Struggles earn rewards for Flogging Molly, headlining tonight at Mandalay Bay

He first came here to see a buddy.

And then he didn't see the sun for half a year.

"I was moving out to L.A., and I stopped to see a friend. That turned into eight months of not seeing daylight," chuckles Dennis Casey, guitarist for high-energy Irish music firecrackers Flogging Molly, reflecting on his brief tenure living here in Vegas some two decades ago.

"I used to work at Vegas World," he continues, referencing the since shuttered casino where the Stratosphere now stands. "I started out as a busboy, and then I got moved up to room service. But it wasn't for me, because I was wanting to go play music for a living, and there were really no clubs here -- we're talking 1990. I wanted to move to L.A. to become a rock 'n' roll guitar player, and there was nothing like that there at the time. But now, there's a lot more happening in Vegas."

Casey's stint here was the beginning of close to a decade of struggling to get by as a working-class musician.

"I know I paid my dues," he notes matter of factly.

And as the Vegas music scene has slowly ascended in terms of gaining national recognition since then, Casey, too, has seen his fortunes improve.

Since Flogging Molly started making the rounds in L.A. in the late '90s and then on the punk-rock centered Warped Tour shortly thereafter, the band has gradually built up such a substantial following that its most recent record, 2008's "Float," debuted in the top five of the Billboard album chart, and when they hit town tonight, they'll be headlining an arena.

It all started with the band's frenzied, sweat-saturated live shows, which pack the power, volume and adrenaline levels of a metal gig, the difference being that the group onstage plays acoustic instruments, at least some of them, reworking Celtic music traditions into something fresh and invigorated.

For Casey, the band's raucous shows are right in line with the original spirit of Irish music, even if it's being reworked in a modern, rock 'n' roll context.

"If you look back into the history of Irish music, like ceilidh dances, people would set up in a pub or someone's living room, and they would have spoons and mandolins and accordions, and it would be a big party and get all rowdy," he says. "People would have beers and there were kids running around. You take that element, and we just bring it into this day and age. And why not put some loud guitars and heavy drums and bass behind it? It just kind of works perfectly."

It's not an unprecedented sound -- The Pogues did something similar long before Flogging Molly, and currently, Boston punks the Dropkick Murphys emphasize their Irish music roots more and more.

But Flogging Molly has developed a broader audience than either of those bands, sizable as they are.

Recently, the band completed work on its fifth record, "Speed of Darkness," which they will release themselves in May, the first time that they are working without a record label, keeping everything in house.

"We went in some different directions," Casey says of the album. "I think the record is our boldest and our most cohesive and satisfying on many different levels."

Speaking of which, Casey sounds wholly satisfied as he speaks, even a little whimsical.

His life has changed a lot since Flogging Molly first got together.

He now travels on a tour bus instead of a van, and his band employs a crew of five.

Success isn't what he thought it would be -- mainly because he never gave it much thought to begin with.

"The experiences I remember the most are when I got to quit my job and go on tour for the first time," Casey says. "We didn't have any level of success then, not near what we have now, but that's so memorable to me.

"That was my dream, right there," he adds. "I didn't want to paint houses any more. I just wanted to tour in a band. And I got to do it."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.