Dropkick Murphys in front of a sold out Agganis Arena in Boston.
It has always been a goal of mine to attend a Dropkick Murphys concert. Even more so, it’s been a dream of mine to see them in their hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. This past week, I achieved that goal while I was on vacation with my now, fiance.
The boys wrapped up their USA stretch of the 20 year anniversary tour with their annual stretch of shows in Boston. I happened to catch their return to Agganis Arena, home of the Boston College Eagles hockey team on the BCU campus. This show was like none I have ever witnessed before. Being from Michigan, I see Michigan based bands come through all the time with high energy but truthfully, it does not compare to what the city of Boston brings with the Dropkick Murphys return home.
As the lights die down, a video starts playing. Getting the crowd ready for the show, they played this video which had interviews and highlights from the last 20 years of them being a band. The video ends and the crowd goes bananas as the guys walk onto stage and go right into their hit from 2007’s The Meanest of Times, “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya.”
“Citizen C.I.A.” “The Dirty Glass,” and “Out of Our Heads” follow the intro before heading into two of my all time favorite tunes from them. In 2013, they released “Signed and Sealed in Blood” and to me, that is their best album. Off that album, they go into a song that always gets a huge reaction, especially during their Boston shows, with “The Boys are Back” and my personal favorite “Rose Tattoo.” After losing my voice a bit during those two songs alone, I had to tone things down a bit but by no means did the crowd.
Hit after hit, I fully understand why these guys play so many shows in their hometown. Not a single person, sitting or standing on the floor, was still or quiet during their entire performance. I could sit here and name off every song that they played and from which albums, which includes all of them, but I don’t have the time to list and discuss all 25 songs from a very busy evening. I will tell you though, when they played their cover of The Cars “Just What I Needed” I went absolutely nuts. Lead singer Ken Casey through in his own style of vocals into such a classic tune that this ranks in my top 5 of covers ever performed live. The band played a total of six cover songs throughout the night.
To close out the evening, the band heads into their four song encore, starting off with “Shipping up to Boston.” This was not done in a traditional manner as they had a marching band join them onstage to perform this song. Following that beautiful performance, they go into “Kiss Me I’m Shitfaced” off of 2003’s “Blackout” album and “Skinhead on the MBTA” from 1998’s “Do or Die.” Closing out the evening, they finished off with their 6th and final cover of the evening with ‘Having a Party” originally done by Sam Cooke.
Never in a million years did I picture myself in Boston watching the Dropkick Murphys perform. Now that I have, I will never see them in another city again. It was the most fun and energetic performance I have ever witnessed in my 17 years of concert going experiences. If you’re a Dropkick fan, I highly suggest you making the journey to Boston during St. Patricks Day to see this band perform.
