Mitsubishi Electric Hall, Duesseldorf, Germany2nd February 2025
Dropkick Murphys - “UK + Europe Winter 2025” - Support: Gogol Bordello, The Scratch
It’s a long-established tradition for the DROPKICK MURPHYS to make a stop in good old Germany more or less every year in February or March. We were part of the party in Duesseldorf and experienced the band in good spirits together with two impressive support acts in the Mitsubishi Electric Hall, which was not sold out but still very well packed.
The Scratch
However, THE SCRATCH kicked things off. Because there was another support band, GOGOL BORDELLO, the Irish quartet from Dublin started shortly before 7.30 pm and really fired up the crowd. What was striking about the performance of the band, which was only founded in 2016, was that percussionist and singer Daniel ‘Lango’ Lang did not take his place at the back of the stage, as is more common with drummers, but in the centre at the very front of the stage. He was also not surrounded by a drum set, but simply sat behind a cajón, a box-shaped percussion instrument, which he operated with “curved” sticks. And with these sticks in his hands, the bandleader hammered away at his cajón, seemingly out of his mind, creating a somewhat monotonous but nevertheless incredibly powerful tribal percussion sound that gave the band the necessary groove. Meanwhile, the three other members of THE SCRATCH on bass and guitar added a melodic touch to the music. Together, the music, a mix of Irish Traditionals and hard metal sounds, was thoroughly convincing.
Gogol Bordello
The second support act was a very special act: GOGOL BORDELLO. The band was totally unknown to me until then. It was only through social networks that I realised that this group from New York, led by Ukrainian immigrant Eugene Hütz, has a relatively large fan base behind it and is therefore a rather popular support act. While it was easy to keep an overview during THE SCRATCH, it was a lot more difficult with GOGOL BORDELLO. There were sometimes ten or even more musicians on stage. And every single one of them put on a show that ultimately led to me awarding the band full marks for their performance. What a gig. And what a wonderfully colourful band. Alongside frontman Hütz, violinist Sergey Ryabtsev and accordionist Erica Mancini whirled across the stage. In addition to the very cool drummer Korey Kingston, Pedro Erazo played other percussion instruments, but also repeatedly took centre stage as a singer.
Musically, the extremely lively folk punk or gypsy punk only won me over to a limited extent. A lot of the music seemed improvised to me, but in the end, everything had a lot of substance and the performance of this band was simply a great show.
Setlist
01. I Would Never Wanna Be Young Again
02. Not a Crime
03. Wonderlust King
04. My Companjera
05. Dance around the fire
06. From Boyarka To Boyaca
07. Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher)
08. We Mean It Man
09. Start Wearing Purple
10. Pala Tute
Dropkick Murphys
At exactly 9.30 pm, the time was finally up for DROPKICK MURPHYS. The Folk Punk band is still on tour without their frontman Al Barr. Although he is still part of the band, he is continuing to care for his mother, who suffers from dementia, and has already missed two studio albums and the accompanying tours due to these personal circumstances. Since the temporary departure of his buddy Al Barr, Ken Casey is the only remaining singer in the band. So, the DROPKICK MURPHYS took to the stage and showed themselves from the start to be the band that always seeks to get close to its fans. It was singer Ken Casey in particular who, especially in the first half of the gig, took every opportunity to step onto the platform in the photo pit to get up close and personal with the fans. He gave out countless high fives and repeatedly held his microphone up to individual fans so that they could take over the vocals for a brief moment. And when the opportunity presented itself, mandolin player Jeff DaRosa was also drawn to the front from time to time.
Musically, the men offered a mix of songs that relied more on older songs from previous albums for their own material. The last two studio albums were completely bypassed. As a result, the Boston band’s concert had more of a best-of character, with hits such as ‘The Boys Are Back’ (as the second song), ‘Rose Tattoo’, ‘The State Of Massachusetts’ and ‘I’m Shipping Up To Boston’. The set list was supplemented by various covers in which the DROPKICK MURPHYS borrowed from AC/DC and THE POGUES, for example. After 24 songs and almost exactly 90 minutes, the spectacle was over. In 2025, DROPKICK MURPHYS once again proved themselves to be a captivating band who simply know how to bring their live qualities to the stage.
Setlist
01. Captain Kelly’s Kitchen
02. The Boys Are Back
03. Prisoner’s Song
04. Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding
05. Going Out in Style
06. Bastards on Parade
07. James Connolly (Black 47 cover)
08. (F)lannigan’s Ball
09. Which Side Are You On? (The Almanac Singers cover)
10. Sirens
11. Middle Finger
12. Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya
13. The Body of an American (The Pogues cover)
14. The Bonny (Gerry Cinnamon cover)
15. Curse of a Fallen Soul
16. The Hardest Mile
17. Walk Away
18. It’s a Long Way to the Top (AC/DC cover)
19. The State of Massachusetts
20. Rose Tattoo
21. Until the Next Time
22. The Irish Rover (Joseph M. Crofts cover)
23. I’m Shipping Up to Boston
24. Worker’s Song
All pictures by André Wilms
