{"id":115279,"date":"2026-03-08T04:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T07:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/898003702"},"modified":"2026-03-08T04:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T07:31:19","slug":"dropkick-murphys-shipping-up-to-boston-for-4-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/08\/dropkick-murphys-shipping-up-to-boston-for-4-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Dropkick Murphys shipping up to Boston for 4 shows"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A lot of people have recently asked, \u201cWhen did the Dropkick Murphys get so political?\u201d<\/p>\n

Band leader Ken Casey has an answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first line of the first song on our first album sings about Reagan breaking the backs of the unions,\u201d Casey told the Boston Herald.<\/p>\n

This would be the title track of 1998 album \u201cDo or Die\u201d \u2014 a punk rock anthem if there ever was one.<\/p>\n

Flash forward a few albums and a few decades, and Casey and Dropkicks will roll into Boston for their annual hometown run of St. Patrick\u2019s Day shows during a time of dark and divisive politics. These clashes of tribalism aren\u2019t just happening online or in the halls of Congress, but in the crowds at Dropkicks\u2019 shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why, in a country that\u2019s supposed to have free speech, people are so intolerant of our band,\u201d Casey said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s seen a handful of people leave shows or return merch. But he\u2019s also seen the band\u2019s fanbase grow as working people \u2014 always the Dropkicks\u2019 focus, see new album \u201cFor the People\u201d \u2014 start to cheer on the Boston boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people say, \u2018I don\u2019t agree with all your politics but I see now that Trump is bad for the country,\u2019\u201d Casey said. \u201cActually, we\u2019ve seen more of these people (speak to us) than the people who are supposedly walking away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casey doesn\u2019t consider himself a radical. He doesn\u2019t think his politics are far left. What he sees are the ultra-wealthy taking from everyday people and he doesn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

Of course, he\u2019s also doing the work any good punk would \u2014 especially a punk whose band recently recorded two acoustic-focused albums built from lyrics Woody Guthrie never put to music. The Dropkicks recently released a split LP with Boston hardcore band Haywire, including a remake of Murphys\u2019 2005 song \u201cCitizen C.I.A.\u201d as \u201cCitizen I.C.E.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just changed the lyrics on the fly,\u201d Casey said of first remaking the song at a European show last year. \u201cI sang \u2018I.C.E.\u2019 once and (the crowd) started singing along. It just seemed to resonate. We\u2019d been hearing these folky songs protesting against ICE but we didn\u2019t have a fast hardcore kind of song doing it. I think the song\u2019s energy meets the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly three decades in, the Dropkick Murphys\u2019 politics haven\u2019t changed. And two decades since breaking big with \u201cI\u2019m Shipping Up to Boston\u201d (another song built from Guthrie lyrics), the band is as popular as ever \u2014 it\u2019s booked MGM Music Hall shows March 13, 14, and 15 plus a House of Blues show March 17; half the dates are already sold out. Between the two Guthrie records, \u201cFor the People,\u201d and the split LP with Haywire, the band released four albums in five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe downtime of COVID combined with how much that Woody Guthrie experience inspired us and then maybe something to prove at 30 years where a lot of bands might coast at that point,\u201d Casey said. \u201cIt says, \u2018We\u2019re not just out here to milk this thing.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we lose the enthusiasm for new music, that\u2019s probably when the end is near for us,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd I will say, we owe a debt of gratitude to our audience who are still buying the new records and still coming and singing along to new songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

For details and tickets, visit dropkickmurphys.com<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… breaking big with \u00e2\u0080\u009cI\u00e2\u0080\u0099m Shipping<\/span> Up to Boston\u00e2\u0080\u009d (another song …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}