Street Dogs

Fading American Dream (DRT)
by Stevo

I believe Mike McColgan. Maybe it’s because I’ve met him and seen the sincerity in his eyes while we talked. Maybe you can just hear it in his cadence. I tend not to believe other bands you might call “Street Punk.” Rah Rah cheerleader anthems about how they love being working class, their “brothers,” and wearing boots tend to turn me right the fuck off. They come off as so contrived and tend to be carbon copies of every other band in the genre. Straight edge kids have their “Stabbed in the Back.” Street punk thugs have their “Crucified.” It’s all a little much. Ya’ll need to get better friends. At any rate, to me, Mike has always transcended these tired pitfalls, even while invoking them from time to time. I can’t really explain it. Through his unfortunately brief time in the first and my favorite incarnation of Dropkick Murphys to this, the second LP for his band, Street Dogs, I’ve found my fist in the air when normally my head would be shaking in disgust and boredom. You can’t help but love the guy, and when you see him, you can tell he’s truly enjoying every last second and believes every single word he says. This album isn’t quite as solid as their first, but it still blows the doors off anything Al Barr is doing now.
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