If you don’t know this man or his band by now you have problems. His songs are anthems for folks 15-50 years of age. And Flogging Molly is the hardest working band out there. This band is real.

At their show at the Roxy Theater in Atlanta in mid-March, we drank Guinness and more Guinness and then we danced. The three opening bands were excellent: Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band sounded like Robert Johnson hanging out in a Howard Johnson’s. Reverend Peyton had a nice style. He looked like Michael Landon during his Highway to Heaven period. TwoPointEight were up next. They are a punk band from Sweden. They were great and the nicest of guys. Respect to Jose and Freddy. Men, WE NEED REBELS!

Street Dogs are a street punk band from Boston. I liked them a lot, good lyrics, good style and good songs. To me, a song is good if you are singing along by the second verse. These songs were good and I found myself singing. All of this went well with the Guinness.

Here we go:

Dry Ink: Dave, so what is new?

Dave King: Everything and nothing.

DI: You look good.

DK: I feel good and I’m trying to make good decisions.

DI: It’s been a while since you’ve been to Atlanta.

DK: A couple of years. We’ve been busy and lucky. The rest of the world now wants us.

DI: You know the bar was sold out of Guinness before the second band went on.

DK: Yes, that is good news. Like I said, we’ve been lucky. It’s nice to know that people will be missing school and work tomorrow.

DI: The club should’ve over stocked. You would think the bar would’ve been prepared for some heavy drinkers.

DK: They thought they were. The fans always rise to the occasion.

DI: When I listen to Irish music I drink Guinness. When I listen to dub I drink Red Stripe.

DK: And Guinness makes us sound better.

DI: So where is home for you now?

DK: You’re sitting in it. This bus is where we spend most of our time. I do have a house in Ireland now. It’s a little cottage outside of Dublin. So I live there a few months out of the year. It’s nice, I get to spend some time with mom.

DI: This bus has a great bathroom.

DK: It better, this is our home for more than half of the year.

DI: Nate was telling me he recently moved to Denver.

DK: Yes, we are all over the place right now.

DI: How does that make writing?

DK: Very interesting.

DI: And how is this tour going?

DK: Great, each one gets better. The bands we are playing with are great. All 17 shows are sold out.

DI: I love the DVD Whiskey on a Sunday. Will there be a new album soon?

DK: Thank you and yes. We spent some time in Dublin writing some songs recently. We will be recording them soon and then you will have it.

DI: Well you guys were great tonight. Thank you.

DK: No, thank you. The crowd is half the show.

The show was amazing. It always is. These guys never disappoint. And the crowd was good and active. Everyone in the place was sweating. They played everything I wanted to hear. My glass was in the air the entire time and my throat was sore.

I hung out with Bobby the banjo player. He plays mandolin also. We talked about his side project Banjovi. They’re a bluegrass Bon Jovi cover band. They have a song called “You Give Love a Banjo.” The name of the album is “Banjo Medicine.”

Tom Cheshire is the publisher of Dry Ink Magazine. Write to him at tom@dryinkmag.com