Gloatin’ and Showboatin’ captures the band in their hometown on the one day of the year when “everyone’s Irish,” and I assure you that there’s not a livelier group of people to spend St. Patrick’s Day with. The show’s opening song “Good Mornin’ Da,” instantly gets the audience into the thick of things with a wide array of instruments including the mandatory fiddle, mandolin and of course the pivotal tin whistle. Charismatic front man Tony Duggins just seems like the kind of guy you’d like to go have a beer or two with. His vocal performance is admirable, though not spectacular, throughout the set. This in itself though is quite the feat considering he’s intoxicated throughout and leading off the songs with gibberish as random as, “Bring on the young girls and the free cocaine!”
The set list digs into the band’s extensive catalog, though no songs from the group’s 2007 album, Agony, appear here since the show was recorded in 2006. The concert does feature its fair share of traditional Celtic folk songs though, such as the spectacularly well done “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye,” and the hilarious “Seven Drunken Nights” which really gets the crowd riled up. The sublime instrumental track, featuring violinist Rebecca Manthe and Duggins on the mandolin, is a perfect segue into the show closer, “The Irish Rover.”
One of the few moments of discontent I found while listening to this terrific live album is that at times some of the songs begin to run into one another, almost sounding too similar. For skeptics of the Irish punk sound this could be a problem, but for those already converted to this style of music made famous by the Pogues back in the 80’s, there really isn’t much to gripe about. If you end up not enjoying the CD part of this set, the accompanying DVD that comes with it won’t mean much; for everyone else it makes this deal even sweeter.
The packaged DVD is a terrific addition to an already great live CD. The DVD features the entire concert that’s included on the album, beautifully shot and looking magnificent. For those who don’t enjoy live concert albums what so ever, then maybe you’ll take pleasure in this terrific live concert footage. The DVD also comes with all of the band’s videos, a sweet treat indeed.
Whether it’s the third week of March or the last week of December, Gloatin’ and Showboatin’ is terrific fun. It’s a CD/DVD package that’s top notch, and one of the better uses of packaging a DVD with an album that I’ve come across yet. So go out and get this album immediately, you won’t want to be caught at your next night of drunken debauchery without it.
TrackBack URI for this entry
