Dropkick Murphys Bring Old School Oi to 'Sco Tonight

Admit it - you love punk rock. Even if you no longer own Never Mind the Bollocks and can't remember the words to "Know Your Rights," you love it. Even if you can't bring yourself to wear skintight plaid pants and scatter safety pins liberally through your wardrobe anymore, you still love it. And I'm not talking whiny, Seventeen pin-up pop punk like Blink 182 - I'm talking ass-kicking, malt-liquor-in-the-woods-behind-the-school-swillin' punk rock, the kind that makes you throw your body around indiscriminately, pump your fist and yell. So just admit it, get those suspenders out from the back of the sock drawer, throw some wood glue into the hair, and come out to see the Dropkick Murphys tonight at 10 p.m. at the 'Sco.

Mixing old-style Oi punk with Irish folk and adding their own no-bullshit touches, the Murphys are one of the few bright spots in a punk scene increasingly crowded with watered-down swill designed to appeal to a broader audience.

Like any good punk band, the Boston-based Murphys have been exceedingly prodigious in their four-year history. And like any good punk band, they have a different lineup than when they started. Original lead singer Mike McColgan departed in 1998 after growing tired of life on the road following the extensive tour for the Murphys' first full-length record, Do or Die. The lineup is pretty much intact otherwise, with original members bassist Ken Casey, guitarist Rick Barton and drummer Matt Kelly joined by new lead singer and longtime friend Al Barr for The Gang's All Here. Now one of the staples of Hellcat Records (headed by Rancid's Tim Armstrong), the band had already put out six 7" singles and a CD EP on several small labels by the time they signed in 1997, after being talked up by Armstrong's bandmate Lars Frederiksen (who also produced both Do or Die and The Gang's All Here).

The Gang's All Here: The Boston-based Oi rockers Dropkick Murphys get ready to rock the 'Sco at 10p.m. tonight. Suspenders and teenage angst are a must. (photo courtesy of Hellcat Records)

Do or Die has in a short time become a classic of that which remains of gritty Oi punk rock. The record boasts the inspiring bagpipe-infused opener, "Cadence to Arms," followed by the tear-it-up title track. The band slows it down for the first half of the Irish-tinged "Far Away Coast," and then speeds it up to kick some more ass. And then of course there's the traditional Irish favorite, "Finnegan's Wake"-of course done in the Murphys' own high-energy style.

The new record boasts more of the same. Some of the best tunes come on the second half of the record, starting with the catchy "Curse of a Fallen Soul" and continuing with a three-song stretch of "The Fighting 69th," "Boston Asphalt" and "Wheel of Misfortune." The band pulls off another Oi interpretation of a classic, with a guitar-and-bagpipes "Amazing Grace," and finishing off with the title track.

So admit it - you owe it to yourself to go see the Dropkick Murphys. If not for you, do it for your inner 17-year-old, angsty, blue-haired, anti-authority self. That you was always spitting and whining about how there wasn't anything to do - well, here's a chance to make up one night of wasted suburban teenagerhood in appropriate style.