seat rows (up in the nosebleeds in the upper balcony where our seats were) we so close together that I literally could not get my legs in front of me. I was sitting in the aisle seat and my legs were splayed out on the stairs. I had to sort of sit sideways with my left leg pressing painfully up against the seat in front of me. It really sucked. But I figured whatever right? I'm going to see THE POGUES! Hooray!

The first band came on and they were your run of the mill bar band. Nothing special. I guess there were some members of the Dropkick Murphys in the band but since I can't stand that band, guess what I thought of these guys. They end their set and the house lights come up. I'm sitting there (uncomfortably) and checking out the crowd. Oldie. Oldie. Freak. Oldie. Nozzle. Oldie. Meh, I can deal with these people. Not a problem. Then THEY showed up. The Abercrombe crowd. Oh fuck no. They have discovered my music. This show is doomed.

Five chicks and a couple of moussed dudes come up the stairs, each one of them carrying a beer (which I can only assume is a Bud Lite or some other swill). Almost immediately they start in with the photo shoot. What is up with that? The chicks start posing and taking pictures (all with that goddamn kissy-face look too. Y'know?) and the dudes start "WOOOOOOOO!"-ing. A lot. There was a lot of that. What are you "woo"-ing at? The CD they're playing? Sit down Chad.

Then even more of them showed up. And now we're basically surrounded (with the exception of the couple sitting directly behind us who also had much contempt for the frat party). The combination of cheap beer, hair products and Axe Body Spray was nauseating. I guess when you don't have much of a personality it must hinder your bladder control because these maroons kept getting up to pee like every couple of minutes. Good, I thought, get it out of your system now so that when the show starts, you won't annoy me anymore. Wrong again. The annoying college kids (that may be redundant) kept getting up to pee, coming back with shitty beer and then getting up to pee again. Holy hell. I just want to watch the show and maybe try to salvage this evening.

The show starts with a recording of The Clash's "Straight To Hell" and The Pogues walk out on stage. Shane comes shambling out wearing a black suit and a big black top hat. Hee! There they are! Forget the douche nozzles sitting around me! This is gonna rule! And it did...for a while. They plowed through a few songs and the crowd was really having fun. Shane would introduce the song which basically sounded like this "GGrarrbblug fffreanablle Street" and then they'd launch into "Sunny Side of the Street". Then for whatever reason, Shane would just leave the stage and Spider would sing a song or two. Then Shane would lumber back and slog through a couple more tunes. He was literally leaving out entire verses of songs. He was kind of off the beat a couple of times too. Much to the band's credit, they were able to really minimize his destruction of their best-known songs. Y'know, maybe back in the 80's when he was in his 20's this was ok but now that he's into his 50's, it really has lost its charm.

We had heard through a guy at work who saw the show on Wednesday night that they play 5 encores. Well, we left after the main set. And I'm ok with that. The combination of the drunk college kids in the crowd and Shane messing up the songs made for a less than stellar experience. Look, I'm too old and cranky for this. We made our way downstairs and wow, the police presence was impressive. There were about 5 cops in the lobby and a couple more standing just outside the doors. I'm glad we left when we did. We avoided the crush of people leaving and I didn't have to punch anyone in the face repeatedly.

We walked back to our car across the Common and got our old butts back home. Now I have seen The Pogues and I guess I really don't need to see them again. That's a shame. I never did see them during their height (and I totally missed them when Joe Strummer was singing for them for a bit...dammit, that would have been great) and that time has passed.