Keeping it reel

>> Brace yourselves for the Dropkick Murphys' Celtic street punk

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Maybe it's some small-print clause in the leap-year guidelines, but St. Patrick's Day is showing up a bit early this year. With its boots on. While the paint is still drying on the floats for this year's parade, Boston boys the Dropkick Murphys will be loading their gear into Club Soda, gear including not only the punk band's standard amps and guitars but also bagpipes, tin whistle, accordion, dulcimer and bodhran.

The band's first two albums of raw, oi-fuelled street punk featured an occasional tip of the scally cap to Celtic folk, but their latest, Sing Loud, Sing Proud, showcases a new, expanded lineup wherein the traditional flavour is baked right in. "In the studio, we've always been able to use traditional instruments in the arrangements," says singer Al Barr, "but were never able to fully explore that on stage. We never wanted to be limited in our live show, and we simply didn't have the players before. Now we do."

The band got everything they bargained for, and more, when they enlisted one Spicy McHaggis to handle bagpipe, kilt, chainsmoking and chubby-chasing duties. "Basically, we'd heard about this piper who piped in the fans of Revolution, the soccer team from New England. We heard he piped in the stands and the parking lots, and was into punk and Irish music. We'd had a girl playing the pipes on a few tours, but she wasn't doing it anymore and we wanted someone to come in and hold down the fort. Spicy also plays the tin whistle and he's learning the banjo, and he's just a good guy to have around. He's quite the character!"

Spicy isn't the only Celtic kook to make his way onto the disc; Shane McGowan contributes his snaggletoothed snarl to a track or two. "He is what he is," says Barr. "You get what you get. 'Bring the booze and I'll be there.'"

Another guest is Colin McFaull, singer for seminal oi unit Cock Sparrer. McFaull sat in on a tribute to Brian Deneke, an Amarillo, TX, punker run over by some asshole with a grudge who later walked. One high-profile punker who's fingerprints can't be found on Sing Loud, Sing Proud, though, is Rancid's Lars Fredriksen, bossman of the Hellcat label to which the Murphys are signed and producer of their first two discs. Bassist Ken Casey handled those chores this time. "You can learn a lot from your producer," says Barr, "and Lars always said there'd come a time when we'd want to step out on our own--take the training wheels off, so to speak. In fairness, even if we'd wanted him to do it, he was too busy at the time." Note that Fredriksen's other band, the Bastards, join the boys at Soda on Tuesday.

The new configuration of the band has allowed them to try some unusual things, like an unplugged in-store set at Tower Records. "It wasn't something we do a lot, although we would like to able to break down and do a pub-style show if we want to," says Barr. Still, a punk band's a punk band. "We actually had kids slamming in Tower Records!"

With Lars Fredriksen & the Bastards, Swinging Utters and Reach the Sky at Club Soda on Tuesday, March 13, 8pm, $17