Note: This article originally appeared in Seattle's community music and culture site nadamucho.com.
February 28, 2008
Dropkick Murphys are the greatest band in the world, and I’ll stab anyone who says otherwise.
Lumped in with plenty of great but inferior street punk bands like The Swingin’
Utters, Flogging Molly and The Bouncing Souls, DKM remind me what punk rock
meant before life crushed my delicate spirit.
I was a small town teenage slacker in the early 80’s, and punk promised
me a community and an escape from suburban mediocrity. Punk then broke that
promise, as will any subculture based on teen angst and beer.
After a few years of watching one punk rock dive bar after another become
condos and parking lots, I got bitter. Then one day I heard “Cadence To Arms,”
the opening shot from Do or Die and it all came back to me.
I dove into Oi! and street punk boots first. I gave myself a buzz cut
with clippers over the bathroom sink. I got myself a flight jacket and a pair
of braces. Soon I discovered two things:
30 is too old to become a skinhead, and I didn’t like getting into fights.
Since skinheads spend huge amounts of time being defensive and
punching people who call them racists, then generally turn into rockabilly guys
or football hooligans well before 30, I decided to turn in my membership card
before it got stamped. Still some things stuck with me, and through it all
Dropkick Murphys kept churning out anthems for blue collar guys, unions,
drunks, fat bagpipe players and the Red Sox.
If a DKM song didn’t grab me right off the bat it turned out I wasn’t
hearing it at the right time. Their latest CD, The Meanest of Times, celebrates family, both the blood variety and the other kind that you get to choose. As a theme, it’s thoroughly un-punk.
While I was evolving rapidly in and out of skinhead culture, DKM
were evolving and growing as well. They never stopped celebrating working
class solidarity, loyalty to your friends and general betterment. Since Do or Die their original lead singer Mike McColgan (current Boston
fire fighter and Street Dogs singer) left and was replaced by Al Barr, formerly
of the longtime Oi! band the Bruisers. Bassist/vocalist Ken Casey still sings
like he wants to grab you by the shirt and shake you, while Al sounds like he’d
rather wait and just kill you while you’re waiting for the bus.
Get a job in a dusty, noisy place, work your ass off for a while and on a tired Friday
afternoon on the way home put on “Worker’s Song” really loud, and it will all
make sense.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
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