It’s a strange St. Patrick’s Day around Boston. Last year, as the pandemic slowly crept upon us, the weird novelty of a celebration-less holiday (except for some Southie souls who were quickly scolded by our mayor) carried us through the day. This year, it’s just a fucking bummer, and while some bars are open for boozy biz, it’s really just not the same time-honored shitshow March 17 usually is around these parts. But we can count on Dropkick Murphys, and just like they did last year with their wildly successful livestream, the Boston band will once again light up the stage across our digital screens.
The Dropkicks perform another St. Patrick’s Day livestream tonight (March 17), this one dubbed Dropkick Murphys St. Patrick’s Day Stream 2021… Still Locked Down. It gets started around 7 p.m. Boston time, and it streams around the world via DKMstream.com. Consider it a bit of an album release pre-party as well, as the band’s new 10th studio album, Turn Up That Dial, is out April 30.
The show is presented by Boston-area tech company Pega, and donations will be accepted to help the band pay their expenses and crew during this extended downtime. Those who chip in some coin in advance or during the stream will have their name featured in the ticker at the bottom of the screen, so bottom’s up.
“Instead of charging for tickets, we’re going to ‘pass the virtual hat’ so you can donate what you’d like to help support us in our efforts to keep paying our employees,” says Ken Casey. “When we did the first two free livestreams for charity, our fans were super generous and we raised lots of money for good causes. But frankly, we’ve been out of work for over a year, so this one, we’ve gotta make about us. Of course, a portion will also go to charity, as always! ”
Those two livestreams Casey cites were last year’s Streaming Outta Fenwayand Streaming Up From Boston. The former was their May show at Fenway Park with Bruce Springsteen, which raised $700,000 for various charities (Boston Resiliency Fund, Feeding America, Habitat for Humanity, Greater Boston). The latter was their aforementioned St. Patrick’s Day gig, held digitally instead of in the clubs, just as everything was shutting down; the show has been viewed more than 13 million times across multiple online platforms and raised more than $60,000 through the band’s charity organization The Claddagh Fund.
The poster below has all needed details in tidy flyer form.
