Thirty Years Out of Quincy: How Dropkick Murphys Became Boston's Loudest Export

You can't walk into Fenway after a win, or a bar on St. Patrick's week, without hearing these dudes. Dropkick Murphys formed in Quincy in 1996, and Ken Casey is the one member who's been there the whole ride.

They came up on the punk label Hellcat Records and built their name the hard way, touring New England and the East Coast until people knew them. Early on, they started a tradition of St. Patrick's week shows in and around Boston that's still going.

Then came the songs that put them everywhere. "Tessie," a 2004 reworking of a century-old Red Sox fan anthem about the Royal Rooters fan club, still plays at Red Sox games. And "I'm Shipping Up to Boston," off 2005's The Warrior's Code, landed in The Departed in 2006 and became the band's only platinum single.

Co-lead singer Al Barr stepped away in 2022 to take care of his mother, who has Lewy body dementia. Casey took over lead vocals. Barr came back for a surprise four-song encore at the band's March 17, 2026 St. Patrick's Day show at the Citizens House of Blues Boston, his first time on stage with them since the hiatus, and closed it out with "Shipping Up to Boston."

Their 13th album, For the People, dropped July 4, 2025, with appearances from Barr, Billy Bragg, The Scratch and The Mary Wallopers. A week later they played a free two-hour show in Quincy, and the city and band put the crowd at 10,000, CBS News reported. This past summer, "Dropped on My Head" from that album became the theme song for MGM+'s The Westies.

Thirty years in and they're still repping the South Shore. Most bands leave home to get big. These guys got big by staying.