E-Mail This Article to a Friend Oirish eyes The Dropkicks do St. Paddy’s BY MIKE MILIARD

For the fifth consecutive year, Dropkick Murphys, the band who put the Oi! back in Oirish, are headed homeward for their annual St. Patrick’s Day residency at Avalon (March 11 through 14, and if you want tickets, you should call now and finish reading this afterward). When I reach Murphys main man Ken Casey in Amsterdam, he says he’s "very much" looking forward to the trip home. It is, after all, the band’s favorite time of year. "One of our favorites, combined with one of the most stressful. Just trying to keep up with everybody — family, friends, people from out of town . . . it’s a little overwhelming. We’ll have a lot of friends we’ve made all over the world over for that weekend, and we’ll have friends we grew up with, parents, grandparents, kids. Everyone you know in your life, it seems like they’re in one room. It’s awesome, but it goes by too quick. Now it’s up to five nights; sometimes I feel like we need two weeks just to catch up with everybody."

The five separate shows this year are the most yet, and Casey says the band have been practicing "every song we’ve ever played" so those who attend multiple nights can expect a changing set list. What’s more, "five shows is the opportunity to put 10 different bands on those shows." This year opening acts run the gamut from top-notch Oi! from across the pond (Superyob, Beerzone), fellow Irish rovers (the Prodigals), local barroom heroes (Darkbuster, the Ducky Boys), lesser-known but no less deserving acts from out of town (the Guts, from New Hampshire), and reunited Boston punk-rock demigods (Gang Green). "The list of bands is awesome," says Casey.

One disappointment, though, is that this year’s homestand won’t coincide with the St. Paddy’s parade in Southie. In past years, the band would hang around by the Dropkick Murphys mural off Broadway (the one that graces the cover of their Sing Loud, Sing Proud record) and catch up with fans and friends. To make up for that lost opportunity this year, the band have set aside a section of seats at the FleetCenter for the Bruins-Sabres game on Saturday the 13th, offering discounted tickets through www.dropkickmurphys.com. They’ll also be hosting a 9:30 a.m. charity breakfast at the Harp Irish Pub prior to the game, with proceeds going to benefit Bruin Nick Boynton’s Diabetes Foundation. "The thing sold out 150 tickets in one night," Casey says. "Not only do the fans of the band support us, they support the causes that we’re trying to support. We’ve done an on-line auction that already raised thousands of dollars, then the charity breakfast — the whole weekend will probably raise $10,000."

Just don’t expect to see Casey tearing into a heaping plate of rashers and black-and-white pudding at the Harp. His Hibernian bona fides may be beyond reproach, but the traditional Irish breakfast is not something he’s fond of. "I went in there when we were doing the menu, and I was like, ‘Oh man, no blood pudding. I can’t stand that stuff!’ I just don’t have the stomach for it."

If you can’t make it to the Avalon shows, console yourself with the thought that the long-awaited Dropkicks DVD hits the streets on Wednesday. Among its features is a full 22-song set from St. Paddy’s 2002, with all the pipe bands and pageantry and gut-punching power chords recorded in Dolby 5.1 Surround sound. It also features all the Dropkicks’ music videos (stretching back to the Mike McColgan/Rick Barton days), a tour documentary, "65 Days of Hell," and a profile of the avowedly blue-collar band produced by the AFL-CIO that finds them introduced by a bemused President John Sweeney and singing "Boys on the Docks" to a roomful of middle-aged union bigwigs. Crammed with more than four hours of material, the thing is corker.

Casey, for one, is glad to see it finished. "Oh man, if I had to look at that thing one more time . . . I feel like I edited the thing for 10 years. There was just so much footage. Bags full of tapes. . . . My advice to anyone who’s shooting home video footage: label and mark the tapes!"

Dropkick Murphys play Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston, next Thursday through Sunday, March 11 through 14. Tickets are $17.50; call (617) 423-6000.