Dropkick Murphys Create A Ruckus

Lips and noses were bloodied, all in the name of rock 'n' roll.

The Dropkick Murphys and Big D and the Kids Table became part of a long-standing UConn tradition of rioting and causing a ruckus Saturday night.

Big D, a ska-punk band from Boston and good friends of the Murphys, began the show, performing for a crowd that grew by the minute. The crowd was mellow as this band took the stage with an almost hip-hop feel as lead singer David McWane rapped along with the trombones, but by the last song the audience was all in, crowd surfing and skanking along.

McWane told the audience early in the set the show was all new stuff from their upcoming album, and ended the show with yelling out, "New record, b****."

The Murphys made an impatient audience wait nearly 20 minutes before they took the stage after openers Big D and the Kids Table.

The first Murphys song of the night started with a woman's voice singing what sounded like a classic Irish ballad. The crowd, who were mostly clad in green or Irish T-shirts, such as several reading 'Guinness,' held up their lighters until the floor of Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts was a sea of orange flames.

Ian King, a 6th-semester accounting major, wore a kilt to the show. "I do love the Dropkick Murphys," said King. He said this was why he was wearing the kilt, "plus I like to wear it."

Attempts at Irish stepping were made, and the second the lights shone on the Murphys for the first time that evening, the audience exploded into a moshing, thrashing and jumping mass.

Tim Brennan, who plays "all the Irish stuff" in the Dropkick Murphys and is a West Hartford native, said they usually find college shows different from the regular spots on tour.

"A college show, the crowd is a little bit different because you'll get people going to the show just because you are a band playing at their college, and not because they're a fan of yours. So sometimes there are people who don't really know what to expect when we play college shows," Brennan said.

Odds are this audience knew just what they were getting themselves into. Lead singer Al Barr made a point to tell the audience, "We usually hate these goddamn college shows, but you're all right," and they could tell he meant it. The Dropkick Murphys seemed to feed off the crowd's energy and put on an amazing show because of it.

Adrian Mahoney, 14, was one of the people injured during the show. He got a bloody nose in the mosh pit, but continued to enjoy the show, being cheered on when crowd surfing by his friends: Aly Dautrich, 14, Kevin Shin, 14, Becca Elliot, 14, Leah Krohn, 14, Ben Kelley, 15, Mikey Fox, 14 and Kenny Dautrich, 17, all students at E.O. Smith High School, accompanied by Kelley's parents.

Elliot said the show was "badass," and in the craziness "Aly lost her shoe," she yelled.

"But I got it back," Dautrich said, as she stuck out her foot to show everyone.

The Dropkick Murphys have always been called a band of the people, with their songs for the working class and charity work - Saturday night they proved why, as they got the people of UConn involved in the show. During one of their most popular songs, "Spicy McHaggis Jig" about 75 girls were pulled onto the stage to join the seven band members in the performance. Some girls sang and danced along, some took the initiative of "introducing themselves" to the band, two girls started kissing and one courageous girl dove off the stage and into the crowd.

Swallowed in a sea of girls, the Murphys ended the regular set with "Kiss Me, I'm Shitfaced," and left the crowd wanting more.

After a 10-minute chant of "Let's go Murphys" and "Yankees suck," the Dropkick Murphys took the stage again singing two odes to their hometown, "Dirty Water" and "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" during which the mosh pit was moved as more than 100 screaming and sweaty fans took the stage to end the show.

"I'm Shipping Up To Boston" is featured in the soundtrack for the Academy Award nominated film "The Departed."

"It's a song that no one ever really paid attention to, like we always thought it was really cool, but no one really cared for it," Brennan said. "Now we play it and people go crazy. But I guess it takes something like that to put it into context. Something involving a chase scene and drugs and mobsters and people will love it. It's crazy to be on a soundtrack with The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison, much less in a Martin Scorsese movie."

While the show was incredible from start to finish it seems someone forgot to tell the Dropkick Murphys fans it is uncool to wear the band shirt to the concert. However, no one present was tough enough to tell these hardcore bleeding, limping, bruised and ruddy fans of their faux pas.

The Dropkick Murphys are taking the rest of the month of February to write new songs and relax and, in March, they will be flying off to California to kick off their next tour with The Aggrolites, an up-and-coming reggae band the Dropkick Murphys are big fans of, according to Brennan. After that, they return to Boston for their annual St. Patrick's Day concerts and then leave again for a world tour of Australia, Japan, Hawaii and Europe.