When Real Scottish Bagpipes Take Over the Stage (2012)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Venue: Tvornica Kulture / Zagreb / Croatia
Concert date: 24.01.2012
Attendance: 3000
Ticket price: 140,00 – 210,00 HRK

We finally got it! That Sunday, Boston’s Dropkick Murphys, one of the leading lights of Irish-style punk rock, kicked off a new boozy battle march with their first show at Zagreb’s Tvornica Kulture. After The Pogues at Zagreb’s Šalata last summer, we’d been drooling for more for ages, so the announcement of this gig was a very pleasant surprise. We were lucky to get our hands on tickets in time (thanks in part to the ever-resourceful Concert Freak), because Tvornica Kulture was completely sold out more than 14 days before the show.

Sadly, we missed the set by the Zagreb support act Šank, but we were all the more focused on the set list Dropkick Murphys used to kick off their hour-and-a-half of firestarting revelry at almost exactly 10 p.m.

As I already mentioned, Dropkick Murphys carry on the tradition of Irish punk that The Pogues firmly established in Europe. As far as I know, the Murphys made it to these parts for the first time ever, so it’s understandable that the wider, non-specialist public here barely knows them. The members come from Massachusetts, and all of them are of Irish descent, except lead vocalist Al Barr, who comes from Scottish parents. They’ve polished their version of Irish punk to perfection in the US. They sound a lot like England’s The Pogues, but they’re considerably tougher and more merciless in their delivery, and their lyrics deal with the hardships of dockworkers, mostly immigrants from northern Europe, with the working class, and with unions fighting capitalist exploitation and a system that doesn’t let the little guy breathe, never mind work. So there’s precious little room left for lyrics about romance, love, and carefree joys of life. Across the pond, the band is of course incomparably more popular. Every year around the biggest Irish holiday, St.Patricks Day, they put together a week-long mini tour around Boston.

The aforementioned lead vocalist, the Scot Al Barr, wasn’t there this time (reportedly due to health issues), so Ken Casey, who also plays bass guitar, took over lead vocals. The other members are drummer Matt Kelly, guitarist James Lynch, Josh Scruffy Wallace (bagpipes and tin whistle), Tim Brennan (guitar, mandolin, accordion) and multi-instrumentalist Jeff DaRossa, who masters everything on the list: acoustic guitar, banjo, keyboards, bouzouki, and then some.

What got them on the road this time was the release of their new, already seventh, album Going Out In Style, which came out in March 2011. So it was to be expected that they’d mostly play songs from that album. We counted seven in total. Happily, they didn’t neglect a single one of the other albums either, since they played at least one track from each.

Their show kicks off the way it should for true northern Europeans. With the whole band in place, Josh Scruffy Wallace shows up on stage first, like some Highlander in Scottish gear, and plays the first few bars of Your Spirit Alive from the album The Warriors Code on the bagpipes. Then the rest of the band joins in and the party can begin. Ken Casey, lead vocalist by force of circumstance, was already properly gasping for air in the second half of the show, so he needed a second or so more of a breather between songs than usual. Scruffy, meanwhile, proved that his lung capacity is nowhere near running out. He blasted the bagpipes mercilessly, and on some songs he handled the tin whistle brilliantly too. Tim Brennan showed that the accordion is a damn fine instrument that doesn’t just thrive on the Balkan folk-pop circuit. Every so often he swapped it for a guitar and tirelessly squeezed it back and forth. Jeff DaRossa also showed off his superiority by switching instruments, happily ripping on the banjo too. In short, we got a wide range of instruments that blended surprisingly well and sounded harmonious as a whole, at least as much as punk as such allows. They wrapped up the first 22 songs with Im Shipping Up To Boston. In case anyone doesn’t know what I’m talking about, that track is on the soundtrack of the film The Departed. The film, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2007, was directed by the famous Martin Scorsese and tells the story of the Boston underworld, where the Irish mob rules.

For the encore, singer Ken Casey, whose exhaustion was showing badly by then, Iggy Pop-style invited a few lovely ladies and some shirtless guys up on stage. The real peak came with the all-around partying on stage during Kiss Me, Im Shitfaced and Skinhead On The MBTA.

It’s maybe not even a surprise that a band that’s fairly unknown in these parts managed to fill Zagreb’s Tvornica Kulture to the last corner. That day, our neighbors were holding a referendum on joining the European Union, and the campaign leading up to it had even caused several clashes between the police and those who disagree with joining the new global formation. Rebellion, which is what punk is at its core, is clearly becoming very relevant again. Just as the theme of the working class rising up against exploitation for the enrichment of a handful of people is always relevant. Almost 3000 souls also cleaned out the entire merch range at the official stand. The bartenders rubbed their hands in satisfaction, because the beer flowed in rivers, unless of course it met the fate of flying through the air. Somewhere in the middle of the show, a flare even went off twice in the crowd, while the half-naked folks in the front rows went absolutely nuts, sang along with the band, and tirelessly chanted Lets Go Murphys during every minute of downtime. We were only a little disappointed by the sound, which wasn’t sharp enough, and we also waited in vain for the traditional Irish song The Irish Rover, which they pretty much had to play. Despite all that, it was a great show, a “must-see” for anyone who cares about punk rock at all, and we wouldn’t mind at all if it happened again sometime.

The haul of photos is more modest than usual this time, because the conditions for shooting were really tough. Those of you who have ever stood in front of the stage at Tvornica Kulture know what I’m talking about. The crush was indescribable, a flying glass of beer landed on my camera right at the start, and on top of that Ken Casey nearly sat on my head during one of his stage dive attempts. To top it all off, the organizers ruthlessly shoved the photographers out before the second song was even over.

The fact that Irish punk in the form of The Pogues and Dropkick Murphys is a very popular thing in Slovenia too is also proven by the good turnout of Slovenian concert fanatics. I wonder why nobody brings these bands to Slovenia as well? I’m sure that Ljubljana’s Križanke would be more than an excellent venue for this kind of party, and I absolutely don’t doubt it would draw a good crowd.

Setlist

1. Your Spirit Alive
2. The Warrior s Code
3. Course Of a Fallen Soul
4. Boys On the Docks (Murphys Pub Version)
5. The Spicy McHaggis Jig
6. Worker s Song
7. Upstarts and Broken Hearts
8. Amazing Grace
9. Time To Go
10. Get Up
11. Deeds Not Words
12. Memorial Day
13. Cruel
14. Climbing A Chair To Bed
15. Forever
16. Going Out In Style
17. Peg o My Heart
18. Fields of Athenry
19. Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya
20. Take Em Down
21. The State of Massachusetts
22. I’m Shipping Up To Boston