Fairytale of New York, Redux

The Pogues show was everything I had imagined it should be: brilliant, raucous, drunk and disorderly New Yorkers being lifted out of the crowd by security, punks, New York Irish grandmothers, and everyone in between. After dinner at the Film Center Cafe, Robert and I suffered the wind tunnel that is New York and walked over to the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. (The energy of Times Square made me terribly homesick for a real city.) For a large venue, I was impressed: Lots of bars, cool rest rooms, you could take your cocktails into the show, and generally efficient, if expensive, in a lot of ways. Robert is incredibly adept at finding his way to the front of a crowd and he nailed us a spot in front to the left of the stage with an unubstructed view (it also helped that we were really nice to the security guy there). Since the band played in a row at the front of the stage, the only person I couldn't see consistently was Andrew on drums. Still, it was a fantastic view for a short person with four inch platform shoes. Although I feel a bit juvenile about this, I have to confess to getting weepy when the band came on stage. Later in the show, I got teary again, when Shane and Ella Finer sang (Ella, daugher of Jem, is in the photo above from the night of the show) Fairytale of New York, 'snow' fell on stage, and they danced. That song hits me in the gut every time... Shane, unintelligible while talking to the crowd (except for "you're a fat fucking fuck," directed at either a band member or one of the audience, one can never be sure), didn't miss a single lyric. Clearly, his voice has suffered the ravages of his habits, although Robert said that Shane seemed more sober than the last time he had seen him. The end of the night got particularly rowdy, with Shane pouring whisky down his throat (and mostly missing), balancing cups of water, pints of beer, and bottles of whisky on his head, the kicking of microphones and stools by all, Spider banging aluminum beer trays on his head...everything I could have hoped for and more. Still, there were times when I wanted to cry about Shane's talent vs. his health, while some of the crowd seems to enjoy it and egg him on. Philip Chevron is an astonishing talent (especially singing Thousands are Sailing), as is James on his accordion, and I loved when Andrew got out from behind the drum kit and sang during the second encore. I also really love Spider as a front man (Shane took a break after every three songs or so and someone else stepped up front and center). Damn, I have so much to say about this show, but I'm feeling the effects of the long flight today and will have to return to the set list, the two long encores, and other comments later. In the meantime:

bad cell phone photos here, which illustrate nothing but my vantage point
much better photos from a kind soul who was front and center on the same night, March 19th
incredible photos by DzM from the March 16th show on the Pogues website
more fantastic photos by Josie Montserrat at blackmoonphotography.com
set lists courtesy of fans at the show that night, and the band (I love that Philip Chevron is so involved on these discussion boards)