The Boston Globe raves about the new live Dropkick record!

It's time the Dropkick Murphys were recognized as one of Boston's best rock exports. The group recorded this live record over the course of three nights earlier this year at Avalon. It's a scorcher, featuring 25 songs showing off the Murphys' unique brand of whiplash punk dipped in Irish ale. The music has an urgency and passion that you rarely hear anymore, and the recording is crisp, capturing the night's electricity (including the Murphys' special relationship with their audience). There are many Murphy favorites, and plenty of evidence that there's more nuance to this music than the band is given credit for. Spicey McHaggis's bagpipes and Ryan Foltz's work on mandolin and tin whistle are fully integrated, alongside James Lynch's razor-sharp guitar work. The covers here include a hot-wired reading of ''Fortunate Son,'' an apt crystallization of the Murphys' working-class rock. They show their other roots with a ragged take on ''Dirty Water'' and a hell-bent version of Gang Green's classic ''Alcohol.'' While this is a record made in Boston (and there's a song called ''For Boston''), the music here transcends boundaries and is universal in its sense of community and defiant aggression.

Ken Capobianco

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