After 23 years and 10 albums, Irish punk rock band The Mahones are showing no sign of slowing down.
The venerable rockers, who have played Canmore and Banff numerous times, are coming once again for a show on Sunday (Jan. 20) at Wild Bill’s in Banff.
“I’ve played at Canmore a lot over the last couple of decades, at the Drake Hotel and the other place down there at the end of the street,” said Finny McConnell, the band’s ringleader, in an interview with the Outlook.
“And then I’ve played in Banff at Wild Bill’s and the Rose & Crown – I know those stomping grounds, they’re a lot of fun, and people sure do have a good time down there,” he said. “This time we just released a new album – Angels and Devils – so we’re doing a full Canadian tour with a lot of cities.
“When we do a full tour I love stopping in the mountains, I love that area.”
McConnell recalled many fun experiences from playing the region.
“The last time we played in Banff was at the Rose, and that was a lot of fun, and the time before that we brought The Popes – they’re a band from England – so that was pretty wild,” he said. “They’d never seen anything like it, so having all these English guys in the Rocky Mountains, they’re like ‘Holy sh--, check this out!’ and it was a lot of fun.”
The new album was recorded in Montreal last summer, and has garnered critical acclaim, among other recent success for the band.
“We just won the awards for Best Irish Punk Album with the ezines that run the scene, and last year we won at the Independent Music Awards in the same category as Tom Waits, Tori Amos and Ozzy, so it was a really good award,” explained McConnell. “And then we were in the movie The Fighter, which won at the Oscars, so we thought we ought to get right back at it and make another record.
“When your last album won the awards, you don’t want to go on holiday, you want to follow it up right away.”
With this new album, the band’s sound has progressed with an emphasis on becoming bigger than anything they’ve done in the past.
“This time we had special guests, some of my friends and heroes, like Ken Murphy from Dropkick Murphys and Jake Burns with Stiff Little Fingers, we had Greg Keelor from Blue Rodeo sing, and the United Steel Workers of Montreal,” said McConnell. “It’s all full of fun and adventure on this album, 13 tracks, one slow song, it’s a really rockin’ album.
“It’s evolving all the time and it’s getting bigger and bigger. When I started playing in the ’80s, I moved to London to study rock ‘n’ roll, then came back in 1990 to start The Mahones, and now the sound has evolved back into Irish punk, with a lot of emphasis on the punk side, and we’re now at where I always wanted to get, it’s exactly where I like it.”
This style, of Celtic and Irish traditional music combined with modern punk rock, is something The Mahones have pioneered, said McConnell.
“It is for sure it’s own genre now. People have been calling us pioneers of the music, because we were the first to go into it,” he said. “The Irish folk scene has been around for hundreds of years, and punk’s only been here for about 25, and it’s huge all over the world.
“It’s so big now, Paddy Rock has its own fashion, and it’s a big scene. My favourites are the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. We were the early guys in the scene, but there are so many bands in the scene now, I’m lucky if I know 10 per cent of the bands.”
After this Canadian tour, the band shows no signs of slowing down, and instead will head overseas to play Europe.
“We did 30 countries around the world last year and after this Canadian tour we head over to Moscow to start the tour there, then head to Prague and down to Spain,” said McConnell. “It’s tiring, but it’s my passion, it’s what I love to do
“I don’t see myself ever retiring. when you play Irish music, there’s no age limit, you can sit in a chair and play with a big white beard and look good.”
While the band has had a few lineup changes over the years, its newest member is McConnell’s wife, Katie “Kaboom” McConnell.
“She was working for Astra Media in Toronto and I was touring a lot with the band and we weren’t able to see a lot of each other, so I suggested she come and manage the band,” said McConnell. “She agreed to give it a try, and then I was on the final tour before she came out, and I needed an accordion player, and I told Katie to go into my studio in Toronto and try to play the accordion, because she knew piano.
“When I got home from tour, she knew the whole set list I had sent her. So we brought her out on tour and within three months she had a worldwide endorsement from Roland Accordions.
Now everyone loves the Kaboom, said McConnell.
She took off real fast, she plays like no other, she’s all over the stage, she’s a natural – she’s my favourite member of the band – not just because she’s my wife, she just rocks.”
