Initial Years of Dropkick Murphys
Dropkick Murphys was formed in Quincy in mid 1990s. Over the years, the band’s lineup has changed quite a lot, but the original members were Ken Casey, Mike McColgan, Jeff Erna and Rick Barton. The band’s first break came when it was chosen by Mighty Mighty Bosstones to open their 1997 tour, which was in support of their album “Let’s Face It”. This was followed by Murphys releasing a number of EPs, which eventually led them to sign with the Hellcat Records. Their first studio album by the name of “Do or Die” was released in 1998. It was followed by McColgan’s farewell to the band. He was later replaced by Al Barr, who was previously The Bruisers’ lead singer.
Their second studio album, “The Gang’s All Here” was released a year later. The band managed to find mainstream success after the release of the video of their song 10 Years of Service. It was featured on 120 Minutes, a famous MTV show. This commercial success was followed by the release of their third album “Sing Loud, Sing Proud!” in 2001. Two years later, “Blackout” hit the market which featured Walk Away, the song that received a lot of airplay. It also included the famous song Fields of Athnery. Time To Go from the same album was later chosen as the soundtrack of Tony Hawk’s Underground game.
2007 Chart Success Onwards
In 2007, Dropkick Murphys “The Meanest of Times” was released through the Born & Bred Records. It debuted at twenty within the US. The first track from the album, The State of Massachusetts was also an instant hit. It was chosen to be the theme of Nitro Circus, a show on MTV. On the Rolling Stone’s list of Top 100 2007 songs, it reached 88th spot. Their song, I’m Shipping to Boston was chosen as Australian Football League’s 2009-10 season official anthem. This was followed by several important performances by the band, which includes their performance in one of the games during the NHL Winter Classic. The band’s latest studio album, “Signed and Sealed in Blood” was released in January 2013 and was given 4 rating by allmusic.com.
Lucero
The country-punk and rock band, Lucero is going to appear in the upcoming 2014 Dropkick Murphys tour as special guest. Lucero was formed in 1998 and over the years their music has refined a lot. Their sound is labeled as “synthesis of rock, soul and country.” The band started playing from Memphis where it was formed. Since 2001, they have been arranging around 200 concerts every year across Canada and the US. They are also often labeled as the decade’s hardest working band. Till day, the band has released eleven studio albums, latest being “Texas & Tennessee” which came out in 2013.
Skinny Lister
Skinny Lister is going to open for Dropkick Murphys during several of their tour stops. The six piece folk punk band from London was formed in 2009. Initially, the band entered the music industry by adding three of their songs on iTunes – Plough & Orion. In 2010 came out their two discs “Grand Union EP”. After getting introduced to the music industry, the band started arranging live performances, which included several festivals. During 2011, they were labeled as the “Hardest Working Band in UK” for arranging more live concerts than any other band.