Ahhhh, St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Boston. Everyone magically becomes Irish for 72 hours, Guinness sales skyrocket, the Dropkick Murphys come home, and someone somewhere gets decked in the face and carried out by security. Ladies and Gentlemen of the internet, lend me your ears! As I weave a tale of Doc Martins, scally caps, green beer, and home-grown punk music.
Dropkick Murphys’ annual St. Patrick’s Day Tour made it’s yearly round, making it’s final four stop right back at home in Boston, MA. Now, being the Dropkick Murphys… IN Boston… ON St. Patrick’s Day weekend, you know shit is going to get wild. And ohh walli walli, good golly, miss Molly, did they ever. Let’s dive right in shall we?
First up, Amigo the Devil, the quietest and funniest performance of the night. Funny story to start off. While I was outside waiting to get into the House of Blues, Danny K (a.k.a. Amigo The Devil) walked past me and said “You taking photos tonight? Hell yeah!”
On to the show! Guitar, banjo, serial killers?!
Amigo The Devil walked on stage so nonchalantly when his set started you would’ve thought he was a stagehand or sound guy for the venue. But that’s what I love about him, and I only just met him! Love at first sight maybe?!
When I say “folk music” what do you think of? Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Gordon Lightfoot? Well, Mr. Amigo has the same musical style as those guys, but adds in cocaine benders, marital infidelity, and murder with Ren & Stimpy type humor. He had songs that I was dying laughing at the whole time shooting the set. ‘I Hope Your Husband Dies’ and ‘Cocaine & Abel’ were easily my favorites of his set. Danny addressed the audience multiple times throughout the set to just show his gratitude for everything going on around him, and you could tell he was being 100% genuine.
If you are on the festival circuit at all this summer make sure you check out this man, myth, and legend all rolled in one. He’s playing MoonRunners Festival in Chicago, Epicenter Festival in North Carolina, Welcome To Rockville in Florida, and Impact Fest in Bangor, Maine.
Next up, let’s take a quick trip across the pond to London for the guys in Booze & Glory. Punk music with a fancy accent.
Booze & Glory, quite literally, exploded onto the stage and just ran the show like they owned the place. Having been formed in 2009, these guys have made quite a following for themselves over here in the States. The most entertaining and energetic member of the band was by far their bassist, Chema. This guy had me tired just watching him run back and forth, up and down for the entirety of the set. One thing I do love about the House of Blues here in Boston is the setup of the stage itself. They have this platform that extends the stage further out so that band members can get closer to the audience, without it being intrusive to the crowd itself.
The gentlemen of B&G used this platform extension at almost every opportunity to connect with the audience. Being that I didn’t know any of their music before walking into this show, I had a level playing field for expectations, and now their album, Chapter IV has been on constant loop on my Spotify.
And now the main event! The good ol’ Boston boys, Massachusetts’ own… Dropkick Murphys!! Opening up with a backing track of a traditional Irish for a solid minute and a half to help build crowd excitement and then, well, it’s the Dropkick Murphys… you know what happened. Boston happened!
Kicking off their set with ‘Nutty’ off of their Tessie EP (one of the first CDs I purchased with my own money) so immediately I was hit directly in the nostalgia, I’ve been following this band since 1998, so I knew this is going to be a trip down memory lane.
And as if they were playing a soundtrack to a movie in real time, the bagpipes kicked in for their ‘We’re Home!’ anthem, the classic, ‘The Boys Are Back’. All while Al Burr and Ken Casey are running around the stage like they were back in their 20’s. Ken Casey doing what he always does at all shows, throwing his microphone to an audience member to sing alongside the band powering through a cavalcade of hits ‘Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya’, ‘The Gang’s All Here’, ‘Pipebomb On Lansdowne’, and ‘First Class Loser’.
Then shit hit the fan. Shortly after halfway through a 26 song setlist… booze, rowdy, people and blatant disrespect for crowd members culminated in a fight between bassist/frontman Ken Casey and a clearly overserved audience member because the drunk man in the crowd was throwing elbows at a woman in particular. Casey so this and jumped over the barricade to break the two of them apart due to venue security having a hard time getting to the fight, themselves. Once the fight had been broken up Ken decided to go back and deal with the gentleman again before he was carried out of the venue and Ken Casey emerged back on stage with a bloody face. After Casey cleaned himself up, they flew right back into their set with ‘Skinhead On The MBTA’ and ‘Rose Tattoo’. Closing out the night with two classics. ‘Shipping Out To Boston’ and a cover of my personal favorite AC/DC song,’Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’.
So all in all, Dropkick Murphys are a force to be reckoned with ESPECIALLY in Boston!
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS SMALL