Dropkick Murphys, seen at the Greek Theater in Berkeley on Aug. 20. 2017, are American Celtic punk legends forever. Alessio Neri/STAFF. It’s time for my semi-annual St. Patrick’s Day column. There are quite a few examples where genres really shine when brought over to a different culture than the…

Site of former sea shanties, as well as Alestorm’s current ones. There’s always some tension between our illustrious editor Roman Gokhman and I when it comes to this column. He, being the King of RIFF, cares about stuff like SEO and reader interest and boring things like that. I,…

Social Distortion performs at the Hearst Greek Theatre in Berkeley on Sept. 26, 2019. Photos: Karen Goldman. BERKELEY — As the banner at the back of the stage proclaimed, Social Distortion has been around for 40 years. Not 40 continuous years of course—they are a punk band so there have…