"We met in a bar, oddly enough," says Dave King, Dublin-born singer of the Celtic-style punk band Flogging Molly. At the time, King was playing bars with his own band, the sadly named Dave King Thing. He'd grown up singing Irish folk songs with his family in a one-room apartment.

In his early twenties, he relocated to L.A. to front the metal band Fastway. The group, assembled around former Motorhead guitarist Fast Eddie, soured King on the corporate-rock game.

"It started out OK," King says, "but with the success of bands like Def Leppard, people wanted perfect sounds, and I lost interest. When I'm starting to sing vocals five times, I was like, 'Screw this!'

" Flogging Molly -- named for the bar Molly Malone's, where the band members met -- meld the speed of SoCal punk with Irish balladry on their latest album, Drunken Lullabies. The group calls its sound a "Guinness-soaked musical body blow," and based on the violently enthusiastic reaction from crowds at this summer's Warped Tour, Flogging Molly's hangover laments have found a home alongside the emo and pop-punk bands.

"At first, we were worried," King admits. "We got tin whistles and accordions up there. But I was blown away by the response. It made us feel like, 'Jesus, we can play anywhere.' We're used to dark, dingy places, so to play somewhere outside, sunnier than hell . . ." Though, he adds, it does create special problems for a redhead.