“They are a stretch from what you usually see with us. But their songs have roots, and you could hear that. They had the crowd eating out of their hands in 30 seconds,’’ Casey says, recalling the Parkingtons’ live debut with the Dropkicks in Chicago.
The Cape Cod siblings, whom Casey saw performing in Wellfleet and enlisted to play on his band’s latest album, were standouts both opening for and accompanying the Dropkicks during this year’s run of St. Patrick’s Day concerts around Boston.
The Dropkick Murphys’ two-night stand at Fenway Park next week and subsequent Shamrock-N-Roll Festival will feature an interesting mix of styles, from the expected squall of punk rock to more introspective folk fare. Next Thursday and Friday at Fenway, the Dropkicks will host a musical extravaganza that early in the day (doors open at 5 p.m.) will include Chuck Ragan, Parkington Sisters, and Old Brigade on an acoustic stage. Meanwhile, Street Dogs, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and the Dropkicks will crank up the volume on the main stage in the ballpark.
The Parkingtons and Ragan will venture on for the remainder of the tour, joining a local acoustic act from each city where the festival is performed. The Shamrock-N-Roll Festival, which doesn’t include the Bosstones but does pick up Stiff Little Fingers and the Mahones and appearances by boxer Micky Ward, will be at the Bangor Waterfront in Maine on Sept. 10 before moving on to Providence on Sept. 16.
As excited as Casey is about having a raft of acoustic bands playing the Fenway fete and ensuing road show, the Parkingtons, Ragan, and Old Brigade’s Dan Gill likewise welcomed the opportunity to join forces with the punk-rock standard-bearers.
“I never listened to punk rock,’’ says Gill, who pops up as a character in the Dropkicks song “Fairmount Hill’’ and has known Casey since the DKM founder’s boyhood. The Old Brigade has Brian Queally on whistle and flute, Matt Glover on mandolin, and John Coe on guitar playing traditional Irish songs.
