DROPKICK MURPHYS VISIT UNVISTED VENUES
An interview with Al Barr
by Jason Walsh
I had the opportunity to talk with Dropkick
Murphys frontman Al Barr about the quick November
tour they are about to begin. Following an
intensive year of touring, the boys from Boston
will be hitting a bunch of cities not usually
on their U.S. tour schedule, like Atlantic
City. However, it seems we talked more about
baseball than the band. Al is a good guy and
class act...read on...
Q: Let's just talk about this past year.
You guys have had a really great year, it's
been really busy, you have a new record out,
all sorts of touring going on. Tell me a little
about this past year for you guys.
AL: Yeah, we've just been touring on the
new record, y'know. Well, now it's 13 months
old so it's not so new anymore. September
we finished kind of a year of touring on it
and we're just getting ready to do a little
more touring before Thanksgiving and the holidays.
That's about it. Just been touring.
Q: What made you guys decide to do this quick
November tour, and it looks like you're hitting
a lot of places that you haven't been to in
a long time?
AL: Well, that's just it. We wanted to go
out because we actually just closed down.
My wife's having a second child in December
and my son's birthday is in December and you
got Christmas in December. Kenny, the bass
player and another singer in the band, he's
got two kids as well and their birthdays are
in December. We shut down pretty much from
Thanksgiving 'til the New Year so we wanted
to get out there and hit some places we hadn't
been in a while.
Q:
I did an interview with Matt and one of the
places you're going to be going to is Louisville
and you guys hadn't been to Louisville since
1997, played in a small bar and were paid
$5 in quarters and taken to White Castle.
AL: (laughing) Yeah, I wasn't there for that
one. But yeah I've heard Matt talk about it.
Q: O.K., so this was before you were in the
band.
AL: Yeah, I joined in 1998. That was before
my watch.
Q: So, you were in there right after that.
AL: But I have been paid in small change
before.
Q: That's just kind of the lot of being in
a band that's touring. You never know what
you're going to get into, but you guys are
in a better place now than that I'm thinking.
AL: A little bit.
Q: Tell me about some of the highlights of
touring this year.
AL: We've been, y'know, all over the country,
we've been to Europe a bunch of times. We've
been to Australia and Japan, did Reading and
Leeds, and a bunch of other festivals this
summer so we were busy.
Q: So you guys got the holidays off. What
kind of stuff are you going to be getting
into in the New Year. You going to be doing
any recording? I understand you're writing
a little but I mean that's probably something
you guys always do.
AL: We kind of try to write as you go so
that way when you get to the point where you're
ready to start working on a new record you're
not just cramming, you know what I mean? But
as far as the new year goes, we're real excited
because we got the Big Day Out, which is a
big festival in Australia, so we're planning
on going to Australia for about three weeks
in January, and New Zealand as well. We really
love Australia. We've been to New Zealand
only one other time and that was really cool,
so we're looking forward to that, y'know.
It's really cool, this band has afforded us
all the luxury of being able to travel all
over the world and that's pretty amazing.
Q: And that's got to be kind of a cool thing.
When you first start in a band, you do some
local tours, maybe you do regionals, then
a U.S. tour, then all of a sudden you guys
are in a place where you're going to all these
places you probably never would have thought
you'd be going to.
AL: Yeah, it's definitely a privilege to
be able to go all over the world and have
people show up to hear you and hear your band.
It's a pretty cool thing for sure. It doesn't
get much better.
Q: Anything else coming in the New Year.
Looking to record or anything coming out?
AL: It's really too soon to tell. I mean
we got ideas. But, we got St. Patrick's Day,
that's the big thing we do every year in Boston.
We do a series of shows and we're going to
be doing another trip to Europe I think and
some more U.S. and more festivals in the summer
in Europe, so we'll be keeping busy. St. Patty's
and the Australian tour are the things right
in the near future.
Q: I been up to Boston for the St. Patty's,
it was two years ago, when the great blizzard
got me stranded in Philly so I missed two
of the shows.
AL: Uggh...
Q:
But loved going up there when I finally made
it. Got to go to the Southie parade. I loved
your city, fell in love with it. I grew up
in the Philadelphia area so to go somewhere
like that, and be in your guys' hometown where
you guys played a home game was incredible.
AL: Well if you grew up in Philly, you must
be pretty excited about your team being in
the World Series, huh?
Q: (laughing) I'm not going to get into that
yet, because I know you guys are still in
mourning over that.
AL: No, no...I'm all right. I got family
in Philly and I've moved on from the Sox losing,
and I'm supporting Philly and hoping they
win. I hope they kick the crap out of Tampa.
Q: I watched game one and I was like, I can't
believe they beat them at home.
AL: Yeah.
Q: And then come game two I was like "uhhh..."
AL: That didn't work to well for the Red
Sox either. They won the first time in Tampa
as well, so we'll see what happens.
Q: Hopefully we won't have a repeat. I'll
tell you what, being a person from the area,
we haven't had anything in the longest time.
AL: Yeah, it's like 35 years, right?
Q: Oh my god...yeah, I mean, yeah...
AL: Not quite the 86 years that we had, but
still, y'know.
Q: Yeah, but you guys caught up and made
up for it in spades. I mean you won everything?
AL: Yeah, it's been pretty good for New England
sports, for sure.
Q: O.K. getting back, when do you guys start
planning for the St. Patty's shows? Is there
anything you guys have started looking into?
AL: Oh, we're already planning for it. We're
already trying to figure out where we're going
to do it this year and what bands we're going
to have. All that. There's nothing concrete
yet but we're definitely on. Everything's
going, the conversation is in the planning
stages now, so we start pretty early on that.
We hope to have tickets on sale before Christmas,
I think. In an ideal world, that would be
what we want.
Q: And now you kind of have a base of operations
with McGreevy's (Ken Casey's pub at Fenway)
down there on the third base line.
AL: Yeah, you know, I think whenever we're
not practicing, we all have to meet somewhere,
we all meet at Ken's bar, so that's pretty
convenient.
Q: How's that place doing?
AL: It's doing well. Y'know, I've only been
there a couple of times myself. I'm not the
barfly I used to be, but it's definitely a
nice place and it's usually doing all right.
Q: Yes, we all get older, have families,
and you just can't go to the pub every night.
AL: (laughs) That's right...
Q: Is there anything that we haven't touched
on that you think is important that people
should know?
AL: We're just excited to come to your town.
We're psyched to go to these places that we
haven't been to in a while, y'know, play some
of the new music, relatively new music for
people and get our groove on, as they say.
Q: And I know I'm going to be doing this
for Louisville and they haven't seen you guys
in, god, eleven years, so give a big shout
out to Louisville and tell them why they should
come out and see you guys.
AL: Well, you just said it yourself. It's
been a bit of a while since we've been down
there. I had a friend actually call me that
lives down there and said that we're playing
some weird like place, I forget the name of
it now, but he said 'you're playing THIS place,
why aren't you playing THAT place?' and I'm
like 'I don't know? Don't ask me. I'm not
from there.' But we're psyched to be down
there and it will be a good time for sure.
Q: All right Al, well you have a wonderful
weekend, enjoy your time off, and hopefully
I'll be able to make it up to Boston this
next year to see you guys again.
AL: All right man, thanks for the interview.
You take care and have a good night. Have
a good weekend.
THE DROPKICK MURPHYS WILL BE PLAYING WITH
EVERYBODY OUT, THE MAHONES, AND THE LOVED
ONES AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES IN ATLANTIC CITY
ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8.
