Politics

“This is f—ing high drama here,” frontman Ken Casey noted at the Clearwater, Florida, concert last weekend.

To paraphrase the legendary Jim Croce, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Dropkick Murphys frontman Ken Casey. In particular, you don’t wear a MAGA shirt and hat to a Dropkick Murphys concert.

A fan found that out at the Boston band’s show in Clearwater, Florida, last weekend, as captured on a video the band posted to YouTube and on its social media. Don’t worry, Casey didn’t throw him out, like that Nazi in 2013, or rough him up, like that unruly fan in 2019. Instead, he made a little bet. 

“Would you, in the name of dialogue and discourse — and I appreciate you being here — would you agree to a friendly wager?” Casey asked the fan from the stage. “He says ‘sure,’ that’s a good sport. Well, first of all, do you support American workers? Of course you do, of course you do. OK, and you support American businesses, obviously.

“So I don’t know if you guys are aware, ’cause we don’t go around f—ing bragging about it, but Dropkick Murphys always sells proudly made-in-America merchandise only, and here’s the bet I’d like to make,” Casey said. “If you lose the bet we switch shirts, OK? If you win the bet I give you $100, and the shirt.”

After a check of labels and a drum roll — “this is f—ing high drama here,” Casey noted — the MAGA clothing’s provenance was revealed. 

“Nicaragua! It’s made in Nicaragua!” Casey exclaimed. “He is a good sport, he’s taking the shirt off — we’re taking crime off the streets!”

Casey famously ranted against MAGA during a show in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 2022, saying, “You’re being duped by a bunch of grifters and billionaires,” so we can only imagine what he’s thinking these days. But as he says in the clip uploaded this week, “We don’t care if we lose fans because when history is said and done we want it known that Dropkick Murphys stood with the people, we stood with the workers.”

Fortunately it seems this particular incident had a happy ending. “They were longtime fans who wanted to let us know they disagree with our politics, but they were respectful, and after the concert, the gentleman actually said, ‘Dropkicks are family and I don’t let politics come between family,’ which I was pleasantly surprised by,” Casey told Newsweek after the clip went viral.

The Dropkick Murphys kick off their annual St. Patrick’s Day concerts at MGM Music Hall at Fenway on Friday. You can watch the full exchange below:

Peter Chianca

General Assignment Editor

Peter Chianca, Boston.com’s general assignment editor since 2019, is a longtime news editor, columnist, and music writer in the Greater Boston area.

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