The Inebriated Conscience Of His Race: Shane MacGowan & the Pogues @ the Showbox

"Oi flimsy castle," said Shane MacGowan, 49, a short stovepipe hat on his head. "Frip limpid turtle song." He stopped to survey Showbox SODO's barnlike interior -- people were still filing in from Hooverville across the street. Outside the bar, a phalanx of women formed around a dazed, jelly-kneed girl with a mouth rimed with spew. Then the banjo pluck and chime, the snare-drum skitter, a missing-leg march's rhythm.

One summer evening drunk to hell I sat there nearly lifeless. An old man in the corner sang Where the water lilies grow.

Inside Showbox, the crowd raised their cups and ululated with joy at seeing MacGowan take the stage under his own steam. They adored the shambling walk, the terse, gnomic, between-song utterances. MacGowan pressed into use what was long ago a serviceable baritone. "I am gooooo-ing, I am gooooo-ing," he sang, knotted cords buzzing like a throat-singer's. Streams of beer and whiskey were flowing along the floors. Up in the side bar, women hit puddles and faceplanted, men did awkward splits. "Did ya keep a watch for the dead man's wind? Did ya see the woman with the comb in her hand?" chanted the crowd. A trio of young men with sharply defined haircuts linked hands and grapevined their way toward the front. Another man burrowed forward like a drunken gopher, leaving heads popping up angrily in his wake.

"Calyx forgle snapshot," said MacGowan. "Ember dunk Seattle?" He heaved out a dry, wheezy conniption of a laugh, sounding like that evil little animal on the Laff-Olympics. "Gorgon hoodle Pearl Jam." How old is he, whispered a young woman to her date, who shrugged. "I'm a free born man of the USA!" screamed the crowd when the song came around, hysteria crackling in their voices. Some just wailed out wordless emphasis.

The second encore lasted longer than the first.

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By MvB in Arts & Events on October 18, 2007 10:30 AM

Comments [rss]

dennis23

I bought tickets for the Wednesday 10/17 show and then realized (wot a dummy)that i already acquired tix,plane fare,hotel,car,etc. to Las Vegas and Cirque's Beatles show. since I live near portland,or and work full-time and am 53,i decided to forego seeing Shane for the 4th time and get rested up for flying to vegas sat,seeing the show sun 10/21 and flying back 10/22 and going back to work 10/23.

well, i think i may have made the best choice-the Beatle's-Cirque Soleil show is quite an experience.very,very good,esp w/ certain chemicals on board. i recommend it w/out reserve.

shane,well, i never saw the real pogues,just saw shane and the popes.

it is too depressing for words to see a bunch of 40-50 yr old fat ex-punks out there flopping around,though i may have to swallow and see the Pistols if they makeit to the PacNW on their new tour which opened in london today.(11/9/07)

the last time i saw shane,(2 yrs ago,i think),in the Roseland in pdx,he was drooling and muttering drunken words of wisdom and singing/mumbling songs in that strong N. London accent mixed w/ Martini ("the angel of death" was great). and tom mcanimal(r.i.p.)(electric banjo player sans equal), nearly tore my head off when he kicked a plastic milkcrate into the crowd.

so it sounds like the showbox sodo show was just the same old stupid,unfortunate stuff. with all the puke noted.

as Bono said,"those who glorify Macgowan's drunkeness as a way of brightening their own dull skies (need to take responsibility for their role in fostering shane's demise)"-that's the other reason why i didn't go,i love shane and his music and lyrics too much to take part in watching him make a fool of himself for the 4th time around.

back in the day,there was no better writer of poetry than was shane macgowan esp. republican poetry-the pogues should've been bigger than they were-they had it all and threw it all away,thanks in part,to shane's overindulgences.

i am glad i did not drive up to seattle from portland,get a room near the showbox/fenix,see the show,try to sleep,go back and then go to work and fly to vegas and back all in 5 days,at my age,i would probably be muttering and drooling like shane was!!!!

you kids who are reading this-take better care of your bodies than me and my generation did,that way you can have a longer prime-time to go to your shows and such...just some friendly advice from a broke-down palace dweller...

peace and love, folks!!!!

d23

MvB

@5 -- yeah, see how gently I worked the Pogues in there, just in case? But what do I know about hiphop, in contrast. I was about to correct you that Gatsby's first name was Jay, not MC.

I could not understand a word the man said all night, except for "Seattle" and "Pearl Jam." But I think the paraphrase stands up.

Katelyn

*cough* oh yeah the Pogues. I definitely knew that MacGowan is aka The Pogues. Now, if you'd mentioned MC Gatsby I would have been all over his various affiliations.

Anyway, I think it WAS the streams of whiskey phrase that did it for me. Also "frip limpid turtle song."

MvB

That's funny, Katelyn, I've never thought to compare the Pogues to Tom Waits, but his and MacGowan's voices do both have this wrecked Romantic architecture to them, and they both write songs that take a sharp-eyed look at the people around them. MacGowan's got the Pogues backing him with Celtic tunes, so the end result sounds more like a jig or reel than Waits' stuff. I just checked to see if anyone else had remarked on their affinity and found this actual evidence.

Katelyn

Gorgeous writing. I feel vaguely inebriated, myself, just off the double shot of language here. This guy MacGowan, is he Tom Waits-esque? Or what? Anyway I wish I'd been there. (Or maybe I was there, but I was that girl throwing up outside, and this is a hangover I'm suffering instead of new inebriation.)