It's a sold-out night at Sydney's Roundhouse (20 November), for a double header of two distinct styles of punk rock from Boston's Dropkick Murphys and Chicago's Alkaline Trio.
It's the first time Dropkick Murphys have performed in Australia since 2018 and the first Australian tour in ten years for the Alkaline Trio. It's been 2-plus decades of creating music for Alkaline Trio, and their 10 album discography is tough to fit into a 45-minute set.Alkaline Trio aren't the same band Australians saw ten years ago. In that time, vocalist Matt Skiba had his well-known period as vocalist-guitarist for the kings of pop-punk, Blink-182 - replacing Tom DeLonge.
Bassist, Dan Andriano released the celebrated album 'High Crimes' with metal-punk royalty supergroup The Damned Things. Long-term drummer, Derek Grant departed the band in 2023. You'd be hard pressed to find a replacement with more experience than new drummer Atom Willard, whose career includes stints with The Offspring, Angels & Airwaves, Against Me!, Rocket From The Crypt, Social Distortion and much more.
Despite the changes, the band are as tight as ever. Highlights of the almost hour-long set included 'Armageddon', 'Mercy Me' and 'Private Eye', which saw the biggest audience reaction and response.
The loudest sing-along of the set came during the beginning line of the final song 'Radio', as the crowd screamed one of the most iconic metaphors of all time: 'Shaking like a dog sh.tin' razorblades.' With that Alkaline Trio left the stage; hopefully, it won't be ten years before we see them live again.
The seven members of Dropkick Murphys rush in and takeover the space, immediately going into 'Worker's Song'. Vocalist Ken Casey wastes no time and jumps into the crowd pushing the microphone into people's faces so they can sing-along too. A true man of the people.
At times it's hard to place what sound is coming from which member. There's a carousel of instruments coming on and off the stage. Outside of the ordinary electric, acoustic and bass guitars, the instruments vary from bagpipes, banjo, accordion, fiddles and recorders.
It's a wall of sound built on by each member having their own microphone, adding to the sing-alongs and layered vocals that the band is synonymous for. No one does it better. The Dropkick Murphy's set is truly joyous.
One of the most intriguing things about the band is how multi-generational they are – people of all ages are here. This is shown by Ken giving a shoutout to someone on the upper level who is holding a sign saying they're here for their 81st birthday, which is a stark contrast to the younger audience moshing in the front.
Dropkick Murphys present this warmness and familiarity of seeing an old friend's pub band playing to 100 people, even though they're performing onstage to thousands. It's a testament to their unique connection with the crowd.
Gems of their set included 'The State Of Massachusetts', 'First Class Loser' – which Ken dedicates to Donald Trump – and 'Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya'. Their last song before the encore – and one of the standout moments – is 'I'm Shipping Up To Boston', which sees many people preemptively leave before the band return to the stage, thinking it's the end.
They perform a two-song encore of 'The Boys Are Back' and 'Rose Tattoo', which sees the loudest sing-alongs of the night. It's hard not to leave a Dropkick Murphys' show without a massive smile on your face.
