by Ádám Gueth/ translation by Krisztina Kodó
The legendary Boston-based Irish punk band Dropkick Murphys played a sold-out concert in Budapest Park on 11 June, and the outdoor venue was a venue for moustaches, bald heads, rockers and of course Irish music fans. The concert also hosted Pogoing, lots of beer, plaid kilts and a whole range of Celtic rock hits.
The Dropkick Murphys have been to our country many times before, much to the delight of their growing fans. The band visited the Hungarian capital on 7 February 2023, when they performed at the Barba Negra Red Stage, and returned to Budapest Park almost exactly ten years later. The Boston Boys’ summer 2024 tour will take in several European cities. The group arrived in Budapest from Nuremberg and continued to Zagreb and Milan.
Shortly after the opening, the first opening band, Grade 2 from the Isle of Wight, started their performance almost immediately. The band, playing classic oi-punk music, tried to please the small crowd with a short programme. The second guest band, Shame, with a much more raw style, also aimed to please punk fans. The band’s bassist kept running and jumping up and down the stage with unbridled energy and frenzy, while his bandmates played with the utmost composure. Personally, I would have preferred a band closer to Dropkick Murphys in genre to help set the mood for the main attraction, such as homegrown Firkin, or Paddy and the Rats.
Dropkick Murphys however made up for everything. The band have a tradition of tuning up their audience before they take to the stage with a joint recording by Sinéad O’Connor and The Chieftains, “Foggy Dew”, about the 1916 Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence. After the song, the musicians arrived, led by frontman Ken Casey, who set the tone with a “The Lonesome Boatman”. Budapest Park’s light and sound engineering was faultless, with every instrument from bagpipes to banjo sounding clear; clarity however is a relative term on Dropkick Murphys records due to the distinctive overdriven guitars. An interesting and puzzling observation that the otherwise left-wing, working-class band should have the name of the conservative British Catholic philosopher G. K. Chesterton on the front of the foot drum.

The song “Lonesome Boatman” was followed by “Blood”, a big hit from the 2017 album, and then “The Boys are Back” created a hot atmosphere with pints of beer flying in the air.
The 20-song repertoire consisted of the classic songs released until 2013 from the album “Signed &Sealed in Blood”. Although Ken Casey led his band confidently, the absence of his former vocalist Al Bar was acutely felt in the songs they had previously performed together on studio recordings and in concert. Al Bar left the band two years ago (hopefully not permanently) to care for his ailing mother. Also, Casey has not played his signature left-handed bass since 2018 due to an injury, and the instrument is now played by Kevin Rheault.
Among the classic tracks mentioned above are such well-known anti-war tunes as “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya”, Irish pub songs such as “The Irish Rover” and “Captain Kelly’s Kitchen”, as well as heartfelt renditions of “Bastards on Parade” and “Forever”.
The song “Bastards on Parade” is an elderly man’s recollection of his own prom, while “Forever” is the favourite wedding music of a sick Dropkick Murphys fan. True fans of the originals were also thrilled by the songs “Barroom Hero”, and the more popular songs like “The State of Massachusetts” and “Worker’s Song” which created a truly magical atmosphere.
Finally, the show was not without the greatest hits like “Rose Tattoo”, and the iconic song from Scorsese’s gangster film The Departed, “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”. In the past, the band had a tradition of inviting ladies onstage to “Kiss Me I’m Shitfaced” and then male fans to join them onstage at the end of the show for AC/DC’s “TNT”. This did not occur at the band’s last Barba Negra show, but Casey did come off stage for a few moments to try and please the most loyal fans in the front row.
The crowd quickly formed a circular pogo zone, while others from the crowd decided to paddle their way to Boston during the hit song, or at least they tried to imitate this with a characteristic paddle motion. Several times during the concert, the crowd started chanting the now-traditional rhythm “Let’s go Murphys”, and the Boston guys probably sensed how appreciative the Hungarian audience was.
The last song on stage was the somewhat dare-devil farewell song “Until Next Time”, followed by Sinatra’s “My Way” as an outro. Personally, I was very sorry that some of my favourites like “Warrior’s Code”, “The Rocky Road to Dublin” and “The Fields of Athenry” were not included in the programme; however, since time was limited, the band did their best to please everyone. Once again, Dropkick Murphys gave a fantastic and memorable concert for their fans in Hungary and let us hope that we will not have to wait long for their next show.
We look forward to seeing you guys again!
This is a reprint, the original Hungarian article appeared online on TUMAG – A TUDATOS MAGAZINE.