After a triumphant outing in Cardiff a little over two years ago, Dropkick Murphys have Cardiff in their sights once more. It’s been 25 years since the Boston boys first stepped foot on Welsh soil, igniting TJ’s in Newport with their incendiary brand of Celtic-fused punk back in 2000, and the boys have revisited Wales a few times over the years, each time armed with a brand new bag of anthemic songs and an energy that defies their age.
Hopes are high, then, for another night of barroom singalongs and plenty of Irish jig-inspired moshpits. The main support tonight is New York’s Gogol Bordello, whose eclectic mix of punk, dub, ska, Ukrainian and Romanian music proves to be the livener this crowd needed. An array of instruments is shared between band members, as are the vocals, making for a very lively set that proves hard for the crowd not to get involved in. Gogol Bordello are just ridiculously infectious: songs like Fire On Ice Floe and Start Wearing Purple will be living in your head for weeks to come.
If you don’t know what Dropkick Murphys are all about, then a two-song intro of Sham 69’s If The Kids Are United and Daffydd Iwan’s rousing Welsh political anthem Yma O Hyd should give you some indication. The latter has something of a galvanising effect on the crowd, causing mass singalongs before the band have even played a note: the Murphys certainly know their audience.
With the stage bathed in emerald green light, the band launch into Captain Kelly’s Kitchen and the anthemic The Boys Are Back, with Ken Casey quickly taking up a position atop the crowd barrier. The Dropkicks’ superpower is their innate ability to connect with the audience. Coming from working class backgrounds themselves, they have never forgotten their roots, so when they deliver the likes of Prisoner’s Song and Which Side Are You On their emotion spills out onto the Cardiff crowd.
Ode to boxing The Warriors Code and Bastards On Parade are rolled out, to the delight of slightly older Murphys fans – as is Curse Of A Fallen Soul, a very old-school treat indeed. The beer spillage hits maximum as Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya gets the place bouncing – I think I even saw a pair of trousers get thrown in the air – before they bust out a rousing rendition of AC/DC’s bagpipe anthem It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock N’ Roll).
The band go into a quick interval on the back of folk standard The Irish Rover and Worker’s Song, and when they emerge it’s headlong into – of course – their biggest number: I’m Shipping Up To Boston, a song which seen more than its fair share of TV and movie airings. To finish, we’re all requested to put our arms around one another and sing along to Until The Next Time. Dropkick Murphys are truly a band of the people and – as a fair few inebriated onlookers can attest to – they know how to bring the party.
Dropkick Murphys + Gogol Bordello, Utilita Arena Cardiff, Fri 7 Feb
words CHRIS ANDREWS photos JON HERRON
