Dropkick Murphys - Boston TD Garden - 2013-03-15

Back on Black Friday, I purchased a VIP package for Wendy and me to go see the Dropkick Murphys at TD Garden in Boston on St Pat's weekend.  It turns out that there were about 300 people that had the VIP package which was a little more than I expected but still a relatively select group.

We arrived at TD Garden at about 3pm to wait to check in, and then waited about another 30 minutes before the festivities started.  As part of the package, we were able to go to the soundcheck.  The band played 5 songs for us.

The State of Massachusetts (which they did not play at any of their 3 concerts that weekend - only for us :) )
The Dirty Glass (with one of the Parkington Sisters)
Barroom Hero (they let someone from the crowd sing it)
Kiss Me I'm Shitfaced (Ken was trying out the acoustics while he walked the rink)
I don't remember the 5th tune.

 

 

After the soundcheck, we waited in the Legends Room at the arena for about 20 minutes before the band was ready for the meet and greet photoshoot.  Al Barr said he liked my t-shirt.

 



 

We then took the subway out near Fenway Park to McGreevy's which is owned by singer/bass player, Ken Casey.  The VIP folks had the bar to ourselves with free drinks and appetizers.  What are the odds we run into a couple from Mississippi who lived just south of Memphis within 10 minutes of where we used to live.  We stuck around for about an hour, and then took the subway back to the TD Garden for the show.

When we arrived at the Garden, Old Man Markley was just finishing up their set which is unfortunate because I wanted to see them.  We did get to see the Mahones and they did finish the set with my favorite tune of their's "Drunken Lazy Bastard".

Black 47 played next.  It was a snoozefest.  I was happy when it ended.

Then the Dropkick Murphys hit the stage and the place went nuts.  It was their first time playing TD Garden.  The security guards and police were a bit antsy.  They were throwing out all slamdancers and crowd surfers.  The band wasn't happy about it, but those were the rules.  After they mentioned it the second time to the audience, it seemed to slow down quite a bit.  The set list covered most of their catalog, and they played a lot of songs from their newest release Signed and Sealed in Blood.  They were also not permitted to allow the women on stage for "Kiss Me I'm Shitfaced" so Ken went into the crowd to sing it.

1.Cadence to Arms 
2.The Boys Are Back 
3.Burn 
4.Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya 
5.Prisoner's Song 
6.Fields of Athenry 
7.Homeward Bound 
8.Your Spirit's Alive 
9.Out On The Town 
10.Citizen C.I.A. 
11.Jimmy Collins' Wake 
12.Worker's Song (Acoustic)
13.The Battle Rages On 
14.The Dirty Glass (with Nora Parkington)
15.Going Out In Style 
16.My Hero 
17.Out of Our Heads 
18.The Warrior's Code 
19.Rose Tattoo 
20.The Irish Rover 
21.Barroom Hero 
22.I'm Shipping Up to Boston (played instrumental, crowd sang vocals)
Encore:
23.Kiss Me, I'm Shitfaced 
24.T.N.T.(AC/DC cover)

After the show, we had to walk around the arena to go pick up our Dropkick Murphys engraved flask and a tour poster signed by all of the members of the band.

It was quite a long day, but very memorable.  I am glad we got the VIP package and we had a great time.  There are more pictures of our trip here.