Sense of Punk Community Thrives at the Sphere

On Monday night, downtown Buffalo's Sphere Entertainment Complex chanted and thumped to the sounds of punk veterans, The Dropkick Murphys.

Fresh off of a break from touring, the band began a two-month international run with a hard-hitting set played to an enthusiastic and devoted Buffalo crowd.

After opening acts by The Kings of Nuthin' and The Unseen, a crowd clad predominantly in spiked belts, mohawks and Irish tee shirts waited in fervent anticipation.

Echoing fans at a sporting event, the crowd chanted, "Let's go Murphys," over and over in unison as the lights dimmed and the band took the stage.

From the first song, the activity levels of both the band and crowd were intense and, at points, unbelievable. The songs and attitudes of the band's seven members - including a bagpiper - are famous for invoking a strong sense of community during shows.

Between the sea of bouncing bodies in the pit, those chanting with fists raised toward the ceiling and the frequent crowd surfing, the euphoric feeling of punk community was highlighted during songs like "The Gang's All Here" and "Boys on the Docks."

Ken Casey, who shares lead vocals and plays bass in the band, conversed frequently with the crowd during the show.

"I love this town man. You guys get more snow than we do," he said referring to Buffalo's winter. The Murphys, while based in Boston, hail from different areas of New England.

Casey continued the geographic conversation with a statement that was met by a roar of boos from the crowd.

"I'm not a football fan, but how about those Patriots?" he said. After seeing the crowd reaction, he added, "Yes, yes Bledsoe ... you guys can't take a joke."

The hometown pride battle did not come to a close with that. Casey's Boston Bruins jersey sparked Buffalo Sabres chants in between the band's following two songs.

This back-and-forth between the band and the crowd is representative of the mischievous humor and good times that accompanied the Dropkick Murphys music throughout their two-hour set.

The pulsating level of energy that roared through the show was lowered only once by the band. This was for the contemplative song, "World Full of Hate."

Once again, keeping with his sense of humor, Casey introduced this song looking to get a rise out of the crowd.

"We're going to get emotional on you guys now," he said.

After this statement, Casey asked the crowd what it thought about the group changing to an emo band. For reasons of highly explicit language, the response the bassist gave after seeing the crowd's reaction to his question is best paraphrased.

He said to forget emo, he would much rather be in a place like The Sphere playing to smelly and dirty folks like the ones at Monday's show.

The band ended the set with the song "Kiss Me I'm s---faced." This song was also sung largely by the crowd and culminated in Casey's dive the stage into the crowd.

The band returned for an encore and finished the show by inviting the fans onto the stage to dance and sing.

With the stage filled entirely to capacity and band members standing side by side with fans, the show came to an end, summarizing the feeling that permeated the air.