Synopsis

Dropkick Murphys perform "Barroom Hero" with the rough, intimate energy of an early Boston punk show. The video places the band amid a crowded barroom atmosphere, matching the song's portrait of a hard-drinking fighter whose local reputation masks emotional and physical decline. Boisterous performance footage, rowdy patrons and flashes of confrontation give the clip a raw, documentary-like feel, while the increasingly bruised atmosphere underlines that this supposed hero is heading toward collapse rather than triumph.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Barroom Hero" was the first song Dropkick Murphys ever wrote. Ken Casey later said the band initially heard it as a combination of the Ramones and the Pogues, before recognizing how strongly its melody drew on the Irish music they had grown up hearing.

• The song first appeared in 1996 on the Dropkick Murphys/Ducky Boys split 7-inch, the first release by both bands. It was later included on the Dropkick Murphys' debut album, "Do or Die," released in 1998.

• The early version features the band's original singer, Mike McColgan. The music video is associated with the band's first era, before McColgan left to pursue a career with the Boston Fire Department and later formed Street Dogs.

• Al Barr has explained that the song is not intended to celebrate alcoholism or barroom violence. Its subject is a man whose drinking and fighting have turned from a lifestyle into a destructive dependency.

• The song's apparently celebratory chorus has often encouraged audiences to sing it as a drinking anthem, creating a contrast with its darker subject matter.

• "Barroom Hero" later appeared in the closing credits of the 2010 documentary "Restrepo," which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.