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It’s virtually 11 p.m. on Halloween in Los Angeles, the openers are executed, and there’s a rigidity within the air, this electrical hum: Is he going to make it? Is he even on this metropolis? No person actually is aware of. You have a look at the roadies for clues—first to determine in case your ticket was value shopping for, then to determine if the person you got here to see is definitely alive. This isn’t theater, some communion between performer and viewers; it’s authentic anxiousness. Center-aged Irishmen, Londoners, and Boston transplants are all nervously chatting about it. This ticket is—uniquely, even inside rock music—a bet. The sitter, the parking storage, the nine-dollar beers—it’s all a cube roll. It might all be for nothing.
The lights dim. The home music comes on: “Straight to Hell,” by The Conflict. The gang begins optimistically stomping to the beat. The band emerges, in full mariachi costume, which doesn’t cease them from trying like (sorry, however they did) undead pirates. Presumably probably the most grizzled band to ever exist. Deep breath. Is it actually gonna occur?
And all of a sudden, there he’s, frivolously swaying to middle stage. He’s carrying a sombrero and a bathrobe, lit cigarette in a single hand and a glass of bourbon within the different. Not that he’s making an attempt or cares, however he doesn’t look good. He seems to be like he’s off his ass, yeah—however extra importantly, he seems to be sick. Is that this gonna work? Am I complicit in one thing?
Then he barrels into “Streams of Whiskey” along with his full-throated roar, as highly effective as ever, and the group pops like a balloon. The strain’s gone. It is a Pogues present, and Shane MacGowan is singing. The Ramones are gone. Joe Strummer’s gone. But Shane MacGowan is right here, verifiably alive. And he kills.
It was my first live performance. I satisfied my mother to drive me and my brothers to L.A. as a result of it was a cultural emergency. There’s no means Shane MacGowan, one of many nice Irish songwriters, will see one other yr.
That was 16 years in the past.
Shane MacGowan died this previous Thursday, in Dublin, following a protracted sickness. So many jokes about him, for many years, that he was about to die. And he stubbornly outlived your complete bit. The e-book Is Shane MacGowan Nonetheless Alive? was revealed within the yr 2000. The subsequent yr, the Pogues received again collectively and toured till 2014. In his means, he proved everyone unsuitable. Perhaps furiously gossiping about an artist’s well being isn’t the easiest way to speak about an artist.
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