Dropkick Murphys Is Still Standing Up for the People

Dropkick Murphys is shipping up to Denver for the Punk in the Park festival this weekend to close out the three-day event on Sunday, July 20, at the National Western Stockyards.

The boys from Boston also have a new album, For The People, in tow to celebrate the occasion. The record hit streaming services on the Fourth of July, and the physical release, which includes five bonus tracks, is set to drop on October 10.

“It’s my favorite batch of songs that we’ve put out up until this point,” longtime guitarist Tim Brennan says of the twelve latest songs. “As the process unfolded and I [could] see we were coming up with some real different stuff and Ken [Casey, vocalist] was really digging in lyrically, I knew that this was going to be a Dropkick record that I was incredibly proud of."

Showcasing collaborations with several musicians — the Scratch, the Mary Wallopers, Billy Bragg — For The People sees Dropkick returning to its rowdy Celt-punk roots, including on lead single “Who’ll Stand With Us?”, an everyman anthem about the blood, sweat and tears of the Middle Class and how the wealthy have always took advantage of and divided blue-collar workers.

“I think this is musically speaking record is a little bit different for us in the sense that there are songs on here that are throwback-sounding to earlier Dropkick days, as far as the straight-ahead punk stuff,” says Brennan, who’s also contributed mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, piano and keys since joining the Quincey, Massachusetts, crew in 2003.

“At the same time, there’s a bunch of songs where we really stretched our legs.”
Like “The Vultures Circle High,” an inspiring dirge that showcases the vocals of veteran Dropkick singer Al Barr, who’s been on hiatus since 2022. The group currently includes drummer Matt Kelly, guitarist James Lynch, multi-instrumentalist Jeff DaRosa and bassist Kevin Rheault.

In typical Dropkick fashion, the lyrics throughout For The People are laced with political and personal reflections. Brennan credits Casey’s ability to weave current social issues and sentimentality seamlessly into the band’s music for that. He’s essentially punk-rock Bruce Springsteen, in that sense.

“As crummy as times are right now, politically speaking, he’s the type of guy who’s not going to just sit back and let all that pass. He has strong feelings about it, so that gives him the fuel to continue to write songs about it,” Brennan explains.

“It would be difficult to not comment on all this stuff. Part of the surprising thing is now that there is all of this going on in the world, Ken will sometimes take an opportunity during a live show to speak on our views on the whole thing. It’s nice to be in a band that’s able to do that, especially when you feel like you’re on the right side of history with what you’re saying.”

The latest example was the friendly wager Casey proposed to a man wearing MAGA merch in the front row during the March 10 Dropkick show in Clearwater, Florida. When it was proven that the Trump-themed shirt was made in Nicaragua —unlike the band's merch, which is made in the U.S. — the MAGA dude conceded to trading his shirt for one of the band's. "The second we walked off stage that night, I grabbed him by the shoulders and was like, ‘That was fucking beautiful.’ I had never been so proud to stand there next to him that night,” Brennan recalls.

“We caught wind that they were there and looking to fuck with us pretty early on in the night. I thought that was handled so, so well, and so diplomatically. It just goes to show there’s no need for the sort of super-aggressive back-and-forth. You can have a discussion about it,” he continues. “Somebody’s views doesn’t necessarily make them a bad person. If you can talk with somebody about that sort of thing on a human level, person to person.”

It wasn’t the first time Casey called out fans, and it probably won’t be the last. It’s part of Dropkick’s DNA. “As long as we have something to say, we’re going to keep going,” Brennan says. “It’s not difficult to come up with new stuff.”

Punk in the Park, 4 p.m. Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20, National Western Stockyards, 5004 National Western Drive. Tickets are $67-$243