PacManY2J's Full Review: Live on St. Patrick's Day From Boston, MA by Dropk...
It’s been a long time in the making, but the Dropkick Murphys have finally released their Live on St. Patrick’s Day album so that fans can enjoy the rip-roarin’ good time that is a Murphys show anytime they want.
A Murphys live show is awesome anywhere, anytime. But what better place than their hometown of Boston? And what better time than St. Patrick's Day (the day when, as the Simpsons' Kent Brockman says, "everyone is a little bit Irish, except of course for the gays and the Italians")? There could be no time and place more perfect to record than these three sold out shows.
The album opens with For Boston (duh) and rolls right along with first-rate performances of many fan favorites: Good Rats, Barroom Hero, Curse of a Fallen Soul, The Spicy McHaggis Jig, and loads more. They give it their all on every number, whether fast or slow. As always, they throw tons of fun into the mix – for example, they perform the Boston Bruins theme song after proclaiming, “Old time hockey is back in Boston!” They stack the energy all the way to the end, closing as always with Skinhead (the cue for everyone to cram onstage), or as it’s appropriately listed on the CD, Bloody Pig Pile.
The Murphys have so many crowd pleasers that it would have been impossible to include enough songs on this disc to please everybody, but they managed to pack in quite a few goodies. This CD has let me hear some songs I missed the night I was there such as Boys on the Docks and The Wild Rover.
Unfortunately, the CD doesn’t have Pipebomb on Landsdowne, a song about blowing up Avalon, the very club they were performing in. I think the night I was there was the only show in which they didn’t play it. Too bad because I had it stuck in my head as I left the club that night, walking past the glares of the stuck-up clubbers who were reclaiming their E-dropping hangout.
Some non-album numbers also round out the set: Alcohol, Fortunate Son (though I believe that will be on the next album), and John Law, which they sent out to the Boston Police force, namely the Gaelic Column who gave the band a nice intro. They reminded us that everyone writes about bad cops, but some are actually “good sh*ts.”
My only gripe with the set list besides the exclusion of Pipebomb… is the version of Dirty Water. I’m baffled as to why they didn’t use the Friday night version with guest vocalist Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Maybe the track ran too long for the CD, but I wouldn’t mind sacrificing one song to relive that great surprise duet.
You can really get the feeling of a Murphys show with this CD. The band’s raw energy and the crowd interaction come through perfectly. It’s obvious that not only are the fans having a great time, but the band is having fun as well. You can tell that they are as psyched as the fans to be sharing in this experience. It’s their appreciation and chemistry that give this live disc an edge over studio albums.
There’s also plenty of chuckles from the Murphys’ talk in between some songs. We hear what was probably one of the most unique instances of the weekend as a man proposed to his girlfriend onstage. We then learn that Ken Casey almost got to perform a wedding, but after he did the three-minute online reverend thing, the couple broke up! Don’t worry, Rev. Casey, I’ll give you a call when my time comes.
If you’ve never seen a Dropkick Murphys show, this CD will give you all the convincing you need. Live on St. Patrick’s Day, which I’m sure is destined to become a classic in regards to live discs, captures the rowdy fun of their live show so well that the only thing better is being there – trust me, I’ve been there five times, and I’m not stopping there.
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