Even the hugely arching rainbow over downtown Canandaigua couldn't shake our fears of standing in the pouring rain to see what was to be two punk powerhouses rock the crowd. However, rain on a sloped lawn gives way to the best accessory for a mosh pit: mud.Dropkick Murphys bleated their arrival with bagpipes, cutting through the chants of "Let's go, Murphys!." A crowd that was decidedly at CMAC for DKM, and only DKM, the audience chimed right in as they lead us through the set, peppered with Tooraloorahs and anthems about drinking and fighting.
Though their pit
was muddy and moshers aggressive as expected, they settled and embraced each other for the ballads. Far away coast was an especially cutting song given that we have several friends overseas currently. But, our favorite was when they closed with Kiss me, I'm shitfaced: the perennial anthem of picking up drunk girls at the bar. The whole pit, arms around one another, swayed and crooned the chorus while shirtless and likely hammered themselves.The Offspring took the stage, and we were hoping that they still had the magic that we remembered 11 years ago. The opening song, introducing their Shit is F-ed Up Tour, followed their standard formula: dramatic drum solo, then bring in the screaming guitar parts after several bars. From there they knocked out their latest top-40 hits, and got down to business with the oldies-but-goodies.
Besides picking
over 5 songs off the Americana album itself, they also rocked a few lesser-known songs, such as Original Prankster. Keep 'em separated is always a crowd favorite, but they also resurrected All I want, which restarted the mosh circle, as well as the rest of the audience, thrashing.The highlight for us was Dexter's acoustic piano rendition of Gone Away. Suddenly, with all the punk music parts stripped away, the lyrics were the star of the show. Our only real thumbs-down was that the band didn't dare step outside their tried and true songs for more varied takes on the hits.
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