Bands/Artists: Dropkick Murphys

Finally, a punk rock compilation with some direction! Most comps have historically consisted of nothing but singles and maybe a crappy “bonus” DVD to boot. Sure, Rock Against Bush, Vol. 2 has all that, but enough added substance to make it a noteworthy addition to your collection.

The music... read more

Midway through the show, Dropkick’s bassist Ken Casey was pissed. He was introducing “Fields of Athenry,” a song they played at the Boston area burial of Sgt. Andrew Farrar, who died in Iraq, when “Fuck Iraq!” came from someone in the front row. Casey stopped the show. “There’s a difference between ... read more

This year’s edition of the Van’s Warped Tour featured everything you’ve come to expect from what has become the summer event for the emo/mall punk set: more bands than you could ever expect to see, a mall’s worth of merchandise, people-watching galore and a conversely proportional sun to shade ratio that made for a l... read more

True, both the sound and sense of punk rock have always been rather subjective; but even so, many must agree that the majority of Punk-O-Rama Vol 9 has dodged the true spirit of the genre. While almost-old-schoolers like Bad Religion and Pennywise offer just what the patron might expect (and nothing more), the comp sandwiches in an... read more

Every summer, you can count on several things to happen: It gets hot outside; Baseball season erupts with breaking records and embarrassing scandals; Unless mired in summer school, students are set free to follow their whims; And the Vans Warped Tour comes to town. This being the ninth year of the annual punk rock cavalcade, one coul... read more

Back in 1994, when the very first edition of the Punk O Rama compilation series — the yearly sampler of bands signed to LA-based record label Epitaph — was released, the CD’s lineup was basically what the name implied; Bad Religion, NOFX, Pennywise and other such bands included on the compilation were... read more

The life of the rock critic is a lonely one. In addition to getting paid to slowly lose your hearing, there’s the feeling that you have to reinvent the wheel when observing someone else’s music. In the case of Sunday night’s concert, however, that simply wasn’t possible. It was a good old-fashioned punk rock show ... read more

It was only a matter of time before someone really put the rock into “The Rocky Road to Dublin.” Though Boston’s Dropkick Murphys have seen a number of changes, both in musical climate and their group’s lineup, one thing remains constant; their penchant for marrying the themes of the Emerald Isle with the attitude associated with... read more

The Vans Warped Tour — the annual traveling musical orgy of all things semi-punk — has certainly been more sucessful than anyone could have imagined. The melodic brand of punk that it was origianlly built to showcase has become the rock sound du jour of late; the commercial success of Warped Tour alums such as Good Charlotte, Bli... read more

Just in time for spring, Atticus — ubiquitous black-shirt provider for the suburban punks of today and corporate front for the evil empire that is Blink 182 — is back with the second installment of their Dragging The Lake complilation series. And whereas the first edition, though a damn good comp, was pretty exclusively bro-core, ... read more

This two-hour plus DVD acts as a time capsule for Epitaph Records, whose history can be traced back over 20 years. Not only do the videos range from early '90s Rancid and Pennywise to recent clips from Millencolin and Hot Water Music, but a short documentary, "The Epitaph Story," chronicles the timeline of the indie punk label fr... read more

Although not particularly a fan of the Dropkick Murphys' music - kind of a Flogging Molly meets Swingin' Utters new old-school punk sound - I will say that the times I've seen Dropkick live have been genuinely entertaining. Live On St. Patrick's Day is a faithful representation of the Dropkick live experience; the crowd shouting alon... read more

Normally I hate these compilation records, they're all too often just the label putting out a record featuring its tamer artists so that the younger people will buy it. That isn't the case here; this is a great compilation. It has the continuity that most lack. Whoever arranged the song order did a great job, it flows from street... read more

The amount of money I'm losing at these all-ages shows is getting out of control; I left work four hours early, which is at least one night's drinking money. I need a new job. All bitching aside, I've been waiting awhile for this one. I missed Lars last time, so I was sure to be there.

Thug Murder, a three-piece group from Japan, played ... read more

I hate Punk-O-Rama, but I love The Dwarves. I’ve been waiting for years to see the fucking Dwarves. When I got to the venue I heard that they hadn’t shown up yet. Pressure Point had just started their first song, so I went upstairs and drank beer.

The Distillers didn’t make this gig, so Pressure Point came up from Sacramento ... read more