Dropkicks play UMaine Nov. 6

By Zach Dionne

Posted on Sept. 15, 2008, at 12:00 a.m.

University of Maine students will taste an early drop of St. Patrick’s Day with Boston-based Irish punk group Dropkick Murphys launching their fall tour at the Field House on Nov. 6.

“They put on a hell of a show,” Vice President of Student Entertainment Andrew Gerke said in a Friday announcement of the first of two reported major fall concerts at UMaine. “I think the students are going to love it.” Gerke worked with the seven-piece act for a Cumberland County Civic Center concert this summer.

Gerke’s earlier promise of insatiably low admission prices holds strong.

“Dropkick Murphys have never sold tickets this low,” Gerke said. “We’re trying to draw as many students as possible. Students are making away like bandits. We know that they already pay the student activity fee.” Ticket prices will be announced Monday, Oct. 23 along with the group and date for the second fall show.

“The reason we chose the Dropkick Murphys is the whole tie with New England and Boston Red Sox and hoping, knock on wood, that the Red Sox do as well as they have been in the past. That really nails it into the board right there.” The concert date falls within one to two weeks of the World Series’ conclusion. Gerke aims to employ an Irish theme.

Gerke spoke of “the concert bug” and realizing that UMaine’s fall gigs may be the first such experiences for many college students..

“When you’re dealing with that kind of thing, you want to really optimize that and show them a good time and show them what a concert’s about,” Gerke said.

The Field House has recently been used for Mythbusters and the MTVU tour. Student Entertainment will hire professional sound engineers, as well as the bands’ personal sound gurus.

The Dropkick Murphy’s will bring the as-yet-unannounced lineup for their fall tour. Previous acts on their US and world tours have included Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Against Me!, The Tossers and Less Than Jake. The group shared a headlining stage with Metallica, Tenacious D and Feeder at the sold-out Reading Festival in England at the end of August.

Although most of the loose ends for the fall’s first major concert are now tied up, the second show remains disclosed at the moment.

“I will say that it’s diverse. You have your Dropkick Murphys, which is more of that alternative rock, and then you’ll have that other group that’s on the other aspect, the other spectrum of things,” Gerke said. “We’re really trying to draw a more diverse crowd. There is going to be more to come.”

Campus Currents: Andrew Gerke