Photos and Review by Jeff Lasich
It was supposed to be a warm concert under the stars at Stage AE in Pittsburgh on June 26, 2022, however a threat of serious storms moved the show inside. As soon as a I parked, I got a message that Flogging Molly, the headlining band of this tour, had to cancel tonight’s show due to a covid exposure. While disappointing, it almost made the bands play that much harder. It felt like this day would never come, as my targeted ads on Facebook have been non-stop for this show.
Starting the night off was a reggae/ska punk band from London called The Skints. The primary singer was Marcia Richards who has very smooth vocals. Besides singing, she also play keys and sax for the band. Other members of the band are Joshua Waters Rudge on guitar, Jamie Kyriakides on drums and Jonathan Doyle on bass. I’d assume most of the crowd was hearing them for the first time and they were a great way to start the show.
Next up, were California psychobilly legends, Tiger Army. First time I was supposed to see them was at the Northstar Bar in Philly in March 2002 with The Distillers. For some reason, they didn’t play. So 20 years later I got a chance to see them for the first time. The trio consists of Nick 13 on guitar and primary vocals, Mike Fasano on drums and Djordje Stijepovic on stand up bass. They played songs covering their long career, including “Beyond the Veil”, “FTW”, “Ghostfire” and everyone’s favorite, “Cupid’s Victim”.
Closing out the night was The Interrupters. They hit the stage and started with “Take Back the Power”. I was fortunate enough to see and shoot them this past summer on the Hella Mega tour, so I knew what to expect. The Interrupters seem to be having a genuine good time on stage. They come across as very sincere. Besides that, they are also very tight musically and are just really good. Singer Aimee, has great vocals and spends the entire set singing while smiling from ear to ear. The set also consisted of “She Got Arrested”, “By My Side”, my favorite “On a Turntable” and a little medley of some old Epitaph records bands like The Offspring, Rancid and NOFX. Since Flogging Molly wasn’t able to play, The Interrupters even did a cover of “Float”. The band played for over an hour with the same energy start to finish. They owned the crowd. Several days later, I’m still buzzing over their set.
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