If you went to the Dropkick Murphys gig at the Tabernacle Monday night it felt like it was a Friday night and the party was never going to end. The Dropkick Murphy's played to a full house like they were in a friend's living room and the evening had great energy (aka complete mayhem) from start to finish.
The Dropkick Murphys are touring, not to promote their new album “Signed and Sealed in Blood”, but because it's what they do, and they are great at it! Promoting the album comes as an added benefit. It's a great album but the songs on it are even better live!
From the opening track, "The Boys are Back", a sing-a-long anthem from the latest album to the last encore "Citizen CIA", a hard driving punk number, the Dropkick Murphys played with a genuine energy and enthusiasm that would have been catching except for the fact that the crowd were already infected!
All night, lead singer Al Barr never stopped moving and interacting with everyone in the audience and Ken Casey was just the same. These guys obviously feed off the energy of the crowd. For a little more than an hour and half the band gave everything they had into their performance on stage and the crowd gave it right back to them!
The Dropkick Murphys played a lot of songs from the latest release “Jimmy Collins Wake”, “Rose Tattoo”, “My Hero” were all highlights while “End of the Night” was a perfect number to include in the encore.
But they also played a lot of music from earlier albums including an acoustic version of “Worker’s Song” that allowed the talented Josh Wallace’s bagpipes to carry the tune. “The Warriors Code”, “Barroom Hero” and “Skinhead on the MBTA” along with “Citizen CIA” were the highlights of the harder punk music they played.
In a nod to their Celtic leanings they played the Irish folk song “Wild Rover” early in the set and first made famous by the Dubliners. Later in the evening they played a frenetic version of The Pogues “The Irish Rover” which couldn’t have been done any faster!
The Dropkick Murphy’s biggest commercial hit to date is “Shipping It Up To Boston” a song made famous by its inclusion in the movie “The Departed”. They played the song but did not join in the singing allowing the audience, soccer crowd style, to carry the lyrics.
During the encore some of the audience climbed up on stage to accompany the band as they played several songs including “TNT” AC/DC’s hit. And then after they were all done the band hung around to chat and have photos taken with some fans, pretty classy and pretty rare!
It was a brilliant concert. The Dropkick Murphys play their music one-way only – flat out! Hard driving punk rock with an Irish flair is a great way to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day even if it was a couple of weeks early.
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