A Night to Remember with Dropkick Murphys

Photos & Article by NicAPic

Bombastic! If it weren’t for the word “possessed,” bombastic would be the only word I’d need to describe Sunday’s Dropkick Murphys ballroom bash at Pensacola’s Vinyl Music Hall.

Warming up the soon-to-be Boston Brawlers title fight, both Jesse Ahem and The Rumjacks brought their own working-class jabs and tirades. But once the haunting sound of Foggy Dew ascended, the crowd bristled, knowing what was coming, but still couldn’t get out of the way of DKM’s opening salvo throat punch, State of MA/The Boys Are Back!

Famous for Nothing, but massively fan-centric, literally crowd-interacting participants of their own powerful show, DKM couldn’t keep their Middle Finger down, brought No Surrender with the Cadillac, Cadillac funk of The Clash, began to Smash Shit Up for everyone before turning Two 6’s Upside Down for The Bonny.

Where Trouble Is At, Skinhead on the MBTA, Workers Song continued the frenzy right into I’m Shipping Up to Boston…Just before the explosive, roof-crushing cover of TNT!

Bringing it all home again, the crowd of Northwest Florida locals could have just as easily been juiced at McGuire’s Irish Pub at 2am, all clamoring along to the DKM swagger and folkster struts of Rose Tattoo, Boys on the Docks, and closing down the joint with Kiss Me, I’m Shitfaced! (See the show’s full setlist here.)

If you want a gang of possessed working-class American folk chock-full of ale and vinegar, crowd-pleasing, fan-loving, barely controlled anarchical musicians doing what they want, when, where, and how they want – then do yourself a favor and don’t miss Dropkick Murphys. They’re bombastic!

Learn more about DKM’s current tour here.