Ken Casey Of Dropkick Murphys Recorded A Song In Kyiv With O’Hamsters In Support Of Ukraine

Ken Casey of Dropkick Murphys recorded a song in Kyiv with O’Hamsters in support of Ukraine

Dropkick Murphys are among the bands that have clearly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and taken a stand on the side of a country attacked by aggressive Russian imperialism. They also created merch whose proceeds go to help the people of Ukraine. Earlier this year, singer Ken Casey personally took part in delivering humanitarian aid to Ukraine. During this trip, he stopped in Kyiv, where he met the local Celtic punk band O’Hamsters.

This encounter led to a collaboration in which the band and Ken recorded a cover of the Dropkick Murphys song Who’ll Stand With Us. Part of the track has been adapted to reflect the current situation in Ukraine and is sung in Ukrainian.

Dropkick Murphys are one of those bands that have stepped out of the shadow of the underground punk and street-punk scene. It surely brought them fans across other genres, but it also earned them the “disdain” of purists from the underground, who insist that a band of such size must necessarily be commercial and have drifted away from the original DIY principles of the underground. Dropkick Murphys have always carried a strong message of supporting the working class and ordinary people crushed by the circumstances they’re pushed into by politicians in their countries and managers at their jobs. Here, Dropkick Murphys clearly stand with the oppressed, and for that they have my total respect. Whatever kind of band they may be today, this shows me that they believe in what they sing. And to me, they’re far more genuine and human than the thousands of bands who talk a big game about “fighting for their people” (whatever that means) while sneering at “commercial bands like Dropkick Murphys.”