Smart Politics, Heart, Passion and the Street Dogs

Street Dogs - Final Transmission

I do not really listen to punk rock anymore. Like many I discovered underground music and culture through punk. It is where I learned that what was on MTV and the Radio wasn’t the best of what was out there. Back in high school I started throwing “punk rock shows” and was the start to the path to where I am now. One of the first punk bands I discovered on my own was The Dropkick Murphy’s. While I no longer listen to them often I still think their first record Do Or Die is one of the best punk rock records I own.

A few months ago I was hired to be the tour manger an unheard of punk band from Sweden on the Flogging Molly Green 17 tour. The third band on the bill was Street Dogs. I had only ever heard their name, seen it one line-ups, but knew nothing about them. Turns out Street Dogs is the newest project by Mike McColgan the original singer of the Murphy’s and main songwriter on Do Or Die. So when I was 15 I discovered underground music threw one of Mike’s records and now at 24 through a weird act of fate I was on tour with him and his new band for seven weeks.

Even though I do not listen to much punk these days I can say Street Dogs are not just another punk rock band, they are simply a great band. Their show last night in LA was nothing if not confirmation of that fact. Unlike many of their contemporaries singing empty or stupid political songs about rebellion by yuppie rich kids playing squatter, Street Dogs have something very real to say. Mike’s songs serve to provide a voice for those torn between their hatred of this cursed war and a deep sense of patriotism and civil responsibility.

Mike McColgan served in the Army in Iraq during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Many of his songs grow from that experience. Many of their songs are very political, anti-war but also pro-soldier and extremely personal. What set these songs apart from other political bands are Mike’s perspectives, his passion, and his unquestionable sense of patriotism and civil responsibility (between The Murphy’s and Street Dogs Mike worked as a fire fighter in Boston).

In “Final Transmission,” a song calling for the troops to be brought home, Mike sings about a fictional 19-year-old soldier killed by an IED outside of Baghdad and his “Final Transmission,” a note to his parents hidden under his helmet. Although it is a fictional it could be about anyone serving, and draws from Mike’s days in Iraq when he kept just such a note under is own Helmet.

Almost ever day on tour in addition to the gutter punk kids in their “not my president” shirts Mike would have soldiers come up to him and talk to him about their time in Iraq or Afghanistan and thank him for his song. Often they would tell him about how his words helped them get through their time in the war. Often these exchanges would be deeply emotional and were always personal.

Last night at the The Troubadour in addition to dedicating this song the troops as he does ever night on stage, Mike also led the crowd in chants of “Johnny comes marching home again, Hurrah! Hurrah!” during the song.

It is hard to find any singer in any genre with more heart and passion than Mike McColgan.