After finishing my first week back working full-time for someone other than myself, and having to put on pants to go to an office to fulfill my news editor role for www.chartattack.com, I drove to The Docks. Luckily, I got a prime parking spot across the street. Even luckier, there was no-one working at the lot to take my money.
I arrived at 11 p.m., just in time to hear the packed house chant, "Let's go Murphys!" I slithered my way through the crowd and used my VIP pass to get on the side of the stage just before the group came on. The band members are big Boston Bruins fans, and even performed at the Fleet Center following a Bruins game earlier this month, so it was quite a surprise to see the bassist wearing the #16 jersey worn by Toronto Maple Leaf Darcy Tucker.
The Celtic-punk band was full of beans (Boston-baked, I'm sure), with bagpipes, accordion, mandolin and bouzouki rounding out the normal rock instrumentation lineup to rip through an hour-long set of fan favourites. There were moments when I thought that the band was harder and heavier than the two times I saw it in 2003, but there were also some quieter, more melodic moments.
The crowd was just as enthusiastic as the band, and moshing, crowd-surfing and stage-diving were the order of the day. On two separate occasions I was hit by a flying shoe and a tube of lip balm. There was a guy in the mosh pit on crutches who had to be pulled on to the stage because he was getting battered. Serves him right, I'd say.
Women from the crowd were invited on to the stage to dance for the second-last song, and then guys climbed up for the last number. There were dozens of people on stage, and things were so chaotic that I could still hear the band but couldn't see it through all of the bodies. But I like that the Dropkicks feel so comfortable with their fans that they can invite them on to the stage for the free-for-all.
I don't know if there was an encore because I left so that I could get out of the parking lot before the traffic jam started. I had to get to the Horseshoe to see The Fleshtones.