Dropkick Murphys brought their St. Patrick’s day tour to Connecticut’s doorstep a week early, stopping at the Mohegan Sun arena Saturday night. It was the best way to celebrate the holiday, being Irish, or Bostonian or just a fan of great kickass punk rock.
To get the crowd in the spirit, Dropkick brought two excellent openers along. Ramshackle Army are making their first U.S. appearances thanks to the boys from Boston. This is the second OZ band that Dropkick Murphys has introduced to America. The sextet from Melbourne included an incredible female fiddler. One of the guitarists also doubles up on mandolin. The band turned out traditional Irish pub music with a sweet little punk chaser. They did a great job of warming up the arriving crowd and invited everyone to meet up with them after their set.
Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls, from England, pumped things up another notch. Turner’s style is a combination of folk and punk. “Four Simple Words”, which he explained was a dance song, started out slow acoustic but half-way through the verse amped up in to a full on mosher. Other songs were storytellers like “Peggy Sang The Blues”. First Turner had to explain that Grandma Peggy had taught him how to play cards and drink whiskey at the age of ten. “The Sons Of Liberty” bears a great message about not surrendering rights and freedoms. The performance of the song was made even better when Scruffy Wallace came out and added his pipes. For another number, Frank brought a random audience member on stage to fill in on harmonica. He later stated that the young lady, Justine, was no the Ella Fitzgerald of the mouth organ. Between Turners great stage banter, the talent of his band and the spirit of the music, by the end of the set the crowd was fully primed.
For someone who has never experienced Dropkick Murphys before, it didn’t take long to understand why they are still around over a decade later, known all over the world and hold a special place in the hearts of Bostonians, especially the Irish and fans of the Celtics, Red Sox and Bruins. These guys come out of the gate full throttle and they do not hold back for a single moment. With the seven regular band members and four additional musicians behind them, Dropkick hit the stage with every stop pulled. Vocalist, Al Barr hammering lyrics into the crowd’s faces while the instrumentalists combined all their musical textures and colors into a tight arrangement that flooded the room.
The theme from their latest album “Going Out In Style” unfortunately almost played out the subject of the song. Coming into the finally chorus, bassist/vocalist Ken Casey stopped the show. A fan, near the front of the pit, had collapsed due to some sort of heart problem. Casey and other mic’ed band members worked with Security and EMS people, keeping the crowd in control and away from the situation. Sadly that included stopping a fight. Everything was resolved quickly and calmly. Later in the set Kenny announced that the patient was doing much better.
Set changes were clever. The backdrop and two side pieces were dropped reminiscent of banners at basketball and hockey games. For their acoustic part of the set, Dropkick, literally, took us to church with large stained glass windows. They payed homage to their beloved Red Sox by playing “Tessie” then to their hometown with “I’m Shipping To Boston”. Other tributes were “Far Away Coast” for the U.S. Military and “Warriers’ Code” to New England Irish boxers. Ken noted that there is a fight coming up at the Boston House Of Blues that will feature Danny O’Connor who Dropkick has teamed up with to revitalize the Irish boxing tradition.
Other information the band shared with the crowd was announcement of the release of the “Live At Fenway” on vinyl in May. Also the band will be performing their entire first album at the Brighton Music Hall. To avoid scalpers they are selling wristbands in local businesses and at the Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade. The last bit of great news was that as soon as Dropkick completes this tour they will be returning to the studio to record their EIGHTH album.
During the encore Kenny did his traditional visit with the crowd during “Kiss Me I’m Shitfaced”. First being moved through the crowd on the floor, he was steered into the bleechers where more fans got to greet him and sing along with him. The band closed the show with their rendition of AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Cheap”.
This reporter, already a bit of a fan of Irish punk rock, came away with a whole new respect for the genre in general and Dropkick Murphys in particular. The amount of talent and dedication embodied by these guys is unbelievable. Most play more than one instrument. All of them sing and sing well together. They are modern day bards, telling the stories of their families, friends and history of their people, Irish-Americans. It’s not always a pretty story either. There were parts of this country that treated the Irish as bad, if not worse than other ethnic groups. The Irish are hard workers who sadly get remembered as hard players too. Dropkick tells all of their stories. In some songs, like “Going Out In Style” they use great Irish wit and others like “Climbing A Chair To Bed” and “Working” are just blood and gumption.
After interviewing Tim Brennan, I paid close attention to each band member and how they fit into the machine that is Dropkick Murphys. Now I completely understand what he said about Matt Kelly’s role as the drummer. He is definitely the heartbeat of the group and his very distinctive style bonds every song together. Scruffy wrangles his pipes into submission or provides the sweet melody of the tin whistle. When Tim is not laying down hot guitar licks, he slings the accordion as if it were weightless, all the time never missing a note. Jeff DaRosa totally throws down on mandolin, banjo and just about anything else available. James Lynch rounds out the other guitar line while Al and Ken bring it together vocally. All are completely connected circuit on stage.
This show definitely put everyone in the St. Patrick’s Day mood and all left upbeat and energized.
For more information on Dropkick Murphys you can visit www.dropkickmurphys.com