Dropkick Murphys and Bruce Springsteen to helm show from Fenway Park
There is little ground more sacred to Bostonians than Fenway Park and one of the city’s favorite bands will kick off summer with a socially distanced gig from the field with special guest … The Boss.
Dropkick Murphys will perform for the Streaming Outta Fenway live event on Friday, May 29.
The performance will be free and the band will be joined remotely by their longtime friend Bruce Springsteen for a special “double play” of one DKM song and one Springsteen song.
The full electric performance — with no live audience present — will be simulcast worldwide from Fenway Park in Boston at 6 p.m. ES/3 p.m. PST on the band’s Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Twitch pages.
Ken Casey, one of the lead singers for Dropkick Murphys, told CNN that with fans missing the Boston Red Sox and the team’s home, Fenway Park, as well as live music concerts the event seemed like a great way to give people a lift during the pandemic.
“I think that it is somewhat of a symbolic place in regards to how Bostonians think of summertime,” Casey said. “I think this was kind of the next best way to let everyone get in and see the park with some activity going on.”
The band has performed at the venue before, but never without an audience or game attendees and this may mark the first time a musical act has streamed a show from the baseball field as just a field with no stage.
Casey said his band will use the bases as a way of socially distancing themselves while they perform.
Having Springsteen be a part of it is an added bonus, given that he has been a long time admirer of the band and they of his work, Casey said.
“He’s been really good to the Dropkick Murphys,” Casey said of The Boss. “As mega a star as he is, he’s just such a regular guy.”
The band has some experience with live streaming shows.
Their annual St. Patrick’s Day weekend concert happened just as the Covid-19 crisis hit and they decided to live stream it instead of cancel.
The show was so successful with 10 million people reportedly tuning into the stream that it prompted the Wall Street Journal to question whether this was the new business model for live music in the time of the coronavirus.
Casey told CNN that “the key is just finding the creative ways to actually offer some production value as a band.”
“I think it’s going to be a long time before a band like us who thrives on our crowd being in on top of each other, climbing on each other, sweating on each other. It’s going to be a long time for us, you know,” he said. “I feel like it’s important for us to have to now both times, with the St. Patrick’s Day concert and this performance, be able to offer something that’s as much like a concert as we could possibly make it.”
The gig will raise money for multiple charities and is presented by Boston-area tech company Pega. A text-to-donate campaign held during the event will benefit Boston Resiliency Fund, Feeding America, and Habitat for Humanity, Greater Boston.
