Quick Pogues concert report For those who are going later on this weekend.→[More:]

OMG. That was amazing.

The first song they played was "Streams of Whiskey" and they did two encores. I don't remember the rest of the line-up, but they did play a lot of songs off of the "If I Fall From Grace..." album. When they played "Fairytale of New York" (because really, would they NOT?) I was crying as I sang along because I thought of poor Kristy McColl. I was in the middle and somewhat crushed between people, so I couldn't jig very much but I did bounch and hop and shake my tailfeather.

I have to get the rest of the CDs now so I can learn the lyrics to the other songs they played that I don't know yet. My friend who went with me (and went to both the Atlantic City and Boston shows) knew all the lyrics and was singing her heart out.

The sound mix in the theater was awesome. The band sounded amazing. You could hear the tin whistle cavorting under the guitars and lyrics just fine. How in the hell does Shane McGowan sing so well without teeth? He was pretty drunk and unintelligible between songs, which was so cool.

Drinks at the Nokia are insanely expensive. I paid $19 for a Captain and Coke for my friend and a Jamesons and water for me. Get your buzz on before the show, seriously. Coat check is $3. Once you get in, you can't leave but they do have a very small cattle-pen for the smokers upstairs. And then people started smoking during the concert. Hell, even McGowan was smoking on stage. At one point, he had a green and white scarf around his shoulders. What does that mean?

The opening acts were pretty fucking cool, too. I'm a new fan of The Slackers now, mostly because they all wore swing-era type suits on stage and I have a fetish for men in suits. The trombone player isn't conventionally hot, but when they did this cover song about Cupid shooting an arrow (wtf is that song?) he instantly turned hot. The first act was just this guy with a banjo who looked to be in his twenties, but when he sang turned into a 40-year old black man.

My feet are killing me. I had no voice by the end of the concert.

I had a fucking awesome time.