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Dropkick Murphys, 03/07/2008
Well, now that my ears have stopped ringing... :-)
This was an awful lot of fun. I had never seen the Murphys live (they always play at midnight on a Tuesday, or are in a huge tour I have no interest in).
This was an awful lot of fun. I had never seen the Murphys live (they always play at midnight on a Tuesday, or are in a huge tour I have no interest in).
First, they sold out Stubbs. This is kind of rare. They were patting people down, but since they had a separate line "for the ladies", World's Best Niece and I got in very quickly. They were making the idiots who showed up with chains or spikes throw them away. Which was a good thing...
We grabbed a BBQ sandwich and chips, and discussed where we were going to stand for the show (my knees were already annoyed with me, since--hello!--I had been to a show on Wednesday). We started out at next to the sound booth and then WBN made a pleased sound and dragged me over to an area I'd never noticed, on the left side of the venue. Stubbs is next to a creek, and in order to maximize space (and tickets sold), they evened out a sloped bit with decking and a rail, which put you a couple of feet above most of the crowd. We wound up right at the rail, and we had an unobstructed view the whole show. Plus, I got the breeze to counteract the very heavy smoking going on. And the crowd-watching was amusing.
They lead into the opening acts with the pre-show music--in this case, a large chunk of the "1812 Overture". The opening acts were very good, the first (Everybody Out!) was very Old-Skool "Oi!" punk, which pleased me. Plus, their lead guitarist was excellent. The second, Big D & the Kids Table, had both a trumpet and a sax, and were having a lot of fun. WBN and I decided that the sax player was hot. Then they started playing "The Foggy Dew" as sung by Sinead O'Connor from The Long Black Veil, and the Murphys took the stage.
I was already regretting forgetting my earplugs, and the Murphys made my eardrums roll over and die. But man, it was worth it. You have to love a punk band who can play well, sing well, and still thrash it out. One of their sons (Al's, I think) "helped" with vocals on the first song, and he was adorable. The set was long, and tight, and really, really good. There were crowd surfers, most of whom lost shirts and/or shoes, but they were confined to a small area near the stage. I find that sort of behavior funny, if I'm not in the middle of it (if I am, years of concert security instincts come on-line and I'm miserable). Saw many, many stupid (drunk) people, saw a lot of military haircuts. They dedicated a song to a fan who was killed in Iraq ("The Fields of Athenry"). Came out for two encores, and led the first one with "I'm Shipping up to Boston" which even non-fans would recognize from the soundtrack to The Departed. No fights that I saw, but several people were pulled out due to heat exhaustion (even though it was 45F) and probably too much to drink. :-) (Stubbs has several bars.)
I got given a beer, which amused me no end: I took some pictures for some girls on the level below us, and one of them got me a Lone Star tallboy (shhh, don't tell anyone, I gave it to my niece).
It took two days for my ears to recover and I had to wash everything I was wearing that night to get rid of the cigarette smoke. I showed WBN my stealth parking area (which I know she'll use), and we had a great time.
No possums or raccoons this time, but the skunk made his/her displeasure known at one point. :-)
We grabbed a BBQ sandwich and chips, and discussed where we were going to stand for the show (my knees were already annoyed with me, since--hello!--I had been to a show on Wednesday). We started out at next to the sound booth and then WBN made a pleased sound and dragged me over to an area I'd never noticed, on the left side of the venue. Stubbs is next to a creek, and in order to maximize space (and tickets sold), they evened out a sloped bit with decking and a rail, which put you a couple of feet above most of the crowd. We wound up right at the rail, and we had an unobstructed view the whole show. Plus, I got the breeze to counteract the very heavy smoking going on. And the crowd-watching was amusing.
They lead into the opening acts with the pre-show music--in this case, a large chunk of the "1812 Overture". The opening acts were very good, the first (Everybody Out!) was very Old-Skool "Oi!" punk, which pleased me. Plus, their lead guitarist was excellent. The second, Big D & the Kids Table, had both a trumpet and a sax, and were having a lot of fun. WBN and I decided that the sax player was hot. Then they started playing "The Foggy Dew" as sung by Sinead O'Connor from The Long Black Veil, and the Murphys took the stage.
I was already regretting forgetting my earplugs, and the Murphys made my eardrums roll over and die. But man, it was worth it. You have to love a punk band who can play well, sing well, and still thrash it out. One of their sons (Al's, I think) "helped" with vocals on the first song, and he was adorable. The set was long, and tight, and really, really good. There were crowd surfers, most of whom lost shirts and/or shoes, but they were confined to a small area near the stage. I find that sort of behavior funny, if I'm not in the middle of it (if I am, years of concert security instincts come on-line and I'm miserable). Saw many, many stupid (drunk) people, saw a lot of military haircuts. They dedicated a song to a fan who was killed in Iraq ("The Fields of Athenry"). Came out for two encores, and led the first one with "I'm Shipping up to Boston" which even non-fans would recognize from the soundtrack to The Departed. No fights that I saw, but several people were pulled out due to heat exhaustion (even though it was 45F) and probably too much to drink. :-) (Stubbs has several bars.)
I got given a beer, which amused me no end: I took some pictures for some girls on the level below us, and one of them got me a Lone Star tallboy (shhh, don't tell anyone, I gave it to my niece).
It took two days for my ears to recover and I had to wash everything I was wearing that night to get rid of the cigarette smoke. I showed WBN my stealth parking area (which I know she'll use), and we had a great time.
No possums or raccoons this time, but the skunk made his/her displeasure known at one point. :-)