Monday night the Showbox Sodo was where the hip people were hanging out. After three plus years Boston’s legendary Celtic punks The Dropkick Murphys finally returned to Seattle. This crowd was ready for them and proved that the Murphys were not forgotten. After two decent openers, the crowd grew restless and started singing, “Hey Ho, up she rises early in the morning.” But they sang the “dirty version” with the words, “shave his balls with a rusty razor.”
When the Murphys came on stage and opened with For Boston, I was immediately squished from all sides as the crowd surged forward and ignited into non stop moshing and crowd surfing. When they sang Johnny, I hardly Knew Ya, the floor felt like a trampoline as everyone pogoed and shouted along.
Bass player Ken Casey took over as front man/lead vocalist, as Al Barr was home dealing with a death in his family. But Ken proved to be a natural born frontman and equally good singer. Early on he brought a twelve-year-old boy (who looked uncannily like the boy scout from the movie Up) from the audience on stage with him and allowed him to sit on the drum riser the entire show. Ken mentioned his oldest daughter was twelve and into One Direction. Several boos emanated throughout the cavernous venue (though he shouldn’t be too concerned. When I was twelve I loved Donny Osmond and look at me now).
When it came time to sing Dirty Glass, Ken chose a volunteer from the audience to sing the female part. She did a decent job singing duet with Ken, although the sound wasn’t mixed well and the vocals were often drowned out by the guitars and other instruments.
The Murphys sang almost all their biggest hits, Rose Tattoo, State of Massachusetts, The Worker’s Song, to name a few, and many sang and shouted along to all the words, not just the chorus.
The second they returned for an encore they invited anyone with the desire, to join them on stage for a medley of Skinheads on the MBTA, Barroom Hero and Boys On the Dock. Within seconds the entire stage was filled with the band and sweating dancing fans with not even an inch of stage to spare.
The Dropkick Murphys are as follows, Al Barr, Tim Brennan, Ken Casey, Jeff DaRosa, Matt Kelly, James Lynch, Scruffy Wallace. I walked away pummeled and crushed and with a fat lip because some crowd surfer landed on my head, causing my lip to plant firmly on my camera. All in a night’s work for a punk rock show.
Opening the night was a band from Dublin calling themselves Blood Or Whiskey. They looked punk and sounded punk, thought the drummer looked like a younger version of Brian May. This unsigned band knew how to rile the crowd and had many moshing, crowd surfing, and even running in a circle pit.
Opening the entire evening was a Dylanesque troubadour by the name of Brian McPherson. More of a folk singer than a punk rocker, though his lyrics certainly fit in with the punk ethos of standing against oppression and questioning religion. His lyrics were intelligent and deep, something one never hears on the radio any more.
