Topline
Punk rock band Dropkick Murphys called out a concertgoer who held up a MAGA hat during a St Patrick’s Day weekend performance in Boston and asked him to “shut the f**k up,” in a clip that’s since gone viral online—but did not lead to the band’s X account being suspended.
Ken Casey of Dropkick Murphys performs during the Louder Than Life music festival at the Highland … [+]
Key Facts
Dropkick Murphys were playing one of their three consecutive shows at the MGM Music Hall in Boston’s Fenway Park stadium Sunday, when lead singer Ken Casey called out an attendee holding up a Make America Great Again hat and said: “If you’re in a room full of people and you want to know who’s in a cult…They’ve been holding up a f**king hat the whole night to represent a president.”
Casey described the man’s black MAGA hat as the “Elon Musk True Nazi edition,” referencing the style of hat the billionaire and X owner is seen wearing around the president.
The singer ended the confrontation by saying: “Do you mind sir, we’re going to play a song about our grandparents and people who fought Nazis in the war…so if you could just shut the f**k up for five minutes.”
A clip of the confrontation was shared by the band on their Instagram page, which received more than 31,000 likes, while the original clip on YouTube has garnered more than 327,000 views.
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Dropkick Murphy’s X Account Was Not Suspended Because Of Monday’s Concert
Reports quickly circulated on X—and picked up by Forbes—that concluded the account had been suspended after the incident. But Casey shared a statement with Forbes saying the band quit the social platform in 2022, and after “someone else took our handle, pretending to be our official account,” the band complained, “which is why @dropkickmurphys shows as suspended.” Casey added that they pulled the account “because we didn’t want to be part of that [Musk’s]
empire. But if we were still on there, I’m sure he would have suspended us by now.”
Crucial Quote
Casey appeared on the MeidasTouch Network’s podcast on Monday to discuss the incident, where he expressed his dislike of Trump, Musk and their politics. “The two guys in charge, whoever you want to call the president, I’m not sure which really is, they literally laugh at working-class people,” before later saying Donald Trump was “the exact opposite of everything we sing about.” The singer urged working class people to stand up to Trump and pushed back against what he said was “this whole mentality that MAGA has painted that like, ‘You’re either MAGA or you’re drinking soy lattes.”
Tangent
This isn’t the first instance of Casey clashing with Trump supporters at one of the band’s events. During a concert in Clearwater, Florida, earlier this month, Casey called out another concertgoer wearing a hat and shirt supporting Trump. Casey showed off his band’s merch and said it was made in America, before making a $100 “friendly wager” with the attendee on the manufacturing origin of the MAGA apparel. “If you lose the bet, we switch shirts, OK? If you win the bet, I give you $100 and the shirt,” Casey said. Shortly after, the singer told the audience: the MAGA shirt was “made in Nicaragua! He’s taking the shirt off. We’re taking crime off the streets.”
Correction (March 18): Dropkick Murphys left X in 2022, and the account was labeled “suspended” long before the band’s concert over the weekend.
Further Reading
Dropkick Murphys Slam Fan Waving ‘True Nazi Edition’ MAGA Hat During Show: ‘Shut the F-ck Up’ (Rolling Stone)
