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Review: Dropkick Murphys – Live on Lansdowne, Boston MA
UNDER THE GUN
On March 17, 2010, in Music Reviews, by James Shotwell
Artist: Dropkick Murphys
Album: Live on Lansdowne, Boston MA
Genre: Celtic Punk
Label: Born & Bred
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, the UTG staff decided to simplify the job of picking your celtic Holiday soundtrakc and simply highlight the best release we’ve found for the occasion in 2010. After hours of listens, a couple of Guinness, and a handful of jigs, we found that no other release this holiday season truly encapsulates the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day likeLive on Lansdowne, Boston MA, the new cd/dvd release from Boston’s own Dropkick Murphys.
Recorded over their near week long stint of St. Patty’s Day shows at the House of Blues on Lansdowne St. in Boston [directly across the street from Fenway Park], Live on Lansdowne, Boston MA is everything you’d expect from the Murphys and so much more. Over the course of 20 live staples [25 if you go the iTunes route], DKM deliver to their hometown crowd again and again. The band does a great job of blending material from The Meanest of Times and other recent releases with just enough classic cuts to keep the old school fans intrigued throughout. If that’s not enough, add an immeasurably awesome guest appearance from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones on the the timeless “Shipping Up To Boston” during the encore and I dare you to say you can handle another minute without taking a break to catch your breath.
Live on Lansdowne, Boston MA is a truly definitive collection of [the] Dropkick Murphys’ catalog. All the fan favorites are here with a great sampling of deeper album cuts and the crowd goes crazy for every track. Regardless whether you’re watching the extremely well shot dvd portion or jamming out to the live record this St. Patrick’s Day, one thing is certain: This is the only soundtrack you’ll need while you enjoy your green beer and haggis.
Score: 9/10
Review written by: James Shotwell
PULSE MAGAZINE
CHAMPAGNE DIRECTS DROPKICK MURPHYS LIVE DVD
National recording artists Dropkick Murphys released their latest live album, Live On Lansdowne – Seven Shows In Six Nights on their Born and Bred Records label on March 16th, 2010. The “Deluxe Edition” of this album release will include a live DVD that features over 70 minutes of the Dropkick Murphys’ concerts held at the House of Blues in Boston in 2009. The DVD and live album were released just in time for St. Patrick’s Day and the Dropkick Murphys’ annual hometown shows which ran (to sold out houses) from Friday, March 12 through the 17th. Live On Lansdowne – Seven Shows in Six Nights is available for purchase on the Dropkick Murphys official website as well as major distributers everywhere.
This is the first major music video release for Worcester County-native Torey Champagne, who directed, produced and edited the live DVD for Torey Champagne Productions. After founding his own production company in early 2009, Champagne rapidly demonstrated his talents in the world of sports and entertainment media. Torey Champagne Productions has done work for companies such as ESPN, Fox Sports, Comcast SportsNet, and every major professional sports team in Boston. He has released two documentaries in the Boston television market, including the Emmy Award-winning Manny Being Manny – The Final Days In Boston. Prior to Champagne’s career as a director/producer, he was a multi-talented musician who toured with bands such as Incubus and System of a Down, and he currently plays in a band called Sleep Alive. Champagne’s experience on stage shines through in his ability to capture the raw energy and excitement of a Dropkick Murphys live performance. Read more about Torey in our interview with him for the August issue of Pulse!
Dropkick Murphys, 'Live on Lansdowne, Boston MA"
March 15, 2010
Steve Morse - The Boston Globe
The formula continues. The Dropkick Murphys — Boston’s own masters of mayhem — already released a live album from their St. Patrick’s week occupancy in the city in 2002. Here comes a follow-up from last year’s House of Blues run, but to the band’s credit it has different material except for the crowd-bonding track “Forever.’’ The music is drawn mostly from their past three studio discs — “Blackout,’’ “The Warrior’s Code,’’ and “The Meanest of Times’’ — but the all-out party vibe still dominates. This CD can be purchased separately, but for lovers of the Murphys’ primal, take-no-prisoners anthems, the double-disc digipack of CD and DVD is recommended because the DVD plops you smack into the middle of the manic crowd-surfing and super-charged singalongs. The guttural barks of singers Al Barr and Ken Casey roar from the stacks of Marshall amps as the Murphs slam through the screaming, Sex Pistols-like punk of “Flannigan’s Ball’’ and “Citizen C.I.A.’’ The show peaks with the overexposed Red Sox anthem “Tessie’’ and the ubiquitous “I’m Shipping Up to Boston,’’ but there are also great versions of “Fields of Athenry’’ and “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya.’’ Members of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones also jump up at the end to spice the beer-soaked hedonism. (Out tomorrow) STEVE MORSE
DROPKICK MURPHYS - LIVE ON LANSDOWNE (Review)
WEDNESDAY, 17 MARCH 2010 - JAMES ZAHN - KIK AXE
The "luck of the Irish" hit me late last week when I discovered a copy of the new DROPKICK MURPHYS CD/DVD release LIVE ON LANSDOWNE, BOSTON MA in my mailbox. Yes, it was like a gracious leprechaun had delivered me a gift - granted me a wish, or left me a pot 'o audio/video gold.
This new set, released yesterday on the band's own imprint - Born & Bred Records, chronicles Dropkick Murphys' epic run of seven shows over six nights March 12-March 17, 2009. With a completely different setlist from 2002's excellent LIVE ON ST. PATRICK'S DAY, 'LANSDOWNE boasts an impressive 20 tracks on both the CD/DVD, with an additional two songs - "Cadence to Arms" and "Do or Die" included as bonus features on the DVD version.
Directed by Torey Champagne and beautifully shot in HD, the video presentation captures the band at their best - performing live with home field advantage to a crowd peppered with colors of green and white. From the get-go, LANSDOWNE conveys a sense of "family", with DKM feeding off the mutual respect of their audience - the opening chants of "Let's go Murphys!" rewarded by the intensity of "Famous for Nothing."
Ripping through the likes of "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya", "The Warriors Code", and "The Dirty Glass" (featuring CIVET's Liza Graves on vocals), DKM enters the third act with "Tessie" - their ode to the Boston Red Sox.
Bringing the ladies in the crowd up and onto the stage during "Kiss Me, I'm Shitfaced", the concert builds to an epic conclusion that ends with DKM's rowdy cousins THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES crashing the party for "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" (the anthemic tune made famous by Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED) - decked out in black suits accented by appropriately green ties (preview below courtesy of MySpace Music).
AWAKE TO SUCCESS
Written by Doreen Manning
Worcester Magazine
Thursday, 08 October 2009
Alternative rock band Sleep Alive has the outward appearance of a professionally signed band with a supportive label. Tight new tunes, a killer online presence, slick press shots, a professional looking video shot completely on location right here in the city, and the musical chops to back it all up.
But for this DIY Worcester trio, every ounce of their debut has been solely produced independently by its members. Combing their talents, these three former members of At Will – Torey Champagne on vocals, Eric Mitchell on guitar/piano/programming and Matt Gregoire on drums – are stepping out of the musical gate with all their ducks in a row.
At Will, who rocked the local scene back in 2000 with a heavy live club rotation that led to two albums, Locobazooka Festival appearances in ’01 and ’02, opening for national acts and a consistent touring schedule, called it quits to pursue other avenues in 2003.
In 2007 Mitchell, a songwriting demon who couldn’t hold back the musical bug, began writing songs for a new project. Pulling in Gregoire on drums yet again, the duo searched in vain for months to find a new lead vocalist who would fit the new project they called Sleep Alive.
At the time Champagne was concentrating on his own career in television production (he won an Emmy this year for producing/directing/ and writing a documentary on Manny Ramirez called “Manny Being Manny – The Final Days In Boston”). Singing in a band was the last thing from his mind. When Mitchell and Gregoire asked him to join Sleep Alive, Champagne graciously declined. “I had kind of put music behind me. I actually outright told them it would never happen. I was going through a lot personally and I was focused on my career, and really didn’t think I was ever really that great of a singer to begin with, and to be in a band seemed like an impossibility to me at the time,” he recalls.
One day Mitchell and Gregoire asked Champagne to sit in on a jam session, just to hear a taste of what they’ve been up to. “I was floored,” admits Champagne. “After about 20 minutes, I said to Eric, ‘Plug in a mic,’” and the rest is history.
The driving force behind the band is Mitchell, who writes 95 percent of the music for Sleep Alive and plays every instrument outside of drums and vocals on the soon-to-be-released new album. Mitchell is also the audio engineer on all the band’s recordings. “He could seriously score a film; his string arrangements are amazing,” says Champagne.
With a core of talent at the heart of this rock band, the trio decided to forgo adding a bass player that could possibly disturb the chemistry they’d created. “Once we realized that we could pull it off live without one because we have so many backing tracks of strings, piano, etc., we decided we would just record the bass and have that be a backing track as well,” explains Champagne.
Concentrating on the music – strong vocals, catchy lyrics, and most importantly, rock hooks that dig in hard – the band has released a total of four songs online over the course of four months, as they pull together a record they hope will hit in early 2010.
Not waiting for success to come to them, this trio is hard at work to bring themselves to victory’s door. “We have a very DIY attitude about what we do, and we don’t allow ourselves to have put limitations on what we can accomplish,” Champagne says. “We work tirelessly to try to bring the best music and live performance we can to every show we play. I guess people will just have to see it for themselves.”
