Music

On the sold-out first night of its St. Pat’s shows, Dropkick Murphys once again proved that if you can’t beat ’em, go down fighting.

“I dropped the c-word in front of a nun.”

So said frontman Ken Casey on Friday after he had some select, unprintable words for a certain Oval Office occupant as his invitees from the Church were kicking around somewhere in the mezzanine of the MGM Music Hall at Fenway, and the statement captured nearly the full tenor of the Dropkick Murphys’ annual St. Patrick’s jaunt (which barnstorms Boston over the next few days). It painted the band as faithful if rambunctious Catholic boys, unapologetically pugnacious and profane but still fundamentally deferential to tradition. On the sold-out first night of its St. Pat’s shows, the band once again proved that if you can’t beat ’em, go down fighting.

The show started before the show, as an expanded pre-concert playlist that featured Stiff Little Fingers’ “Alternative Ulster,” Billy Bragg’s “There Is Power In A Union” and Sham 69’s “If The Kids Are United” directly before the standard Murphys opener of Sinéad O’Connor and the Chieftains’s “The Foggy Dew” seemed to speak to the current turmoil, as well as to some potential avenues for combating it. Once the band took the stage, they roared, and while the opening “The Lonesome Boatman” had no words proper, the group “Whoa-oh-oh” howl that sat atop the 4/4 kick-drum thump, bagpipes and guitar blare seemed plenty articulate.

As befitting the Union Night label for the kickoff Murphys concert of the season, the band spoke as one, and not just for themselves. The gang vocals on “Worker’s Song,” the careening “Turn Up That Dial,” the unreleased “Who’ll Stand With Us?” and others were the sound of the folks on stage singing with the voice of its audience. (It sounded like either cheering a soccer team to victory or gearing up for a street fight, which only felt right.) Casey also made sure to tip his hat to the working crew down front for keeping things moving and everyone safe, and union member (and Lizzie Borden and the Axes frontwoman) Heather Fahey duetted on the rollicking “The Dirty Glass” while wearing a Sanford Fire t-shirt.

Casey himself prowled the stage with the casual intent of a shop steward rallying a union into action, and his band obliged by charging forward as a fierce unit. The guitars slashed and swung and Tim Brennan’s accordion cascaded on “Smash [Stuff] Up,” and songs like “Boys On The Docks,” “Buried Alive” and “Good As Gold” (complete with records by classic punk and punk-adjacent bands spinning on the big screen) had the breakneck intensity of hardcore. “Which Side Are You On?” was a hard glare peppered with mandolin and Irish whistle and “(F)lannigan’s Ball” was fast and whooshing. And when “Kiss Me I’m [Extremely Drunk]” switched from a woozy sway to a speedy rager, the transition was a series of untelegraphed free-time blasts whose clean synchronization was a testament to how tight the band was.

The Murphys could pull off other textures and modes, though. The slower (but not slow) “Blood” held space between its beats and strums, and the rolling reels of Irish folk gave a bouncing shuffle to a great many songs. Jeff DaRosa’s jaunty piano drove the amiably heavy swing of “Tessie” (complete with Red Sox footage behind), and the zippy, minor-key “Rose Tattoo” stood out by dint of its only guitar being an acoustic, which anchored the rolling, thunderous reel that closed it out. And while Casey’s rough, strained gargle would never have cut it in a production of Carousel for countless reasons, he helped turn “You’ll Never Walk Alone” into a song not just of strength but of defiance.

But the Murphys always returned to what it does best, which was a full-on assault. “The Boys Are Back” took that literally, not just with frenzied acoustic strumming and smoothly-handled tempo shifts (up and down and back again) but with the hockey fights playing on the video screen during the song. And with “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” – where banjo, accordion and whistle took up more sonic real estate than electric guitar and drums – the band closed out the show as they began it, with Casey once again leading the crowd in a “Whoa-oh-oh” chant. This time, the audience sounded just like the band.

With words about the billionaire in the White House and a call to protect trans youth, the Kilograms opened with ska-tinged gravel punk that recalled Rancid at about 70%. The Menzingers followed with an emo-punk fervor, alternating between heart-to-the-sky openness and self-deprecation but always pealing and with a joyous bounce.

Setlist for Dropkick Murphys at MGM Music Hall at Fenway, March 14, 2025

• The Lonesome Boatman (The Fureys cover)
• Boys On The Docks
• The State Of Massachusetts
• Worker’s Song
• Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya
• Blood
• Turn Up That Dial
• The Spicy McHaggis Jig
• Take ‘Em Down
• You’ll Never Walk Alone (Rodgers and Hammerstein cover)
• Buried Alive
• Smash [Stuff] Up
• Who’ll Stand With Us?
• Forever
• Good As Gold
• Walk Away
• Which Side Are You On? (The Almanac Singers)
• God Willing
• The Dirty Glass
• (F)lannigan’s Ball
• Tessie
• Rose Tattoo
• Kiss Me I’m [Extremely Drunk]

ENCORE:

• The Boys Are Back
• I’m Shipping Up To Boston

Marc Hirsh can be reached at [email protected] or on Bluesky @spacecitymarc.bsky.social.

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