Pop Capsules : Pogues, From Emerald Isle, Leave Their Fans Dancing

Setting banjos, mandolins, accordions and tin whistles jigglin’ ‘n’ jarrin’ up against conventional rock instrumention, the Pogues put a sold-out John Anson Ford Theatre crowd on its feet and kept them there for 90 minutes-plus Saturday night. Lotsa misty-eyed, sing-along activity--even when the Irish/English octet wasn’t rockin’ ‘n’ reelin’ its way through a traditional Celtic folk tune, but rather one of its own rough-hewn updates of the idiom.

Playing with the same fierce energy with which main vocalist Shane MacGowan drank wine and smoked cigarettes, the band replicated the whirling, swirling sound found on its latest album, the generally wonderful “If I Should Fall From Grace With God.”

Along with all the bruised-knuckle anarchy, the Pogues’ original material offers fresh lyrical twists on such subjects as the Irish in London, the Irish in New York and the Irish in Ireland, wherein horse racing, political prisoners and the beauty of the Aulde Sod rest comfortably alongside poverty, male prostitution and police work. The band plays ballads and love songs as well, but mostly they just bring a great, warm, peaty chunk o’ the Emerald Isle on stage with ‘em.