Dropkick Murphys Concludes St. Patrick’s Day Tour At Mohegan Sun Arena
Dropkick Murphys brought the Irish out of everyone, ending their two week St. Patrick’s Day tour at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre PA, before heading back to Boston for their St. Patrick’s day live stream. The weather cooperated and although it was still cold and snowy, it was nothing like the nor’easter forecasted with almost two feet of snow that shifted just enough to the north to miss us. The Mohegan Sun Arena is home to the Penguins hockey team and although Dropkick Murphys does not like playing in large venue spaces, as they like interacting with their audience, they still put on a killer show and interacted immensely with their audience.
As the arena started to fill, standing room only on the arena floor and seats all around, concertgoers wore their traditional Irish caps, kilts, and their favorite Dropkick Murphys merch, and in true Irish fashion almost all had a beer in their hand.
Jesse Ahern opened the show, he was a solo act and set the stage for the upcoming performers. With an anchor tattoo by his right eye, playing his guitar, and his harmonica around his neck, he spoke about being excited to see his family after the tour.
Following Jesse Ahern were The Rumjacks, a Celtic punk band from Europe. With 5 members all playing various instruments and Mike Rivkees on vocals, they got the audience ready for the headliner.
Dropkick Murphys, a celtic punk band came on starting their set with one of their classics, “The Boys Are Back”, sending the crowd into cheers and wasting no time for crowd surfing.
A variety of instruments including bag pipes, an accordion, and banjo were being played by band members James Lynch (Guitarist), Matt Kelly (drummer), AL Barr (singer), Tim Brennan (instrumentalist), Jeff Da Rosa (instrumentalist). Having bag pipes and an accordion played in a Celtic rock band was very entertaining and different from what you normally see.
The show was full of energy with lots of engagement from lead vocals Ken Casey, one of the original founding members, who joined the crowd holding his mic up to various people to have them sing and encourage the crowd surfers. With the amazing light show on stage, and playing their cult classics, “I’m shipping up to Boston” and “Rose Tatoo”, the whole arena was singing along.
The whole atmosphere of the March 14th show, was constant energy from both the crowd and the band members. The engagement from on stage along with the constant crowd surfing made for an awesome night.
Dropkick Murphys never disappoint and definitely set the bar for St. Patrick’s day.
