Scratch Magazine reviews the Dropkick Murphys live in Tulsa

With a bill like this, you can't go wrong. Hot off the heels of this year's Warped Tour, Dropkick Murphy's jumped headfirst into their first national tour in support of BLACKOUT. And as usual, they were sure to bring along good company.

Opening the show was Last Target. Those familiar with the sounds of Thug Murder will know what Last Target are about. From Tokyo, Last Target played a rousing set of energetic street punk. As they took the stage, I was anxious to see how the crowd would respond. While often hard to understand due to heavy Asian accents, the music was tight and was very well-received. Everyone from the skins to the punk kids were chanting along and pumping their fists as ex-Thug Murder vocalist Ryoko Naitoh uninhibitedly used the whole stage.
Giving the kids just long enough to catch their breath, Roger Miret and crew jumped in to knock the air right back out of them. It had been about a year since I had last seen The Disasters, and their relentless tour schedule of late has left them with a much tighter set. After touching on pretty much every song from their debut album, Roger won the crowd over with a cover of Agnostic Front's hardcore anthem "Gotta Go". There wasn't a soul that wasn't singing "From the East Coast to the West Coast...."

With the torch being passed on to Boston's The Unseen, the leather jackets and Mohawks found their way from the bar to the front row. Also fresh off Warped '03, it was refreshing to see the band off of the big stage and back into the familiar rowdy, sweaty, and (sometimes a little too) intimate club environment. The Unseen mixed it up with old and new, completely kicking everyone's ass before turning things over to the almighty Dropkicks.

As the lights dimmed and "The Foggy Dew" gradually got louder over the P.A., the size of the crowd seemed to instantly double. The infamous chant "Let's go Murphy's" soon drowned out the P.A., and flags waved throughout the venue. "Boston" immediately washed over the crowd, followed by "Gonna Be a Blackout Tonight". The set continued with both Dropkick standards (such as "Barroom Hero" and "John Law"), as well as plenty of stuff from their newest release, BLACKOUT. In true DKM fashion, they finished of the night with "Skinhead On the MTBA". All of the skins in the house piled on stage, only to be followed by anyone else brave enough to hazard the frenzy. There wasn't a more fitting way to end a great night of such talented bands.

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