Folk Punk is a strange crossover genre and Dropkick Murphys brought their headline show with Gogol Bordello to help give Manchester a more clear definition of the genre. It’s a genre that relies on traditional folk instruments as well as the intensity of punk rock to create a wild and raucous experience that you can bang your head to just as well as you can dance to. 

Gogol Bordello were first and from the first instance of Eugene Hütz shouting “pick it up pick it up”, the crowd was enamoured. Gogol Bordello’s marriage of punk and gypsy jazz music creates this high energy cocktail which leads to a feral audience dancing like maniacs. 

There were 9 members on stage including two guitarists, a violinist and an accordian player, for those who aren’t well versed in live music or numbers, that’s a lot. Despite taking up all the space on the stage, everyone still managed to move around and show off some energy. Their set was a brilliant opportunity to dance as they ripped through punky bangers like King Wonderlust, My Companjera and We Comin’ Rougher. 

The highlight of the set is obviously Start Wearing Purple which has such a brilliant jovial tone that’s impossible to listen to while keeping perfectly still. The dancing would continue through their set and long into the night as Dropkick Murphys got ready for their set. 

Finally, Dropkick Murphys made their way on stage and declared with their whole chest: The Boys are Back. Dropkick Murphys were a much more traditional punk band compared to Gogol Bordello but they were still fairly atypical a band due to their inclusion of the Bagpipes and other traditional Irish folk instruments. 

Dropkick Murphys are men of very few words, opting to let the music speak for them and allowing them to blast through a whopping 24 songs in the space of an hour. These tracks take from all over their expansive career and deal with subjects like the struggle of the working man, Irish heritage and living in their home state of  Massachusetts. 

It seems like a lot of the references made in these songs would be lost on people without a background in Irish-American relations and punk/folk history but these stories are written in such an engaging manner that they act as history lessons in themselves. Tracks like Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding and The Hardest Mile tell vivid stories without requiring background knowledge and if you’re already aware of these subjects then it just feels all the more detailed. 

Much like Gogol Bordello, it’s worth mentioning just how much of a massive undertaking it seems like to mix this show. With banjos, Bagpipes, guitars, violin, mandolin and drums, this mix could very easily have been an incoherent mess but you could hear every instrument clear as day. Just look at tracks like Captain Kelly’s Kitchen and the iconic Johnny We Hardly Knew Ya all being masterfully mixed and performed as the audience lost their collective minds. 

The set still consisted of massive fan favourite sing along moments like Rose Tattoo, Flannagan’s Ball and Going out in Style which helped a Manc audience get in touch with whatever Irish roots we still had in this city. There may not be much Irish blood in the audience but you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise based on the crowd in Manchester. 

There were also a handful of covers which include Which Side are You on by The Almanac Wingers, a song dedicated to “the three biggest cunts on earth: Donald Trump, Benjamin Natenyahu and Elon Musk”, a sentiment that many people with functioning braincells connected with. There was also a cover of It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock n Roll) by AC/DC which featured an amazing impression of Bob Scott from their bassist. 

The encore began with the drunken bar fight national anthem, Shipping Up to Boston. This track is a surefire way to get the blood pumping and fists flying even at the most civil events, the second that accordian kicks in, it’s all over. The song ended with a much more relaxed track, Until Next Time, which had just as much of a closing time at your local as End of the Night, a song that usually closes Dropkick Murphys shows. 

Whiskey flowed through the night and songs were shared between friends and that closes the book on another successful Dropkick Murphys show. Their shows are certainly best suited for die hard fans but they can still bring a lot of intensity and energy and that’s worth experiencing at least once in your life.