Mar
22
Written by:
carrie
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
2 years ago, Brendan, The Lagan’s vocalist and bodhran-playing Irish guitarist and bassist Martin, woke up after a day spent boozing in Boston, Mass. Specifically they were on the floor of the New York Port Authority bus station, having drunkenly stumbled onto a bus in Boston at midnight. After a moment to consider their location they decided they’d write a song. The result; ‘Sunny Day in Southie’ is a beer drenched, tin whistle and guitar-filled anthem shouting out their longing to get messy someplace new and have “no sleep ‘till St Patricks’ Day”.
Freshly returned from across the Pond, Brendan and Martin thought they should carry on with the music. Good thing too. Getting more musicians from their home town of Kingston together in a shoddy recording studio in Leatherhead, they added Gareth on ukulele, Jake Roper on trumpet and percussion, Andy Mac on whistle, Stan on fiddle and Matt McConnell on drums. With that and a whole load of love for traditional Celtic music, Ska and Punk, the world’s first Malfunction band was born.
2 years later and The Lagan have firmly established themselves as Leaders on the UK Celt Punk scene. So much so, they were invited to headline at Kingston’s New Slang (temporarily renamed New Slainte; Cheers!) on St Patrick’s night. This was a gig New Slang said; “couldn’t happen without The Lagan”. It couldn’t. From the lone sound of the lilting fiddle playing a traditional riff from ‘..Shamrock Shore’ coming to a full stop on the first punch of the drums and taught chords of ‘Staring The Devil In The Eye’, the pit stirred itself, got up and found itself jigging and dancing.
By the time the ska rhythm in the bouncy, catchy ‘Guinness and Chips’ chorus “I don’t even wanna let you down a little bit” had got us dancing more frenzedly and we’d shared Brendan’s passionate half -prayer of the EP Title track ‘Work Away’, no-one in the pit cared if they were Irish or not.
“Everyone’s Irish on Paddy’s Day. Hey, one of us is even Welsh! “, shouted Brendan and launched into their cover of ‘Drunken Lullabies’, the insanely infectious and impossible-not-to-dance-to song made famous by Flogging Molly from our sister Irish American Punk / Celt scene. The boundless enthusiasm from the pit made the band respond even stronger. Fiddle, whistle, ukulele and heady shouts fed back the energy to the bouncing bodies of the crowd.
You feel the Celtic pride, heart, blood and guts in The Lagan but there’s none of the violence and vitriol of Punk. One song was disturbed briefly when the security guards watching from the balcony jumped at the sound of three loud bangs. They relaxed after they realised it was only that some people joined together in a jig had careered over to some balloons and burst them. By the time the band played a rousing version of ’I’m Shipping Up To Boston’, we had our glasses in the air, power in our feet and were singing back the “ Woah-oh-oh’s “ to the smiling faces of the band.
It’s easy to see why they were finalists in the 2011 Battle Of The Bands and why anyone who’s been to one of their gigs knows they deserve it. The Lagan play for the enjoyment and love of the music and it is good music. Lyrically and musically the tracks they’ve written sound punchy, heartfelt and have Celtic tunefulness and moments of greatness that you hope to find in this mix of Celt Ska Punk.
But no matter whether you are into Celt Punk or not, The Lagan’s music gets every person in a room dancing. That tells you why they have established their place alongside Dropkick Murphys, The Clash, Green Day and The Pogues. Tonight, if they hadn’t had any sleep ‘till St Patrick’s Day it didn’t show. They are good on their EP ‘Work Away’ but The Lagan are at their greatest live.
Walking out of their gig, I feel happy, tipsy, without a care and knowing I’m going to see them again. “The Lagan is not just for St Paddy’s day, we are for life!”, shouted Brendan, “Up The F**king Lagan!” Damn F**king Right.
http://www.myspace.com/thelagan
http://www.thelagan.co.uk
Copyright ©2011 Carrie HitSmith