Dropkick Murphys at the Key Club - June 12, 2003

Photos and Text by Jenifer Hanen

On June 12, 2003, Boston's favorite punk rock sons, the Dropkick Murphys, played a promo gig for all their dedicated SoCal fans at the sold out Key Club in Hollyweird, capacity 500 or thereabouts. To get in you had to have bought a copy of the band's new CD, Blackout, within two days of its release. Despite any marketing machinations, the show featuring the Dropkick Murphys and the Lost City Angels was a treat given how the Dropkicks are now playing much larger venues.

The untreat of the evening was the fact of the lack of bathing/showers on the part of about one half of the gentlemen in the crowd. Summer should = daily bathing and deodorant. Punk or not, smelling good is highly rated.

The Lost City Angels were in look and musically a fascinating combo of street punk meets AFI. The true highlight of the night was the Dropkick Murphys as they powered through new songs as well as old. Regardless of charges by old school purists who long for the Dropkick Murphys of 1997 with Mike McCollagan at the helm, I will stand up here and now as someone who has seen them play at the release of every album (1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003) and can say unequivocally that the current line up punks out.

The strengths of the Dropkick Murphys in the last 3 years and the last two albums is not only Al Barr's growling, booming bass voice and Matt Kelly's amazing drumming but also the addition of Ken Casey's tenor voice, and the traditional scotch/irish instruments in the bagpipes, mandolin and tin whistle. As the Dropkicks have further explored the perimeters of punk meets Irish music, they have not lost a drop of their power.

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The Lost City Angels

The Dropkick Murphys