Dropkick Murphys
Cain’s Ballroom
February 25, 2026
There’s a common coping mechanism for comment-section conservatives that you’ve probably come across: “the left are pu**ies that can’t fight.” A quick glance at Dropkick Murphys’ sold-out Cain’s crowd last month could disabuse the “sunglasses-inside-truck-selfie” clan of that notion.
The Boston Irish hardcore punk band celebrated its 30th anniversary with a tour stop at our city’s founding Klansman’s former garage, and there were “FUCK ICE” and “PUNCH NAZIS” shirts on view from the spring-loaded dance floor to the iconic rafters. Versions of those sentiments appeared across nearly every punk subculture present, from Chelsea cuts to crust vests, from combat boots to cabby hats.
Some on the left criticize the No Kings rallies as worthless and performative, and our President famously fantasizes in AI about dumping shit on their participants, but I find the events charming. People from all quadrants of the political compass are waking up to the fascist reality of our country and finding commonality in their fears through gatherings that undermine the right’s narrative that the left are all furries who need their own litter boxes. Outside of those rallies, there are No Kings cathedrals everywhere for those with eyes to see.
The Dropkick Murphys Tulsa show was one.
DKM incorporate Irish folk instruments into their Oi-informed working-class punk, but occupy a niche place on the celtic punk diagram. Less traditional than The Pogues, less campy than Flogging Molly, and just way more brutal than either. Boston hardcore has a long lineage of that brutality, with punk crews like FSU being included on FBI gang lists, and Dropkick’s founder, Ken Casey, running a boxing promotion. But that brutality is funneled into solidarity for the working class and marginalized people, and zero tolerance for the intolerant. I mean, the Boston Massacre kickstarted the American Revolution and made the Third Amendment necessary. If they weren’t quartering redcoats, why would they coddle ICE agents?