Flogging Molly - May The Road Rise To Meet You (by Jay Hale)

You’ll drink what I give you,” was the response from Trigger, New York City mainstay and owner of the punk rock haven The Continental. It wasn’t exactly the answer the band was hoping for when they requested a few complementary cans of Guinness during their first trip to the Lower East Side nightclub. Taking a quick look around, there were just over a dozen people lurking about the Continental — and some of them didn’t even work there. Maybe Trigger made the right move keeping the good brew on ice. A case of the stuff would not have been recouped by the few dollars raked in that evening. Especially since it was a free show.

Life on the road wasn’t easy for Flogging Molly when Side one Dummy Records owner Joe Sib concocted the bright idea of shipping the band to the east coast for a six-week residency jaunt from Portland, Maine to Baltimore. Nobody had a clue as to who they were. At the time, Phoenix was the eastern most city the band had visited. They didn’t even have a record out. Armed with a few thousand cassette singles the band’s label had mailed to local record stores as giveaways, Flogging Molly was prepared to get their music out in uncharted territory the old fashioned way — by word of mouth. In our computer-driven, info-on-demand world that concept seems a little outdated but back in the spring of 2000, hitting the road with earnest was still the most viable avenue to get your music to the masses.

The way Flogging Molly’s east coast residency began, it certainly felt like those six weeks would last an eternity. Pilgrims in a foreign land, every Monday they’d pack up their van and head south following their gig in Portland. Capping off the loop to the Mason-Dixon line and back with their weekly Saturday show at Bill’s Bar in Boston, Flogging Molly would retreat to the cabin of accordion player and professional skateboarder Matt Hensley’s parents deep in the Maine woods.

At first, the residency tour’s turnout was dismal. Capturing the attention of a dozen or so kids in each city was the norm but momentum began to build during the second week. Boston, a city rich in Irish heritage, was to no one’s surprise the main catalyst.

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