The Gobshites

THE GOBSHITES- Get Bombed

Perfectly titled, the Gobshites have taken two genres of music known for forcing people to drink (screw responsibility): Irish/Celtic pub music and Punk Rock. Covering punk rock “acousticelticcore” style, The Gobshites have crafted songs in a way you never imagined they would, or could, ever be played. The gang vocals in “I Only Drink Stout” (The Queers' "I Only Drink Bud") will have you aching for a Guinness, while Gang Green’s “Alcohol” will push you over the edge reminiscing of Boston ’s 80’s punk heyday. Ryan Boucher’s manic mandolin ushers in Social Distortion’s “Telling Them,” which is probably the best composed song on the disc, but Pete Depressed slows his vocals down a bit for Screeching Weasel’s “Crying in My Beer.” Two Ramones’ songs are covered: “Questioningly” and “Long Way Back,” with the latter having “ Germany ” replaced with “ Ireland .” Accordion player Stephen Feeney and Pret Woodburn on banjo shine in “Too Drunk to Fuck,” which oddly proceeds the theme park song “Pirate’s Life for Me.” Throughout the cd, drummer Chuck Allen and bassist Rob O’Neill nicely hump the music’s difficult rhythm section, while Betty Widerski nicely wraps it all together with her magnificent fiddle. Of the 13 songs, “It’s Friday” is the only original and its lyrics speak for, I’d guess, 99% of Askew Reviews readers. I can honestly write that this CD is the CD heard coming from my house at midnight every Friday night. As great a CD Get Bombed is, you must see The Gobshites live to fully appreciate their music. This is a good one! – Denis Sheehan - Askew Reviews - askewreviews.com

THE GOBSHITES
Another Round
13-song CD
On their third album The Gobshites plow their familiar turf—Irished-up cover songs by the likes of Stiff Little Fingers, The Damned, The Replacements, The Ramones, assorted locals (Darkbuster et al.), plus “Friggin’ in the Riggin’,” an ancient, profane chantey that was, of course, famously covered by the Sex Pistols. The Irishing-up is most admirably done; banjo, fiddle, pennywhistles, impeccable arrangements, and so forth. All the songs are about wild boys and their wild and boozing ways. In a way, this sort of single-mindedness places the band squarely in the folk camp, whether they care to be there or not; they are the modern-day bardic equivalent of Miss Joan Baez warbling about “Pretty Boy Floyd,” though they don’t sing anywhere as nice. But they sure as hell seem to know what they’re talking about, in the same way that some superannuated blues centenarian with one tooth in his redeye-chugging skull knows exactly what it’s like to chop weevily cotton in the man-killing sun. So although The Gobshites may run the gamut from A (alcohol) to B (beer), they still get the top grade for authentic Irish all-out orneryness. (Francis DiMenno)

- The Noise, Boston MA

Gobshites, Prodigals, Icewagon Flu Rock Our Party!
Friday, December 28, 2007 - Source: Mike Farragher

Pete Depressed is anything but. The lead singer of the Gobshites is a jolly looking, frantic soul in search of a good time, and the good times always seem to follow this Boston band. Fans of their acoustic punk mix are rabid; a bus load of them braved hellacious weather to make it down to the CelticLounge Christmas party last week at Connolly's and they will be joining us again as we team up with the Irish Rock Fest on January 5 at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ.

The Prodigals and Icewagon Flu round out this killer bill, and they should complement the Gobshites Celtic party vibe quite nicely! I caught up with Pete Depressed during the Christmas party to ask him about all things Gobshite. Here's how it went:

How would you describe the Gobshites to someone who has never heard the
band?

Picture Johnny Ramone joining The Pogues but playing acoustic guitar
in the same style that he played his Mosrite. That's The Gobshites
in a nutshell for you. I wanted the same wall of sound but with all
acoustic instruments. So instead of one guitar and a wall of Marshall
amps, we do it with accordion, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, tin
whistle, bass and drums. You might think of us like The Pogues...backwards....they would take Irish songs and Punk them up...we often take old Punk Songs like Six Pack by Black Flag and turn it into an Irish sing-a-long!

It doesn’t appear on the surface that those elements would mix, but they do!

I think Punk Rock and Folk music are pretty much the same thing with a similar attitude. I have a series of shows I put together in Boston called
pUnKs aRe FoLkS tOo! where punk singers play acoustic and in the
round.So we just keep blurring the lines. Someday, folks will be singing
The Ramones’ “Somebody Put Something in My Drink” and think it might
have been an old Dubliners number.

What are your influences?

The obvious ones are The Pogues and Ramones but I've gotten inspired by cds like John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow, Elvis Costello’s King Of America, and Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.

How did you get your start?

Well, when a man and a woman love each other they make love...and if
they are blessed...9 months later a beautiful baby is born!I'd been playing in a punk band called Meat Depressed when I told Larry Kirwan from Black 47 that I was starting an Irish band. I showed him the logo that John Holmstrom from Punk Magazine had drawn for me and he booked us open for Black 47 in Boston. The only problem was that I didn't have a band yet...I was just putting the ideas together. So I asked some guys who had played in MD in the past to do the show. We did a few trad songs, an original and a bunch of punk rock songs about drinking turned into Irish songs. If I didn't have to rush to get that
show together we might have sounded completely different! Larry dubbed us The Gobshites and the name stuck.

Lots of drinking references on your original songs and your covers.
Explain...

We just want to have a good time. It's a party whenever we show up.
We're the Jimmy Buffets of Irish music. It's a whole drinking
culture...but we're more of the bar hopping than Island hopping
crowd...and we don't need no stinking parrots! You can't help but
drink along to a Gobshites CD.

Many of your songs deal with the three Ds: drunk, drinking, and the
DTs...wow! Are you looking to branch out on your next disc? Perhaps espouse
the benefits of coke and heroin?

No...we are very anti drug...well...birth control pills and viagra
come in handy....but other than that we like to stick to the basics.
Beer, beer, beer and whiskey. The three CDs we have out now are mostly
punk rock covers.

Your fans seem like an extremely fun bunch! What kind of community have you
built up around the band?

It's very cult like. The women are only allowed to sleep with me. They
must bring ceremonial Guinness to the front of the stage and offer it
up to us. They wear their Gobshites t-shirts all the time. Truthfully,
they are a great bunch of folks...carpooling, offering places for each
other to stay for out of town shows...buying rounds for each other and
us. Hell, if I wasn't me, I'd be a fan of us, just so I can hang out
with them.

The Gobshites can be found on www.gobshites.com. They will join The Prodigals and Icewagon Flu as CelticLounge presents the Irish Rock Fest on January 5 at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. For more information, log onto www.irishrockfest.com. - Celtic Lounge News

The Gobshites: When the Shite Hits the Fans

I've often asked myself, or someone like me, "Gee, I wonder what you'd get if a bunch of drunken Irish yobs — musicians, that is — all got together and decided to cover hardcore punk rock tunes about their favorite subject: drinking!?" Well, before I could get a decent answer from myself, the Gobshites beat me to it with their debut CD. It's the sound of a fun-lovin' bunch of drinking buddies kicking up their heels and revving through a kegger of hearty ale.

Don't believe me? Well, the 'Shites dig into tunes like Stiff Little Fingers' "Drinkin' Again," Black Flag's "Six Pack," and GG Allin's "Drink Fight and Fuck." Hell knows there's enough punk rock drinkin' songs for the lads to choose from. Shane MacGowan and the Mekons weren't even touched this time through . . . Over the years, Irish-oriented bands — Black 47, Flogging Molly, et at. — have provided us with some serious good-time fun from the stage, and the Gobshites take their rightful place on that illustrious list. Led by occasional punk rocker Pete Walsh (Meat Depressed) on vox, guitar, and pennywhistle, and flanked by fiddle, accordion, mandolin, banjo, drums, and bass, the band never loses its head, never turns the songs into a bloody mess. Each instrument is given a little room to breathe. My only gripe is that it doesn't really do their rollicking live shows the kind of justice they deserve. But, realistically, would that ever be possible when sights and smells are still a long way away from showing up on CD? Bob Gulla - Providence Phoenix
- The Providence (RI) Phoenix

THE GOBSHITES
Good Cop/Bad Cop Records
When The Shite Hits The Fans
18 songs

Some hard-drinking, proudly ethnic, otherwise sensible people will likely find this Clash-meets-Celtic-with-a-hard-K take on booze-themed music enormously ingratiating if not downright irresistible; the arrangements and musicianship are impeccable, even a dyed-in-the-wool ethnomusicologist would be obliged to acknowledge their intrinsic authenticity. My reservations are almost entirely due to the dumbed-down banalities of the songs they choose to cover. Even when they're not shilling for booze they're maudlin, as on "Some Hearts." Okay, so everything's spoofy and lighthearted; seldom abrasive or offensive (the rap song is pretty intolerable though); still... this is a case of a world-view pissing me off: these Gobshites promote a cartoony universe where cultural contradiction is reduced to beer vs. whiskey; where social status depends on alcoholic stamina; where social control is exerted through conformity to an unproductive and ultimately degenerate lifestyle. Okay, so they hint more than once it's all just a persona, basically crowd-pleasing shtick, as on their covers of "Friggin' in the Riggin" and GG Allin's "Drink Fight and Fuck." Okay, they could be singing the bloody Communist Manifesto and who'd give a shit but me? The music's fucking brilliant---isn't that all that matters? (Actually, no---but let it go...) (Francis DiMenno)
- The Noise, Boston MA

The Gobshites:
Playing Punk The Irish Way

By Jim McGrath

What would have happened if Johnny Ramone had played in The Pogues? According to Pete Depressed, you’d end up with The Gobshites. While bands like Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys are bringing Irish musical influences to punk, these guys are going in the opposite direction, packing a trad-infused punch into covers of The Ramones and other favorites. Pete has taken his beer-drenched brigade to Paddy O’s for a Sunday night residency, and we figured now would be a good time for readers to meet one of the best live acts playing in town right now.

Pete, who was born in Dorchester, has always had a close connection to the punk scene. “I met the Ramones when I was in high school,” he says. “They kind of adopted me. They’d put me on their guest list when they were in town so I could make it to the shows.” Like many fans, Pete ended up picking up a guitar and playing in bands. One group, the poppier Meat Depressed, even had a local hit, the sports anthem “Here We Go Patriots!”

Fate, and a funny drawing, brought The Gobshites into this world. Pete asked his friend John Holmstrom, the cartoonist and co-founder of the legendary Punk magazine, to draw him a picture of a leprechaun holding up the middle finger. When the artwork arrived, Pete showed it to another friend: Larry Kirwan, frontman for Black 47. “I happened to be seeing Larry when he was in town for a gig, and the next thing I know, he booked me for an opening spot!” Unfortunately Pete didn’t have a band to go along with the logo, but he quickly gathered some troops, and thus The Gobshites were born.

The Gobshites play their acoustic instruments until they buckle under the weight of the speed and volume that punk music is best known for. Not everyone is appreciative, according to Pete: “Our accordion player’s repair guy just yelled at us. He said ‘Don’t you guys use amplifiers? You don’t have to play that loud!’”
Pete is more concerned with his vision of the band than with the nay-sayers who think they’re too aggressive or vulgar. “I’m just gonna do what I want to do,” he says. “We really don’t care if we fit in or not.” The band has won over festival crowds and traditionalists alike, and they’ve even had Irish musicians sit in for occasional sets. “We win people over. I love being put in front of people who don’t know us.”

Pete’s also aware that some Irish may be concerned about how The Gobshites represent the culture, but his integrity keeps the band honest. “No fake accents, no kilts,” he jokes. “One time we played the RiRa pub in Burlington, and the [Irish] staff stuck around for our set. They wanted to make sure we didn’t embarrass them.” Needless to say, the band left a good impression.

The Gobshites have put out three full-length records, mostly made up of punk rock covers, and the band is currently working on an album of original material, tentatively titled Songs Me Da Got Pissed To. “We always try to be a little funny,” Pete notes, which is not too shocking when you run into song titles like “The Tale Of The Incredible Hangover” and “Trouble With Women” (“The only song not about drinking,” Pete cracks).

I had the pleasure of seeing Pete and the boys a few years back at The Littlest Bar, and they had even the hardest-looking guys at the bar singing along with them by the end of the night. They’ve been getting raves for their Paddy O’s residency from trad and punk fans alike, so make sure you make your way out on an upcoming Sunday night. As their website puts it, they really do “take Irish music and give it a firm twist!”

The Gobshites play Paddy O’s (33 Union St., Boston) Sundays starting at 9pm. For more information on the band, visit www.Gobshites.com. - The Irish Emigrant, Boston MA

THE GOBSHITES - When the Shite Hits the Fans ( www.gobshites.com )

"FECK OFF OR BUY ME A BEER" - That's the motto printed on the back of their t-shirts and the prevailing attitude of Boston based band the Gobshites. Started as a side project by gracefully aging punk rocker Pete Walsh, a.k.a. Pete Depressed, the Gobshites mix the drunken punk sensibility of Pete's other band, Meat Depressed, with traditional Irish musical stylings to form an utterly unique and outrageously fun new genre which they've dubbed acousticelticore.

On their first release on Goodcop/Badcop Records the Gobshites augment the punk rock essentials of guitar, bass and drums with banjo, fiddle, pennywhistle, mandolin, accordian and even bagpipes to put a distinctly Irish spin on some exceedingly obscure punk gems from both sides of the Atlantic. And when it comes to mining punk gold Pete definitely knows his shite. This eclectic collection of beer soaked ditties and raucous singalongs kicks off with "Hurry Up Harry" by punk legends Sham 69 and segues into "Let's Get Drunk" by the U.K. Subs, a song that sums up the Gobshites mood about as well as their logo, a leprechaun flipping the bird that was drawn by John Holmstrom of PUNK magazine.

Some of the covers of more well known punk icons include "Drinking Again" by Stiff Little Fingers, "Some Hearts", a tender ballad by Johnny Thunders, and its polar opposite, "Drink Fight & Fuck" by G.G. Allin. A couple of the more obscure British covers include "Arsehole" by Snuff and "Guinness Boys", an ode to the black nectar of the beer gods originally done by the Business as a soccer hooligan anthem. Sex Pistols, Ramones and Black Flag are well represented with a fittingly faithful version of the Pistols take on "Friggin' in the Riggin'", a re-work of "It's a Long Way Back" and a version of "6 Pack" that is, in a word, Brilliant!

In a nod to their heritage they include "Irish" by Boston's own punk legends Darkbuster. Since they were formed as a side project they pay homage to the tradition with a cover of Dee Dee King's punk rap song "2 Much 2 Drink" and a pair of songs by the Yobs, a Christmas project by Brit punk band the Boys, that includes "Christmas Eve in the Boozer" and will have you singing out loud "Whoops I've done a liquid fart". The notion of a side project comes full circle with an Irish tinged remake of Meat Depressed's "Cheers (Raise a Pint)".

This is one of the catchiest, most listenable discs i've heard in a long time and their 7 piece live show is one hell of a drunken good time so check the dates on their site, go to a show and get roaring pissed. - Lou Costa - Askew Reviews

"What The Shite" - Shite'n'Onions Volume II

What can I say really? Unless you're dead, there's no real reason not to own this compilation... S'n'O II contains some of the best up and coming Celt-Punk (Or whatever) bands out there. Some of them you may know, and some of them you probably won't. Containing 20 tracks from 18 of the best bands of the "genre" What The Shite is pretty much the ultimate mix tape ever. I seriously haven't been able to finish any other reviews because this bad boy won't leave my CD player. (Trust me, that IS saying something.) To say the least, I was surprised (and proud) when S'n'O Volume I came out. Ol' Murph certianly had an ace card up his sleeve for that one. Shite'n'Onions Volume II is even better! An effin' royal flush, folks!
[...]
12. The Gobshites - "Cheers" Do me a favor... get this album, go down to your local public house press the play button, grab a pint, hold it high, & cheer your mates. The Gobshites are playing, & good times are here!
- Barnacle Brian/ The Scallywag Show

The Gobshites Live at Kennedy's Pub, Boston, MA

Friday Night - February 16th, 2007

I was visiting Boston for the weekend so I was pleased to discover that local Paddy Punk band, The Gobshites , were playing the night of my arrival. The first thing that impressed me about Boston, after having not visited for a few years, was a giant digital billboard proclaiming in flashing green neon DROPKICK MURPHYS Sold Out , the first thing I saw while entering the city....Likewise, while driving out of the city, upon departure, there was a huge billboard announcing The Wolfe Tones show in Boston on St Patrick's Day....Even if some New York neighborhoods like Woodside, Queens, Woodlawn in the Bronx, or Mac Lean Avenue in Yonkers, may have a larger Irish exile community, no one can deny that Boston has a strong Irish presence and its unlikely that you will see a huge billboard announcing any Irish Rebel or Paddy Punk band while driving into New York...

We rolled into Kennedy's Pub a block away from the Orpheum Theatre (whose headliner marquee announced the event of St. Paddy's Day - The Pogues ) and despite the small turn out (possibly due to the blistering cold) - I really enjoyed The Gobshites, a band whose only aim and motivation is to drink to excess and play some rowdy and boisterous Drunken Paddy Punk Rock. Not your typical "Drunken Paddy Punk" outfit, despite the fact that most of the members, a banjo player (Pret Woodburn), a mandolin player (Ryan Boucher), accordion player (Stephen Feeney), bassist (Rob O'Neill), drummer (Chuck Allen), lead vocalist and guitarist (Pete Depressed), all look like drunken frat boys on a 5 day Pub crawl sprawl, they are complimented with a brilliant fiddler, Betty Widerski, who looks like the band's mother, but has the moxie to play and tour with the lads - who can't give this woman a lot of credit for being able to party and play with this drunken band of rogues?

If truth be told, you can't find a funner - pure craic Paddy Punk band in the Western hemisphere who can probably drink the entire Glasgow Celtic Supporters Drinking Club under the table ;-)

They began the night with a great cover of Sham 69's "Hurry Up Harry", and then played "Let's Get Drunk", Stiff Little Fingers classic "Drinking Again", "Six Pack" by Black Flag (their Irish fiddle, banjo and mandolin version really kicks royal arse),"2 Much 2 Drink" (which is a Rap/Rock rendition of Dee Dee King's original), then they slurred and stumbled into a great cover of Johnny Thunders "Some Hearts", "Guinness Boys", "Pick Me Up", and a brilliant rendition of the Yobs "The Ballad of the Warrington", a cover of "It's A Long Way Back" by the Ramones (this band is so Punk Rock that not only do they do a great Ramones cover but Pete Depressed - head alcoholic and rabble rouser - wore a Ramones t-shirt proudly, and in fact, none other than Tommy Ramone collaborated and jammed live with The Gobshites in the recent past), and their own originals such as "Cheers (Raise A Pint)", "I Only Drink Stout", and "Shane's Dentist" (which will be on their soon to be released second album "Another Round") about none other than Shane MacGowan, a tribute to the legendary Godfather of Paddy Punk, teeth or no teeth - you can't find a more essential founder of all that defines true Paddy Punk than Shane MacGowan himself. Proving that The Gobshites know their roots, at this kick arse gig they performed a quantity of Pogues and Shane MacGowan classics such as "Streams of Whiskey", "Dirty Old Town", "Nancy Whiskey" and "That Woman's Got Me Drinking", and old Irish traditional ballad "The Fields of Athenry"....

Over all, you will never regret catching The Gobshites live - if you are destined for an evening of pure craic and drunken debauchery, The Gobshites are the only solution to second that alcoholic motion..... - Radio Rebel Gael

The Gobshites

by John Hess

The Gobshites are:
Peter—guitar and vocals
Betty—fiddle
Chuck—drums
Pret—banjo
Rob—bass
Steve—accordion
Ryan—mandolin

As we’re in the midst of another miserable winter, the thought of spring is on everyone’s minds. The first event to kick off spring is always St. Patrick’s Day. And the best way to kick off St. Paddy’s Day is to venture off to see The Gobshites, who are making a point of celebrating St. Paddy’s Day 365 days a year. They are a great seven-piece acoustic band (with the exception of electric bass) that you could imagine playing an open sessun for musicians in Cork, or a ceili for dancing in Shannon. I’m at the British Beer Company in Walpole with head Gobshite Peter Walsh to discus music over a few pints of Ireland’s best.

Noise: So Peter, anything new in world of The Gobshites?

Peter:We just finished recording the second record, Another Round, and we also went back and added a few things to the first record because it was kind of a quick mix. Huck Bennett came in and remixed it. Billy Novick added tin whistle to both records and Ryan added some baritone mandolin, so that we didn’t need to go over all the original mandolin tracks. The baritone mandolin fit in around where the guitar is. It sounded real nice, especially where some of the choruses were thin. It filled them up.

We’ll have both CDs ready before St. Patrick’s Day. Once again it’s a bunch of rock songs done as traditional Irish pub songs. They’re all about drinking, turned around into Irish drinking songs, a bunch of pub sing-alongs. My goal is to get some of the traditional Irish bands doing these songs, because they won’t realize that they are old punk rock songs. You know, they’ll do them by mistake and have them become part of the tradition because they work that way—and its fun.

Noise: Do you guys have a full-time tin whistle player now?

Peter:No, we’re still looking for one.

Noise: As far shows are concerned, where are the tentacles of The Gobshites reaching these days?

Peter:We’re mostly playing in New England. We’re in Burlington, Vermont next week; we’re leaving for Georgia soon. We play in New York every so often. We’re just starting to get out a bit further, but it’s tough—everyone has jobs and obligations, just like everyone else. You have to pick when and where carefully. Everything we do will be a quick weekend thing. We can get out for a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and be back for everyone to crawl into work again on Monday. We’re going to drive to Georgia for a weekend, which means we can make it just about anywhere. We’ll just drive all night.

Noise: Tell me about the “Rockin’ the Catskills” shows you’ve been doing.

Peter:We’ve been playing at the Blackthorne in East Durham, New York. It’s great. It’s in the Irish Catskills. You go up there and it’s like stepping into Dirty Dancing. Nothing has changed. It’s a family owned place. They’ve got their 14-year-old son who works there cleaning up, and every night before dinner, he plays the bagpipes. They have two stages, so that when one band stops playing the next can start. And this goes on until 4:00 am.

Noise: What can we expect to see on the new record?

Peter:It’s a good mix of punk rock. There is a Stiff Little Fingers’ tune, “Too Drunk to Fuck” by the Dead Kennedys is on there, “Beer Song” from The Independent. “I Only Drink Stout,” which our version of “I Only Drink Bud” by The Queers, might not go on this record, but it will get on the Queers tribute that’s coming out soon. We haven’t decided on the final track listing yet. We also covered “I Can’t Drink Here No More” by The McGunks. I told Lenny Lashley that we’re going to put Darkbuster’s “Liquor” on the record and release it before he does. He said, “That’s okay, you do it better than us anyway.”

We also had to re-record two songs from the first record because the files were damaged. We redid “Long Way Back to Ireland,” and “Friggin’ in the Riggin’.” In the whole process of redoing it, we sent the files to Tommy Ramone, and he’s going to sing harmonies on it. We’ve played a couple of show with his band. It’s a punk thing like the Punks Are Folks shows that we do. He’ll be playing the next one of those, and I’ll miss it because I’m double booked, and have to get to the Bullfinch Yacht Club right after I play.

Noise: What plans are in the future?

Peter: We plan on starting the third record, the last part of the punk rock trilogy, in late April or May. Then we are going to start an original record. We’re going to do more traditional sounding stuff like The Clancy Brothers and The Dubliners. I have managed to put one original song on each of the records. But seeing as they are cover records, I cover my own songs by doing Meat Depressed tunes. We’re not in any real hurry, but we hope to have an original Gobshites record out in a year. We’re having fun with the stuff we’re doing.

Noise: Has getting on some of the more high profile shows, such as opening for Gaelic Storm opened any doors for you?

Peter: Only a little bit from that show, but the Black 47 shows really helped us out. Their fans treat us great, and we’ve gotten many new fans as a result. Myspace has really helped out quite a bit, too, with people buying CDs, and going to our shows. The Tossers were also a lot of fun to play with. We had a great time playing with them—I am actually a huge fan. When you get a few bands that are different, but fun, you’ll have a great night. Like when we play with Sasquatch and the Sick-a-billies and The World’s Greatest Sinners. Those are fun nights. It’s not all exactly the same kind of music, which makes it fun. It’s like when I try and mix it up putting punk rock shows together.

Noise: Good party rock, or party music?

Peter: Yeah. It just makes it more enjoyable so that people will want to hang around. I hate that concept of just going to a show that people go to just to watch their friend’s band, and then leave. I’ve never been a fan of that. I don’t like it.

Noise: Just like when clubs stack a night with four bands that can draw well individually, but the rest of the week is completely unknown bands—as opposed to getting one or two bands with a good draw, and adding one or two lesser-known bands that can rock the house. That way you could put together more nights that are lot of fun for the people that are paying the cover and liquor prices.

Peter:Oh absolutely. I think it would be great if touring bands that are bringing along an opener would put the local band in the middle of the two national bands. That way it would be like when they try a new TV show. They always put the new show between the two proven sellers. I know it’s not the touring bands job to build a scene, but they already sold the tickets. What difference would it make?

Noise: It would be smart of the record companies to do something like that. Especially when they are always crying poormouth, and their sales are decreasing. They do nothing to get new talent in front of people.

Peter: It would also be smart of the venues to do this. If there are no touring bands to keep the schedule full, you would have some local bands that have gotten exposure playing with these bands. Radio should be doing the same thing. Why aren’t they playing and exposing local acts?

Noise: [Our conversation got out of hand here, and I decided it would best not be printed.]

Peter: I was thinking the other day about how people derive their points of reference. It used to be that we would get compared to The Pogues. Now kids are saying we sound like the Dropkick Murphys…with The Dubliners. It funny, how do they not know that thing right in the middle there? I guess it’s how they are brought up, and what they know. Unfortunately there is a whole audience that didn’t experience The Pogues. One time down in Providence, when their second record was still an import, I walked into a men’s room, and there’s Shane McGowan. He’s got a drink on one side of the urinal, another one on the other side, and one in his teeth—as he’s taking a leak. I guess he didn’t want to be far from a drink.

I also think about how we’re described and what our influences are. Obviously, The Pogues are a really huge influence. The Ramones are still an influence, because if I’m playing guitar, it’s going to sound like that. Elvis Costello’s King of America is a huge influence. I thought John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow was America’s version of The Pogues when that record came out. I also love Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s. I guess that’s why I like the covers so much. It’s great when you see the look on someone’s face as they are saying, “I can believe they are doing that song.” Under no circumstance did they expect it. We’ve even had elderly people at show by CDs from us. I’d be introducing a song, and they’d still be pumping their fists to “Drink, Fight, and Fuck.” It’s such a good time.

Noise: Are you going to be on TV?

Peter:We just did this thing for Foxboro cable. It was great. Every band should do something like this. One, because it’s free, and two, if you’re surfing channels and you see a band playing, you’re going to stop and watch it. Maybe you’ll like it. I know both Foxboro and Plymouth do it, and they have got really great gear to use. We went in and set it up like a fifties sitcom stage, with a bar on onside trying to create a pub atmosphere, and it was cheesy. We also moved around all their talk show stuff. It came out great. We did two sets, and we’ll get to use the stuff.

Noise:It sounds like The Gobshites are still working their tails off while maintaining jobs, families and lives. To get information regarding shows, events, and merchandise go to www.gobshites.com/ or www.myspace.com/gobshites. - The Noise, Boston MA