Dropkick Murphys

by Mark Westergaard

February 24th, 2013 at the Myth Nightclub, St. Paul, MN

The Dropkick Murphy’s are a raucous band from Boston that are steeped in their Irish-American heritage.

 They have released nine studio albums and three live concert albums.  They have been together in various iterations for 18 years.   This tour is to promote their current release “Signed & Sealed In Blood”.   The best way to categorize their music is Celtic Punk or Punk Revival.  The seven man ensemble features a bagpipe, an Irish flute, an accordion, and the standard rock assembly of a lead guitarist, bass, drummer, rhythm guitarist, and two lead singers.

They came out with great drama starting with the blistering anthem “The Boys Are Back”.  From the onset the concert was high octane, at warp speed, and they kept hitting the gas pedal harder and harder.  They went from one scorching punk tune to the next with hardly a breath taken between tunes for an hour and 30 minutes.  These are fist pumping arena anthems inspired by their Irish heritage, their love of honor, drinking, tattoos, getting into trouble, getting out of trouble, screwed up families, family honor, love, mayhem, and courage.   It is masculine and muscular.  In short, this concert was an onslaught of testosterone.  

The only criticism I have of this show is that there was no chance to take a breath.  It was one power anthem after another with very little variety.  Subtly and nuance is not in their repertoire.    That said, I saw the Ramones once and they too had only one speed – hyper-fast.  The Dropkick Murphy’s are exactly as billed, a hard working intense Celtic Punk band with no speed but warp.   

The highlight for me was the only time they slightly backed off the feverish tempo and brilliantly performed my favorite tune – Rose Tattoo.  I am reminded of the Bob Segar lyric, “With the echo of the amplifiers ringing in your head…”  In the end, I liked the show more than I didn’t.   I might not be as into the Dropkick Murphy’s as the mostly young male packed house was, but still, an interesting show that I’m glad I saw.

The Mountain Goats - Transcendental Youth

by Erika Kooda

When I got the chance to chat with author of "The Fault In Our Stars", John Green, the topic of the soundtrack for that movie came up. He mentioned his favorite band, the Mountain Goats. When I was in the KAXE studios a few months later, I saw the newest release of the Mountain Goats - "Transcendental Youth" - and decided to give it a listen. The Mountain Goats remind me of Flogging Molly, without the Irish. This album is kind of different from what I normally listen to, a lot of it is upbeat tunes (which is what drew me to it,) but their meaning is so much deeper than I expected.

Highlighting some of my favorite tracks now, "Cry for Judas" is definitely an example of the upbeat but depressing thing. Some of the lyrics include "Long black night, morning frost / I'm still here, but all is lost". I also like the first song I heard from it, "In Memory of Satan", because it's slower with an emphasis on the drum set, and the lyrics are very visual. Another good song is "Lakeside View Apartments Suite"... I'm not sure why I like it, but it's another song with a good beat. The Mountain Goats' use of a variety of instruments makes the whole album good. It rounds it out and has a great balance, and highlights the singer's voice in each track.