Last week, I saw the Dropkick Murphys and Sick Of It All, two bands I’ve listened to for a very long time, but never seen live. I discovered Sick Of It All like I discovered a lot of new music, from snowboarding movies. The Dropkick Murphys, I discovered in a drunken haze somewhere or other .. possibly while also listening to Flogging Molly and The Gourds.

The show was at the Tivoli, and I do believe more of my friends turned up to this show then any other concert I’ve ever been to. It was a great night!

Sick Of It All were a lot more hardcore than I remember. When the ‘Murphys came on stage, even Al said “I asked those guys to take it easy, but like always they didn’t listen…” Now that I think about it, I don’t think I have any Sick Of It All albums - maybe I should have done a bit more research before I went there. But that’s ok - my time was well spent waiting in line for booze and catching up with friends.

When Sick Of It All left the stage, the “Let’s go Murphys” chant began and didn’t stop until the show got started.

The show was great, and the crowd was rougher than Queens of the Stone age at the Arena a few months back. In fact, my slight friend Ryan and I started a circle pit, the physical abuses of which I haven’t enjoyed for a couple of years. There was crowd surfing and moshing, all to the slowest punk music there is - Celtic punk (aka Irish drinking punk.)

I came out of there drenched in sweat, with a ‘Murphys football jersey and a smile on my face. Too bad it was a school night and nothing was open afterwards.

Leave a Reply