Dropkick Murphy’s and Rancid – The Ledge Amphitheater – Waite Park MN – August 10 2021

Dropkick Murphy’s and Rancid – The Ledge Amphitheater – Waite Park MN – August 10 2021

Boston to Berkley II

Review and photos by Kyle Hansen

A night of first. First, it was the very first concert at the amphitheater and it was opening night of the tour.

The Bronx was up first. These guys were very hard punk band from LA. They were the perfect opener and got the crowd really going. The first pit I have seen in a long time.  I was a tad bit late due to road construction all the way to Waite Park. 94 is a mess. But what I saw was awesome.

Dropkick Murphy’s was next which was surprising. Maybe they are switching headlining gigs. They are always great and tonight was even better than the last time. Found out it had been 536 days since they played to a live crowd. They opened with five tunes from the new album Turn Up the Dial which came out in April. They are pushing the album as the set consisted of another five tunes from the album. So make sure you know this record before going to the show. As the crowd reacted they knew the album cause they were singing along with all the tunes. They of course played all the hits The Boys are Back, The State of Massachusetts, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya, I’m Shipping Up to Boston and closed out with Rose Tattoo. The special thing about this show was the band was on. You can always tell an opening night. The crowd and the band were really really happy to be out to see and play live music.

Rancid headlined tonight and WOW was the crowd ready. As soon as they started it was absolute mayhem. As the crowd went berserk and rancid was as high energy like usual the wondering of where the new music is hit my head. I read they were working on a news record for release in 2020 but as of June 2021 still no new. But that’s OK because rancid puts on a show that everybody should see, if your rocker a punker or even just like live music because there are sites are off the hook. The encore tonight had Ken and James from Dropkick came out for Harry Bridges! If this was just the opening night of the tour I can’t wait to hear what happens for the rest of the tour.