Thursday at the Square
(Photo thanks to Buffalo News)
Finishing the season with a bang, Thursday at the Square this week will have one of this podcast’s favorite bands, Jackdaw, opening for the Dropkick Murphys. It should be a huge show. With the energy celtic-rock brings out in Buffalo, it could be a record-setter.
I’ll be there, taking pictures for Buffalo.com’s Spotted page (and probably a bunch of other Spotted interns as well.) Also, I expect to be working with Susan-Marie of This Is Not The Apple, another of the featured shows at Think Twice Radio.
As regular visitors to this site know, I’ve featured Jackdaw in two podcasts. Sue has interviewed them in a feature on her show as well as recent coverage of the South Buffalo Irish Feis in Cazenovia Park. If you’re not familiar with Jackdaw (shame on you!) that should give you plenty of ways to sample them and get in the mood.
The Dropkick Murphys are an internationally-known Celti/Punk/Rock act. Inspired in part by the sound of The Pogues, they in turn have inspired a number of others, such as Flogging Molly. Yet, the Murphys are one-of-a-kind, an original, and this is your chance to see them free in one of their semi-infrequent visits to Buffalo.
The weather should be seasonable, so come down and enjoy the show. Get Spotted, cheer on Jackdaw and show the Murphs Buffalo is a party town!
Doc Wu said,
September 21, 2007 at 3:51 pm
What a concert! It had to be a near-record crowd. Jackdaw played to a huge crowd, complete with mosh-pit and crowd-surfers. Security at the front of the stage was just like an A-list band gets.
The crowd filled in even more for the Dropkick Murphys. It became an impenetrable wall of bodies. I spent most of the show behind the stage with Jackdaw at their bus. When they finally got a path to get out, I went to spend my last drink ticket and gave up standing in line at two different beer-tents. After that, I began to work my way back to the sound board where I had left some of my equipment. Usually you get through a crowd like that by zig-zagging sideways. You can move through a crowd at a slant to the direction people are facing. But this time there wasn’t even room for that. You just kept pushing and yelling “excuse me!”
At one point, I seemed to be tripping on something on the ground. It was like someone left something laying there. I looked down and figured out I (and everyone around me) was standing in the bushes. The guy next to me said something and I answered “Well, at least I know where I am now.” You can loose your bearings when you can’t see landmarks around you.
Well, at least the sidewalk was just in front of that and I knew it led in an arc to the sound board tent. I followed on and came to one last lady who just wouldn’t let me by. I quickly realised, it was because she was standing right up against the table at the side of the sound board. she had no where to go and knew I couldn’t go any further. But I worked forward to the opening to the sound area. The security guard let me in when I showed my ID and I finally got room to breathe.
I sat in the back on the steps and chatted with the security (when they weren’t hustling people off the steps. fence, wall, wherever.
I gave up on getting any more pictures and put my camera away. Then the Dropkick Murphys brought about 50 fans up on the stage. Quite a sight. And I got the camera out again. I was in the perfect spot to get some good shots of that.
Andrew Gritzmacher said,
September 21, 2007 at 10:39 pm
That was possibly the best concert i’ve been to. During Jockdaw, the mosh pit was really just a skank circle that every so often broke into a frenzy of shoving and people being knocked over (me included, and I have the mostrous bruise on my shoulder to prove it as well). There was a fair share of irish jigs going on as well. It’s really quite amazing how coordinated drunken 30-something year old men can be when dancing Irish jigs. At the end of Jockdaw’s performance, the crowd erupted into applause and almost immediatly started chanting, WE-WANT-MURPH-YS! This started and stopped quite frequently for 30 minutes untill the Dropkick Murphys finally came on to the stage and the mosh pit was probably tripled in size which then became a little too much for me, being 5 foot 10 and 120 pounds, I was grossly out sized in every way and started to work my way out of the crowd which is really hard with everyone on the outside of the pit pushing you back in. It requires a bit of shouting and cursing to have people let you through, but when I was a good distance out of the crowd, i just relaxed and listened to the remainder of the concert.
And some advice, if you dont like getting covered in beer, Dropkick Murphys concert crowds are not for you
Doc Wu said,
September 21, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Hey Andy!
I didn’t see you there, but it’s not hard to miss someone in the thousands in the crowd! I was taking photos around there and have a bunch of people crowd-surfing that came out well. Check ‘em out at Buffalo.com’s Spotted section.
Kyle Brunelle said,
September 23, 2007 at 9:08 am
Agreed! I had front row for it all, and I must admit that it was amazing! does anyone have any front row shots of the concert? I have one from spotted but that’s all. I know people there had plenty of cameras! Thanks!
Susan Marie said,
September 25, 2007 at 8:36 am
Doc!!!
Thank you so much for lending me the Marantz and having to come and get it because I was almost stuck in the bushes too! That was insane but it was amazing and the crowd gave me great interviews, cannot wait to get that up. What was truly amazing, is most of the people I interviewed were first time TATS goers, never saw Jackdaw - just moved to Buffalo and loved and were not only just Irish crowds, but multi cultural crowds loving every minute of Jackdaw - a lot of firt time fans and also kids who drive from Fredonia/Fla/Cleveland just to see Jackdaw.
As soon as that is up will let you know, I just edited that last night and the “self proclaimed Mayor of Allentown” later was dragged off (thank you for that picture)
Between you, me, Josh, Bob - we got audio, video, crowd and photography.
Thank you again,
Sue