Back in our country, Dropkick Murphys provided a great show. Accompanied by the compatriots of Pennywise and the Australians of Rumjacks, it was the place to be for the night.
It’s in a room that fills up well that Mike Rivkees and the Rumjacks open the show with One for The Road, enough to make the fans rush in their 50cl beer orders to sing along with the band. There is not much better than this band to open a night of Celtic punk and the task is successful. In spite of a sound once again and probably for eternity, atrocious, thirty little minutes will have had the good taste to warm us up from this bitterly cold winter! The bassist gives it his heart’s desire, the amps jiggle under the impact of the jumps of the band and this festive rock has a unique class with pieces like A Fistful O’ Roses and the timeless An Irish Pub Song. If the connoisseurs know that the band is rather accustomed to the small rooms as the Belvedere in Namur, the fact of making dance Forest National so early has thus its merit and one can only congratulate them !
A welcome break of flutes and other mandolins, and we find the living legends of Pennywise. The public increased, the temperature rises and the Americans are not going to make in the softness ! With a discography as rich as their stage performance, we are in ecstasy in front of this group which marked so much the punk-rock scene. A very high level concert which would have deserved to finish in headliner ! Bro Hymn, Fuck Authority, a timeless moment that launched the first circle pits of the day. Enough to prepare the entrance of Dropkick Murphys on a red carpet … green rather !
After having spent the first two concerts with our heads in the speakers, we took a step back to appreciate the stage show of the Bostonians. The arrival on Foggy Dew and the 8000 lucky people of the evening welcome the stars of the evening as they deserve it. Without being fans of the style, we remain glued to this theatrical entrance of the band as the room is quickly transformed into a football stadium, everyone supports the Dropkick of course !
The show started on the hats of wheel but the wheel quickly turned. The middle of the set starts to become redundant and Ken Casey’s dives into the audience won’t manage to wake us up from the songs of the last two albums, a bit below what the band offered us during its great career. Without being a killjoy, it’s with a smile on our faces that we remain attentive to the different events, all choreographed in this American style set where the band will close the debates with Rose Tattoo, Worker’s song until the classic Kiss Me I’m Shitfaced, which will delight the fans of all time!
The evening was grandiose we will not lie. But sometimes we have the strange feeling that it is the alcohol which sings and not the ecstasy of the moment. Anyway, are you ready for Saint Patrick’s Day?
Set-list The Rumjacks: One For The Road, Bloodsoaked in Chorus, A Fistful O’Roses, Bullhead, Through These Iron Sights, Light In My Shadow, Hestia, An Irish Pub Song.
Set-list Pennywise: Fight Till You Die, My Own Country, My Own Way, Violence Never Ending, Same Old Story, Society, Do What You Want (Bad Religion cover), Pennywise, Fuck Authority, Stand By Me (Ben E. King cover), Bro Hymn
Set-list Dropkick Murphys: Foggy Dew (Sinéad O’Connor and the Chieftains version), The Lonesome Boatman (The Fureys cover), The Boys Are Back, Turn Up That Dial, Ten Times More, Johhny, I Hardly Knew Ya, Middle Finger, Two 6’s Upside Down, All You Fonies, Barroom Hero, Famous For Nothing, Cadillac,Cadillac, Worker’s song (with Jesse Ahern), Where Trouble Is At, Going Out In Style, Smash Shit Up, Queen Of Suffolk County, The Wild Rover (traditional cover), The Last One, Skinhead on the MBTA, Good As Gold, Dirty Old Town (Ewan MacColl cover), I’m Shipping Up To Boston, Rose Tattoo, Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding, Kiss me, I’m Shitfaced, My Way (Frank Sinatra song)