March 10, 2013: Dropkick Murphy's

Concert Details:

Bands: Dropkick Murphy's, Barroom Heroes

Location: 930 Club, Washington, DC

Setlist:

1. For Boston
2. The Boys are Back
3. Burn
4. Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya
5. Going Out in Style
6. The Gang's All Here
7. Out on the Town
8. A Few Good Men
9. Your Spirit's Alive
10. Prisoner's Song
11. The Wild Rover
12. Jimmy Collins' Wake
13. Worker's Song
14. The Battle Rages On
15. Broken Hymns
16. The Irish Rover
17. Out of Our Heads
18. The Warrior's Code
19. Rose Tattoo
20. Captain Kelly's Kitchen
21. I'm Shipping Up to Boston (Crowd Singing)

I last saw Dropkick Murphy's in 2006 at Warped Tour and they were glorious fun.  This show was disappointing.  I don't know if it was that I was tired or that the show felt mechanical, or that the crowd got on my nerves, but I just did not really enjoy the show very much.  I was so disappointed by the show that I didn't even stay for the encore.

There were some good points to the show.  The crowd was really into them which provided with a good energy; however because it was Dropkick Murphy's the crowd was also drunk and many people were rather annoying, including one guy in a kilt dancing around toward the side of the crowd running into people unabashedly and people from the balcony spilling beer.  

Another problem I had with the show was that it felt very mechanical as if they knew every move they were going to make and how they would react to every single move the crowd made.  My biggest problem with the show was that the band committed the single greatest crime I can consider a live band can make, and that is have the crowd sing an entire song.  Before they started playing I'm Shipping Up to Boston, they instructed the crowd to sing it while they played it.  Don't get me wrong I love when the crowd sings, but I love it when its part of a song or a chorus or maybe the very end at a long show but I don't like when it's an entire song, especially when it's the most popular song a band plays at the show.

I will see Dropkick Murphy's again and probably as early as September and will hope that this is a better show.