Las Vegas Weekly

August 7, 2010 · 3:36 PM

Photos: Dropkick Murphys at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel

By Robin Leach

Dropkick Murphys at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel on Aug. 6, 2010.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

By Erik Kabik, contributing photographer

Dropkick Murphys, one of the most beloved punk-inspired bands in the world, brought its show to The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel last night. It was an incredibly high-energy performance and the first time I photographed a bagpipe player.

From meager beginnings playing all-ages matinees at now-defunct Boston clubs to a prominent placement in Martin Scorcese’s Academy Award-winning film The Departed, Dropkick Murphys has evolved over the past decade into a popular punk-inspired group. Now with The Meanest of Times, the band’s sixth studio album of spirited, cathartic and heartfelt anthems, the seven-piece outfit also has launched its own record label, Born & Bred Records, to bring new DKM music to the world while taking control of its destiny.

As evidenced by the explosive, uncompromising and downright brilliant album opener, “Famous for Nothing,” and the set bowing, optimistic roar of “Never Forget”, The Meanest of Times is book ended in top form and captures in its 15 tracks what founding bassist Ken Casey calls “themes of childhood, growing up and family.”

“To me, the record is a celebration of life,” frontman Al Barr adds. “It’s about redemption. It’s about coming up in the world and the way it shapes you. It’s about not taking your family and friends for granted, and it’s about living in the moment. The cover is a bunch of Catholic school kids messing around and looking angry on the playground. And if you think back to your elementary and high school years, in a lot of ways, they sometimes really were the meanest of times.”

The band performed at The Sex Pistols’ infamous 2002 Golden Jubilee Gig and wrote the theme song to the highly improbable 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series championship, their first in 86 years. DKM collaborated with Woody Guthrie’s estate to use the folk pioneer’s unpublished lyrics to craft “Gonna Be a Blackout,” and there was the use of “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” from” The Warrior’s Code” in The Departed.

A Dropkick Murphys live show is easily one of the most exciting and invigorating around, as particularly evident if you’ve ever been to one of the sold-out St. Patrick’s Day shows in Boston.

Casey says, “I think it’s almost like we’re going to a show every night ourselves, because the audience is entertaining to us just as much as we’re performing for them. Our fans are so unpredictable. You never know when some drunk is gonna take his clothes off and rub up against you, not that I want to encourage that type of thing!

“When you get up onstage for two hours of your day, it reminds you why you do it,” Barr interjects. “It’s the audience and the fervor that you feel. A lot times, I don’t embrace it until I hit the stage, but then I come alive, and the reason why I do this, why I love this so much, is nailed into my forehead.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

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