Street Dogs and Swingin’ Utters
Asbury Lanes, New Jersey
March 14, 2008

Click here to see more photos from the show

When the Dropkick Murphy’s first record “Do or Die” dropped in the mid-‘90s, it was met with a collective “ooh and ah” from punk fans bored of the overproduced Hot Topic crap being bandied about on MTV.

The band eschewed the typical tough guy Oi mentality for working class punk rock that related as much to the Union man as it did to the disgruntled mall punk. The best part was that they played  mind numbingly catchy music.

Alas, singer  Mike McColgan left the band to become a firefighter and history wrote itself. The Dropkick Murphys went on to become a household name, fronted by gruff vocalist Al Barr. Meanwhile, McColgan began dabbling in punk again with The Street Dogs.

Unlike their Boston brethren, The Street Dogs eschew the traditional Irish style for a rawer sound teeming with proletariat-driven lyrics. A year or so ago, the band opened for psychobilly stalwarts Tiger Army and proceeded to show up their label mates by producing one of the most intense concerts I’ve seen in years. The Irving Plaza was practically breaking at the seams as the band blasted through their first few records.

Saturday night, The Street Dogs performed in an even more intimate environment, turning up at the tiny Asbury Lanes for a sold out show in front of some diehard fans. To make things even more exciting, the band brought with them the resurrected Swingin’ Utters who sound as if they haven’t aged a day, even though they have long since ditched the liberty spikes. Read the rest of this entry »