Last December in Yellowknife the temperature fell well below -30 degrees. And still, there was a line that wound out the front door of The Raven and around the block. Flaherty’s Wake, a seven person Irish punk band, was enjoying free pints in the green room of the bar more commonly called The Dirty Bird. Through small window slots the band watched the 100-person line up, approximately a third of the bars already packed capacity. The bar that scarcely charges cover was taking ten dollars a head and in the last decade they haven’t seen such lines.
Just after midnight the band crowded on stage, roughly the size of two dumpsters, with a base, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, penny whistle and drum set. The set kicked off with Flogging Molly’s anthem Drunken Lullabies and the bar manager stepped in as impromptu security as fans flocked the stage.
A band that melds punk and Irish music seems out of place in the Yellowknife snow globe but when the band formed in the summer of 2009 Yellowknifers got a taste of something they liked.
“We liked taking the Irish songs we loved and making them more punk,” says manolin player, Andrew Silke. “Some of us are really into punk, others are metalheads, we all love Irish music, so we all bring a different sound to Flaherty’s Wake.”
Halfway through a cover of Against Me’s Pints of Guinness Plotner dove into the crowd.
“Everyone in the crowd was singing so loud that it drowned out everything. I was in the crowd, surrounded by good friends and tons of others and everyone just kept singing. They were so into it. That’s what it’s all about,” lead vocalist Aaron Plotner explains.
When their set finished Flaherty’s Wake stepped down from The Raven’s stage. They cut through the crowd and retreated to the green room for a pint before rejoining the madness. Behind them a sea of roaring fans were left in their wake until next time.
In downtown Yellowknife is a gutted out two-storey building that serves as the groups jam space. It was last a skuzzy bar and flames in the shape of female silhouettes still adorn the walls.
Downstairs is a maze of couches owned by a furniture store across the street. Upstairs amps and speakers sit on top of pool tables and the bar is used for Flaherty’s Wake’s own beer stash. It’s a fitting jam space for a band that formed after several Guinness soaked conversations.
Their performances are mostly covers of bands like Flogging Molly, The Dropkick Murphy’s and The Mahones but Flaherty’s Wake is also working on original material. Their first original Devil In Her Eye can be listened to on their Facebook page.
Their next scheduled show is a St. Patrick’s Day show tomorrow at The Top Knight in Yellowknife. The show starts at 9:00 but you’ll want to show up a few hours early with your dancing shoes and an appetite for green foam Guinness.
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