Sweden’s Moneybrother (Grammy award winning artist Anders Wendin) opened up for Flogging Molly at a packed Terminal 5 in New York. When I say packed, I literally mean that I had to fight my way through the crowd. Flogging Molly fans are die hard, and the band is notorious for drawing a large crowd of rowdy drunken hooligans (in the good sense).
I’ve been fortunate enough to photograph a good amount of bands in small venues and big festivals, but this was the first time I’ve had beer thrown at me in the pit just in front of the stage. As soon as Moneybrother took to the stage, a full beer was hurled towards the stage, landing right on my camera and me. It made for an interesting evening of photos with beer caked on my lens, but hopefully this describes the crowd that evening, and some of my photos.
Moneybrother started out with a bang of soul infused music, heavy with piano, guitar and saxophone. One can clearly hear influences of Bruce Springsteen and the Clash, with a little Police style reggae thrown in. I kept waiting for Anders to break into a rendition of “Born to Run.” Here is a man who loves to play 70’s style Rock ‘n’ Roll with a little disco backbeat.
At one point in during the performance Wendin made reference to how much he loved New York. He talked about how he kept counting down the days on tour until he played NYC, and that he was envious of several of his band members who make the city their home.
The band seemed to win over the crowd with songs such as “Down at the R” from 2007’s Mount Pleasure, and most recent single “Born Under a Bad Sign,” from 2009’s Real Control, his first full length album to be released in the US. Moneybrother finished their set with the track “Guess Who’s Gonna Get Some Tonight,” which is in my opinion an excellent way to end the night.
Catch Moneybrother on tour with Flogging Molly through March 19th, hitting up SXSW in Austin on March 16th. His album Real Controlis out now on Bladen County records in the US.
