In a way, Casey first "met" Larkin at a funeral home he was scouting as a possible music-video location. This was shortly after the completion of the title track off the album, a yarn about a wake that deteriorates into a maniacal, jovial, bawdy bro-down that's destined to become Larkin's epitaph.
"I went, and there was a body in the casket," Casey recalls. "The guy had a Patriots jersey on. He's in his 80s. I'm like, 'This must have been a cool guy to hang out with.' I knelt down and said a prayer, because I felt disrespectful. That song is about your last hurrah, the final party at your wake. Here, I felt like I was stepping on this guy's last few moments of peace. As I was kneeling there, I thought, 'If we've written this song about the last day, maybe we should trace it back . . . ' "
There's an underlying optimism to the Dropkicks that's rare for punk people. It's the idea that a little pride in wherever and whatever you're from - even if we're talking about a conceptual "place" like punk rock - provides spiritual and psychic armor against the abyss.
"Ultimately, Going Out in Style is about embracing everything you come from," Casey concludes, "whether it's your culture, family background, or economic status, all the good and the bad, because it's all you, you know what I mean?"
That's the primary reason Dropkick Murphys are Boston's best tourist trap. Most tourist traps are bullshit. Dropkick Murphys are not.
DROPKICK MURPHYS | House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St, Boston | March 16-18 | OFFICIALLY SOLD OUT | 888.693.2583
READ: Michael Patrick MacDonald writes the Dropkicks' backstory
