Irish punk band Dropkick Murphys has kicked off their annual St. Patrick’s Day Tour, coming to The Met in Philadelphia on September 25th.
Formed in 1996 in Quincy, Massachusetts, the band found exposure in 1997 when they opened for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones on their tour. This would be followed by the band’s debut album release, Do or Die, in 1998. In 2004, their single “Tessie,” a play on an old song sung at Boston baseball games, would become their first big hit, and would be followed up by an even more popular song, if not the band’s most successful song ever, “I’m Shipping Up To Boston.”
Off of their 2005 gold-selling studio album The Warrior’s Code, “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” would be featured the year following its release in the incredibly successful film The Departed, which featured stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, and caused the band to blow up in popularity over the coming years. With a newfound and much larger audience, the band’s fifth studio album, Going Out in Style, would be released in 2011 and would quickly become their highest charting album to date.
In 2023, the band released their twelfth and most recent studio album titled Okemah Rising, an album comprised of recorded, but unaired sessions from the recording of their 2022 album, This Machine Still Kills Fascists. Okemah Rising is titled in honor of Woody Guthrie’s hometown and is heavily influenced by Guthrie’s anti-fascism and pro-labor themes. Although much of the album is unplugged, it still maintains the high energy for which the Dropkick Murphys are known.
The tour will be opened by American punk band Pennywise and Dublin-based band The Scratch, who will surely set the mood for this high energy concert. Tickets are available HERE
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