"Stand Up and Fight...And I'll Stand Up With You!" : St Paddy's Day 2002 Mar 17 '02    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music Revelation [Digipak] by Journey From $12 Machine Gun Etiquette by The Damned From $40 The Bottom Line The Spicy McHaggis Jig, a mug of Guinness, and some Irish Punk Rock: AKA St. Patrick's Day Dropkick Murphys style! Last year, Boston punk heroes the Dropkick Murphys returned home on St. Patrick's Day to play two shows in one day, planning to record them for a live album. But it was their 5th and 6th shows respectively, in 3 days, and the band was p*ss drunk. Sure, the show was great fun if you were in attendance (as I was), but it lacked big time. I realized this as I listened to my copy of the radio broadcast. So this year, the band decided to try again. This time, it was 3 shows in 3 nights, and this time, they weren't on tour, and for the most part, they weren't drunk. What resulted was a much better show in all aspects. From the opening notes of For Boston, you could tell just by looking at lead singer Al Barr that he had a new focus and was determined to get this thing done and make it a St Patrick's Day party Boston would never forget. The band seamlessly mixed in songs from throughout their career and from all their albums. While some call this band "unoriginal" or even "chauvinist" (an adjective I can't slap the band with, their songs might say one thing, but their actions speak a lot louder), I find the Murphys to be a fun band that writes fun songs about drinking, fighting, and the union man. Occasionally, though, the band writes an amazing ballad as well and to me, that really sets them apart. The surprise of the night may have been the band ripping into Pipebomb on Lansdowne Street while playing in a club on Lansdowne Street. It's just one of those songs you never thought the band would actually play in that situation. Guess I was wrong. They also had plenty of other surprises, including a marriage proposal on stage, which led into the band playing Forever, a gorgeous song from the band's 2001 disc, Sing Loud, Sing Proud. And during another song (it escapes my mind at the moment exactly which one), the band had 7 or 8 young girls come out to do some traditional Irish dancing. I wanted the last surprise of the night to be a guest appearance by Kay Hanley, but sadly, that did not come to pass. By far the worst surprise of the night was the fact that there were "beer men" in the audience, walking around selling beer. When the f*ck did this become something other than a punk rock show? I wanted to dump the idiot's stash all over him, but didn't only because I didn't want to miss the show. To be sure, the band gave us, the fans, plenty of opportunity to raise our fists and our Guinness and shout right along. The old standards (Do Or Die, Skinhead on the MBTA etc) seemed to get the better shout alongs, but newer fare like The Spicy McHaggis Jig and Curse of a Fallen Soul were very loud as well. The McHaggis Jig especially was a huge favorite, although to this day I don't understand the appeal of a man in a kilt. The set closing The Gauntlet proved to be particularly rousing, with it's stand by your side shout along chorus of "Stand up and fight, and I'll stand up with you!" The band came back out for the encore and blistered through the previously mentioned Do or Die, Barroom Hero, a cover of Dirty Water by Boston faves The Standelles and Skinhead. Bassist Ken Casey showed he had some major balls (if not some major inebriation problems) when he dove off the side stage speakers and into the crowd on the stage below him to close out Skinhead. These shows were all recorded, as I mentioned before, for a live album and a live DVD, which has a target release date of this summer sometime. Dropkick Murphys Setlist (out of order) for 3/17/02 Avalon, Boston MA: For Boston, Boys on the Docks, Pipebomb on Lansdowne, Blood and Whiskey, Which Side Are You On, Forever, Curse of a Fallen Soul, Finnegan's Wake, Road of the Righteous, Caps and Bottles, The Wild Rover, The Spicy McHaggis Jig, The Gang's All Here, Good Rats, A Few Good Men, 2 or 3 new songs, The Legend of Finn MacCumhail, The Torch, The Gauntlet ENCORE: Cadence to Arms into Do Or Die, Barroom Hero, Dirty Water, Skinhead on the MBTA

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