Coachella 2013: Dropkick Murphys raising funds for Boston bombing victims’ families

Coachella 2013: Dropkick Murphys raising funds for Boston bombing victims’ families

 

 

0421_NWS_IDB_L-CASEY-01-JCM (Jennifer Cappuccio Maher/Daily Bulletin) Ken Casey, of the Dropkick Murphys, talks about the Boston Marathon bombings and the band’s fundraising efforts for the victims before performing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Saturday, April 20, 2013, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Jennifer Cappuccio Maher)

Photos: Dropkick Murphys perform at Coachella 2013

Review: Dropkick Murphys wake up main stage Saturday afternoon


INDIO – Ken Casey, bassist and co-lead singer for Boston’s Dropkick Murphys, said on Saturday at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival a T-shirt being sold to help the victims and their families of the Boston Marathon bombings has generated more than $150,000 so far.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Casey said before the band was set to perform at 3:35 p.m. Saturday on the main Coachella stage. To learn more information or purchase a shirt, head to http://kingsroadmerch.com/dropkick-murphys/region/.

Casey addressed the bombing on stage Saturday afternoon, after the interview, by thanking the Coachella main stage audience for their support.

“I want to send a big thank you for showing so much support for the people of Boston and what they’ve been through this week,” Casey said on stage during his set after performing the song “Going Out In Style.”

Casey said the idea came from the group discussing what to do about the situation and having such a passionate fan base.

“If we get behind a cause, we have this worldwide reach to, I don’t know what it is, 1.5 million people on Facebook,” Casey said. “We’re on the other side of the country, we can’t be there to play a benefit, how can we most immediately do something to help.”

Casey said the group’s fans will purchase more than one shirt and tell friends and familes about the cause, which has pushed the effort over the top.

“It’s just amazing,” Casey said.

Casey owns the bar McGreevy’s Third Base Saloon in Boston, which he said was just two blocks from the second bomb blast and on the same street.

“We had to evacuate everyone out the back door,” Casey said in an interview at the festival. “I have a lot of close friends in that area. A good friend of mine is an uncle to the 8-year-old boy killed, so it’s very close to home. Boston’s a very small town like that. Everybody knows somebody affected by it. It’s very real. It’s tough to be out here on the other side of the country watching it all go down.”

Casey said performing music in areas like Santa Cruz and San Francisco shortly afterward was “healing” and a good way to deal with the stress of dealing with the Boston incident.

“Absolutely,” he said. “And you know Bostonians are everywhere. At our show, a lot of times I’ll say ‘Anybody from Massachusetts here?’ And there’s at least 10 percent of that crowd that is transplanted Massachusetts people or New Englanders every night. So I think it was important for us to be there too to bring that little spirit, being at home to those people. The only good that comes out of these things, and there’s no good that comes out of them, but the only good, it happened with 9/11 too, was where everyone stops for a second and realizes what’s important in life. And not cutting each other off in traffic and being in a rush to get somewhere. Maybe we should stop and think about people for a moment. Then of course that wears off and a week later, a month later, we’re right back to the rat race but that’s human nature I guess.

wes.woods@inlandnewspapers.com