Sláinte and póg mo thóin

Two days later, I'm still recovering from a night with the Pogues. And that's not from the drink. It's mostly from deflecting hooligans from landing on my head.


We started the night at Raglan Road Irish Pub in the center of Power & Light.  I know, stereotypical.  But the weather was rainy and chilled, and shepherds' pie and  bangors & mash sounded good.  Raglan Road is a branch of an Orlando, FL location, so maybe it's as authentic as Disneyland.  I was impressed that they gave a nod to local flavor by adopting Boulevard Dry Irish Stout as the house stout.  It was served on nitro, which added an extra creamy texture you don't get from a bottle.  I'm going to have to grab some bottled to compare, but I think it enhanced the coffee flavoring of the stout.

For starters we had chicken skewers and some smoked salmon.  The chicken was pretty juicy and the yogurt sauce was good.  The smoked salmon came with capers and a ranch spread.  I could have eaten a plate of the capers.  For dinner I had the shepherds' pie.  It had a ground beef and lamb mixed with a wine reduction.  Mrs. Monkey had the bangors & mash, which came covered in a Guinness beef stew.  We were debating on getting some dessert, but by that time an acoustic duo started playing some bad 80's covers.  If that wasn't enough, there was a out of control hot mic.  Time to go.

As said, it was pretty rainy, and we had an hour to kill before the show.  On the corner attached to the Midland is a lounge called Indie.  We figured we would stop in and grab a drink before the show. The drink menu is basically what is available in the Midland, with less lighting. Don't go there expecting anything exciting or to be acknowledged by the staff. We quickly finished our drinks and went into the Midland.

The opening act was the Detroit Cobras, though I didn't find out their name until after the show. I don't know if it was a last minute addition, but their name wasn't on the billing anywhere, nor did they say who they were when they came on stage. Too cool I guess. They were a pretty fun garage rock n roll band. They mostly do covers with a twist.

But we came here to see the Pogues, and more specifically Shane MacGowan. MacGowan is a brilliant poet, artist, and fall down drunk. The big question in the crowd was whether or not he would be able to perform. There are many stories of his handler having to pick him up from the stage and steer him back to the mic. This night MacGowan seemed ready to perform. Even before the band took stage, we spotted him offstage shuffling towards his mic. His handlers redirected him away, but he had an ornery look on his face like he just needed to stir things up.

Two songs in MacGowan wandered off to the side stage.  The band seemed a little surprised, but not concerned.  They proceeded to play a couple of songs, then MacGowan would wander back to the mic.  This became a recurring theme.  He must have needed a refill, a new cig, or just to take a piss.  I started to suspect this was planned.

We started the show up front.  As the show progressed, the hooligans proceeded to get rowdier.  I'm not as spry as I used to be.  Hell, I was never that spry, so there was no way I was going to participate in the moshing.  I did end up being a bit of an Enforcer.  You have to plant your feet, making sure the moshers stayed in their pit and smaller people stayed on their feet.  I was impressed with the pit etiquette, these guys were experienced.  If someone went down, everyone stopped to make sure that person got back up.  Eventually the crush was a little much, so we moved back some.

The show was amazing, and likely at this point a once in a lifetime experience.  It didn't matter that MacGowan's toothless brogue was often unintelligible.  It sounded like heaven.