Lankum w/ John Francis Flynn 11/8/24 The Warsaw Brooklyn NY

 So, I’m of proud Irish heritage. My father was from Newry, a sleepy border town in the North. My visits over the years have been lovely, packed with history, culture, and breathtaking landscapes. I’m even ok with the Irish basing their entire culinary palette on some dark and foamy liquid dispensed in pint glasses that requires a PhD to pour. What I have a problem with is Irish music. Not U2 or Van Morrison, but the reelery and jiggery that is traditional Irish music. Why then, would I drive to the hipster center of the universe to spend a night standing in a packed club with said hipsters to view Dublin, somewhat traditional, Irish group Lankum? The answer lies in the “somewhat”. Let’s start with opener Flynn. A big fella, Flynn hits the stage armed with a cup of tea, a pint of  Guinness, a drum machine, a guitar, and perhaps the driest wit this side of Stephen Wright. He plows through some originals, Tralee Jail, I Wish I Was in England ( which was definitely not true) while playing his electric guitar. The drum machine sounded hokey, but at 6’6” 280, I wasn’t about to tell him. He even played one tune on Uilleann pipes. Even with his dry delivery and unintelligible accent, he seemed genuinely excited to open for his longtime friends. Lankum takes the stage to a packed house. The group consists of brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch, Radie Peat,  Cormac MacDiarmada, and a mystery woman on drums for the tour. Ian played hurdy gurdy, concertina, pipes, and a small keyboard. Radie played accordion and harmonium. Cormac played fiddle while Daragh was on acoustic guitar. They all sang exquisite harmonies with female Radie being the standout. The song structure leaned traditional with typical Irish themes of drunkenness and suicide. The “somewhat” that I alluded to earlier is the addition of elements of drone and sonic dissonance coaxed from the traditional instruments. This dimension made the traditional modern, much to the delight of the Brooklyn crowd.  The set pulled from their three releases, starting with their signature tune Wild Rover,The New York Trader, Rocky Road to Dublin,  The Pride of Petravore, The Rocks of Palestine( complete with anti-colonialism rant by Ian), The Young People, On A Monday Morning, The Turn, Cold Old Fire, Bear Creek, and closed with the fantastic Go  Dig My Grave. The songs had a similar arc, starting soft and low then crescendoing to a core rattling racket. Like the Pogues who smashed Irish tradition with a punk ethos, Lankum’s mix of tradition with drone and noise creates something exciting and new.