Sarah from WLUW had the opportunity to sit down with Dennis and Matt from Flogging Molly to talk about their recent tour, their energetic performances, and how to dance to Flogging Molly. Take a listen to our conversation below.

Sarah:

I’m Sarah with WLUW 88.7, would you guys want to go ahead and introduce yourselves for the people? 

Dennis:

Dennis, Flogging Molly’s guitar player. 

Matt: 

And my name is Matt Hensley, I’m the accordion player for Flogging Molly.

Sarah:

Perfect, so I just wanted to ask you how has Riot Fest been for you guys so far?

Dennis:

I’ve only seen it for like half hour, hour so far. We’ve done it before, and I always have a great time. A lot of our friends are in these bands and The Cure is playing tonight too.

Sarah:

I know, very exciting. And I know you guys are kind of in the tail end of this tour that you’re on… what’s the highlight of that been so far, and what are you looking forward to coming up? 

Dennis:

The highlight of it? 

Sarah:  

The highlights so far.

Matt: 

All the shows have been, it’s been sweet. Honestly, I don’t have a highlight other than say that these shows have been pretty incredible and I’ve been amazed at the the amount of people and the love that we get at the show still. You know, you keep knocking on wood. We’ve been doing this for quite a while. So you’re like ‘[I] wonder if everybody’s still having it?’ and it feels good, I think they are still having it.

Sarah:

Is there a trick to keeping that energy up? Because you guys have like a very high energy set. Is there like a trick that you have for just keeping that fresh and keeping that alive all the time? 

Dennis:  

Coffee? 

Sarah:

Smart.

Matt:

Yeah, coffee, and yeah, I don’t know. Maybe some whiskey from time to time. 

Dennis:

But there is truth in that. We’re not being like silly. But also, it’s sort of like a ball you throw to the audience and it bounces, the energy bounces back to you, you know?

Sarah:

Do you notice a difference between festival crowds and like shows that you’re headlining? Do you notice a difference in the energy there? Is there a different way that you approach that? Or is it all kind of the same? 

Dennis:

It’s all the same. 

Matt:

Same Yeah, no, I think it’s the same. 

Sarah:

And then, obviously, we’re gonna there’s gonna be a bigger crowd today, and it’s gonna be more open. Do you have any dance moves that you feel people should be busting out for a Flogging Molly set? Is there anything you want to look at the crowd?

Dennis:

I’ll describe one.

Matt:

He does the pogo. He demonstrates the pogo on one of our songs. He does it every night, and I’m sure he’ll do it tonight. 

Dennis:

Our music is sometimes – my daughter used to be an Irish step dancer and she’d always say, you guys play too fast for anybody to dance to it. You can’t, but you can pogo! That’s about it. 

Sarah:

If you could describe the Flogging Molly sound, and one word, which I feel is tough, because you guys are like, I haven’t heard anything like the music guys play, and it’s like, so interesting to listen to. There’s lsomething new for my ear all the time,and especially with the lyrics, there’s stories that are there that I find really interesting. But if you could kind of wrap all that up in one word, what do you think he will use?

Dennis:

I was gonna say tough. She already said it. Tough.

Matt:

I like that – I can live with that. I could vote for that. 

Dennis:

So you said it. It’s perfect. 

Sarah:

Oh, perfect. I feel honored. This is so special for me. I’ve got a rapid fire segment that I like to do. I’ll just give you guys a chance to share some of the stuff you’re into right now. So do you have any songs that are on repeat right now or that you’ve had on repeat recently?

Dennis:

I would say Knifeman by The Bronx. Yeah.

Matt:

I would agree with Dennis that’s been going around our noggins. We look forward to that every night. Because we’re on tour with The Bronx for like a month now. 

Sarah:

And then if you have like any recommendations of any smaller artists that you think deserve a little more light or anybody you want to shine some attention on?

Matt and Dennis:

Bandoliers. 

Sarah:

Yeah. And then if you have anyone you’re especially excited to see later today, who do you think you’d be looking for? 

Matt:

I’m looking forward, actually, believe it or not out here, I want to see The Bronx play, and of course, I’m really looking forward to seeing The Cure. We have some other bands that I know of and we’re friends and depending on what time we play and everything I don’t know for sure, but on my schedule. I’m meant to go to The Cure stage and get as close as possible, I think. 

Sarah:

Yeah. Thank you guys for sitting down and talking with me, and I hope you guys have a great rest of Riot Fest!

Matt and Dennis :

Thank you.