One of the perks of being on tour -- which is offset by homesickness for friends, family and a "normal" life -- is time to see movies. At the time of his conversation with OnMilwaukee.com, Casey was about to head into a matinee. "I don't know what we're seeing," he said. "I wanted to see "American Gangster," but we have a day off coming up in Moose Jaw and that's the only thing playing, so we'd better save that one."

One of the band's favorite perks is the association with the Red Sox, who adopted "Tessie" (co-written by Boston Herald baseball writer Jeff Horrigan) as an anthem during the run to the 2004 championship and allowed the Dropkicks to share in the excitement of another title last month.

"We're still buzzing from the Red Sox winning," Casey said. "Even in Canada, before we play "Tessie" every night, we preface it -- a lot of punk rockers aren't into sports and we appreciate their patience for letting us do our thing and have our fun and celebrate.

"We were expecting it to be for the few lone transplanted Red Sox fans in whatever city we're in, but the crowd just goes crazy for it. I like to think of that as further proof that the Sox are America's - or at least the northern part of North America's - team. But, I think it's partly because our fan base knows that we're a happy band, the show is that much better."

Although their payroll and recent run of success put them on par with (or above) the rival Yankees, the Red Sox love the Dropkicks for their blue-collar, all for one and one for all ethic. When the team clinched the division title, Papelbon famously danced to the song. When the pennant was clinched, the Dropkicks were allowed onto the field to celebrate.

Casey describes the experience as "awesome" and "almost surreal."

"Not only does your band have to come a long way to get that kind of opportunity, but growing up with that old ownership group... The idea of the old ownership of the Red Sox asking a punk rock band to play at Fenway... hell would freeze over first.

"The coolest part of the whole thing was being on the field after Game 7 (of the ALCS). Al the players were giving us hugs. Even guys like Curt Schilling were coming up and saying 'Thanks for the good luck,' and hugging us. That made me say 'Holy crap!' I just never really thought they gave that end of things much thought. It was really cool.

"Granted, they probably would have hugged just about anybody at that point, but it was still cool."

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Posted by littletinyfish on Nov. 12, 2007 at 8:48 a.m. (report)

Shouldn't it be "hair razing?" It's interesting to see what a writer's perspective and style brings to a story. I'm sure I can think of at least three other people (not necessarily writers) who would have approached the story from three completely different areas (from the music, to the Irish culture, to the punk culture, to their involvement with sports, etc.) That diversity is kind of amazing, considering how easily they could have been pigeon-holed from the outset.