DROPKICK MURPHYS Live on Lansdowne

LIVE ON LANSDOWNE
by Jason K. Walsh

All roads led to Boston as DROPKICK MURPHYS tore their way through yet another St. Patty’s warm-up tour, with its conclusion exploding in their hometown. The St. Patrick’s Day week-long celebration has become a staple for the band, playing several back-to-back engagements once the tour arrives in their city, and 2010 marks a complete decade that they have been doing this. As time went on, the number of shows they would do in Boston grew, some times at multiple locations concluded with the highly anticipated “after-party,” now held at the Ken Casey’s pub, McGreevy’s, out at Fenway.

This year’s backyard shows were held at the House of Blues, with seven performances over six nights. Supporting acts for these included SICK OF IT ALL, SWINGIN’ UTTERS, FILTHY THIEVING BASTARDS, THE CREEPSHOW, LARRY AND HIS FLASK, COCKED ‘N LOADED, SHARKS COME CRUISIN, THE OLD BRIGADE, THE HAVE NOTS, and BRYAN MCPHERSON. It was LARRY AND HIS FLASK, along with STRUNG OUT, that were on the road with the “Boys on the Docks” for the tour that got them ready for the chaotic Boston nights.

In celebration of their “10 Years of Service” as the city’s holiday ambassadors, they are releasing a new DVD/CD featuring footage from last year’s shows. “Live on Lansdowne, Boston MA” is the long-awaited live-performance sequel to 2002’s “Live on Patrick’s Day,” which was released on Hellcat Records. This new offering is out on the band’s own label, Born & Bred Records, and contains a more professionally shot, recorded, and mixed movie than its predecessor. The handpicked 20 tracks concludes with “I’m Shipping Up to Boston,” featuring their friends and neighbors, THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES.

I had the opportunity to talk to frontman Al Barr right before the New England crew hit the road, about their favorite time of year, as well as the new DVD/CD, their plans following the festivities, and the one thing that troubles touring musicians who are parents: being away from their children.

JW: You guys are getting ready to kick off a big run that’s going to lead to Boston once again. Tell me about gearing up for all these shows that you have coming up.

AL BARR: Well, you know, it’s kind of like the rehearsal before the performance. This is our tenth year doing the St. Patty’s in Boston so it’s special. I mean every year is a special one but this is kind of hitting our milestone having it being the tenth year anniversary of the shows. We used to in the beginning when we started doing the multiple nights, we would kind of screw ourselves and just not do any playing aside from practicing, into the shows, and by the third or fourth night we were ready to call it, to kill ourselves. We find that when we tour into the shows, we’re all kind of machines, oiled up and ready to go, so once we get to the Boston shows, we’re home, y’know, even though I’m in New Hampshire, but it’s close enough. It’s just like it’s the home stretch and we’re a well-tuned machine by the time we get there. It’s going to be a good time. We’re doing 7 in six days again this year and it’s going to be, y’know, residency at the House of Blues (laughs) so it’s going to be a good time.

JW: Definitely sounds like a good time and that’s kind of a cool touring strategy. You head out and then you kind of wind your way back home. That’s perfect.

AL BARR: Yeah, I know. It is. It’s worked out the last few years that we decided to do it. I want to say we were in Europe or something and we came back and the we had the St. Patty’s Day shows in Boston and we were like “WHOAH…is it me or was that just so much easier than it’s been in the past?” and everybody’s like “yeah.” It’s just an extension of the tour and so we just kind of programmed that into the machine and said “you know what for now on we just got to tour into St. Patty’s.” We usually play pretty much consecutive nights when we’re on the road. If there is a day off, it’s because we got to drive from like Colorado to San Francisco, or something like that, you know what I mean? There aren’t a lot of days off, so we play every night, so we’re used to that kind of schedule. And it’s like I said, it’s a residency, it’s like we’re the house band for a week at The House of Blues (laughs). We’re Murph and the Murph-tones…Don’t you go changing!!

JW: That’s very cool. So you’ve got Strung Out and Larry and His Flask…I’m not really sure I know who that is, so uh…

AL BARR: Yeah, I don’t either (laughs). No, just kidding. I want to say they played on one or two of the shows we did on a past tour and everybody seemed to like them. They’re very likable guys and there a good band, you know what I mean? So it’s kind of like we just figured, y’know, it’s all about giving the newer bands a shot anyways. That’s how we got to where we are, y’know. Bands like the Bosstones said “let’s give this band a shot.” Those are the kinds of things that I think go a long way with the band. If there going to be in there for the long haul, you don’t know unless you try it, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

JW: Playing this time of year, is this special for you guys because you definitely have the Irish and Celtic influence going on and it’s all leading up to St. Patrick’s Day in Boston. Does that make the shows that much more special for you guys?

AL BARR: Yeah, I think it was one of the things where it wasn’t something where we set out to like, y’know. I mean there is a definite, obviously an Irish influence in the band and there is definitely that heritage lurking about in ninety percent of the members in the band. It’s one of those things where we used to not be able to do Boston on St. Patty’s because we couldn’t get an all-ages venue and we weren’t going to just do shows that were 18 plus. It was all like we got to have at least one all-ages show, there’s got to be something for all ages. Now, we’re able to do at least one or two of those in the mix. It’s special because we’re there in the hometown. Our family is there. Our friends are there. It’s something about Boston. I’ve heard a saying that “maybe it’s in the water.” It’s definitely a special time to be there. People come from everywhere for these shows now. I mean not just across the country, but all over the world. People fly in from Belgium and Germany and we’ve had people come from as far as Japan and Australia. It’s pretty crazy, you know what I mean? And, just being a band and to have people care enough to come and see you anyway, let alone the people that are going to get on a plane and fly here. That’s pretty special.

JW: Very cool. Now tell me about the new CD/DVD you guys have got out. It’s “Live on Lansdowne.” This was recorded in the home town. When was this recorded?

AL BARR: This was recorded last year at the St. Patty’s Day shows. We put one out 2002 and there’s been three records since then and the band’s completely different now. It’s just a whole new animal. It’s still Dropkick Murphys obviously. We’ve gotten a little bit better, hopefully and there’s just a lot of music that we weren’t able to include in the first one and obviously with three records having come out since then, there’s a lot of other songs that we wanted to include, so it was time to do another one. The first one was very popular with the fans so we didn’t think it would be a bad thing to do.

JW: Have you gotten a chance to check it out from beginning to end?

AL BARR: Oh yeah. You better believe it.

JW: What did you think when you saw it? What went through your head?

AL BARR: I cant stand, I mean I can’t stand watching myself. It’s just one of those things that I’ve never been really comfortable with, the videos or live stuff, because I think we’re all kind of our own worst critics. It was just one of those things where I was like, you know what, this isn’t something that I want to watch so I was actually really relieved when I put it on that it looked really good. And I’m not saying we look good, I’m saying the actual footage and everything, it was like, I held my head up and said “this is fucking cool.” It sounds good, y’know, I think for a live record. We tried to do a live record for years, I remember, and we recorded a live record I think three different times in three different locations. This is when we did the first St. Patty’s Day album. So, I think that’s another thing. We’ve learned a lot since then in terms of recording and how things need to be recorded and where we need to put mics in terms of audience and that kind of thing. Also, picking the best songs from the best nights and continuity and all that jazz. We learned a little since then so I think it’s a better product in the long run.

JW: Very cool.

AL BARR: You know what. That’s just my opinion, who the fuck am I? In the long run, the people will decide. Someone like you yourself will listen to it and go “hey, he’s full of shit…this sucks.” (laughs)

JW: No, I haven’t gotten a chance to see it yet or hear it yet, but I’m looking forward to it. So after all this is over with, you’ve got a little bit of a break, then heading over to England, Scotland, and Ireland. Then what’s the rest of the year hold for you guys? Are you going to start working on a new record or what?

AL BARR: Yeah man, we kind of had a lot of time off, from the fall to last Christmas. We took some time off. The band hadn’t really taken any time off since I can remember, you know what I mean? Not that much time. Whenever we had taken time off, we were always working on records or recording or playing some kind of a benefit, or doing “Tessie, Tessie,” singing stuff for the Red Sox. There was always something that we would do under the moniker of “oh, this is time off.” It was never really pure time off. We just kind of all reclused from the band and spent time with our families and really just kind of hunkered down there, so we didn’t get anything done. So yeah, we’ve got to write a whole new record and in the meantime we’ve booked ourselves through August. That time between St. Patty’s and England, we’re going to be working on a new record and anytime that we have in between. We’ve got our sites set on trying to get something done for fall, and hopefully for a late fall, early winter release. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us.

JW: No doubt. But you’ve got to do the family thing. It’s good to take a break. You can’t live on the road for sure.

AL BARR: And that’s the thing. We’ve been living on the road and it’s one of those things where yeah, y’know, like you said, you’ve got to do the family thing. Three of us have children in the band. Everybody in the band is married. People start to get weary. Bands tend to go off the deep end in that situation.

JW: I got one more question for you. Is this still fun for you, man? You talk about going on the road for long periods of time, long stretches, at the end of the day, are you still having a lot of fun doing this?

AL BARR: You know, I gotta tell you, as a band we’re really lucky to be able to do this for a living and I feel like it’s the best job that anyone could have ever given me, but at the same time, having said, I’ve got kids and all that stuff. I don’t enjoy, y’know, like when I’ve got to get on a plane and go to Australia or Japan, even though it’s great to go to Australia or Japan, I don’t enjoy leaving my family. You know what I mean, it sucks, so it’s a double-edged sword. I get to go play music all over the world, that’s awesome, so anybody reading this interview is going to be like “what an asshole, he’s complaining,” but at the same time, y’know, it sure beats any other job. So, I mean I can’t complain, I do still enjoy it. I think there’s certain aspects about it that become harder and when my six-year-old grabbed me around the waist before I left for this last European thing and pleading with me not to leave. Those are the kinds of moments…they don’t ever get easy. But the nice thing is that when Daddy’s home, he’s home 24-7. Again, I can’t complain. I’ve got to really be grateful for where I am right now and just enjoy every moment of it, because you know, it could all be over tomorrow (laughs).

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