Street punks’ bark matches bite

Street Dogs, with Anti-Flag, The Briggs and Fake Problems Saturday, April 19, 7 p.m. Gravity Nightclub, Cheswick 866-468-3401 $17

Rock ‘n’ roll is full of tough guys, or at least guys who pretend to be tough. But few are as real-deal as Mike McColgan, the lead singer and founder of Boston punk outfit the Street Dogs. During his adult years not spent in one punk band or another, McColgan served in the first Gulf War and battled flames in Boston’s Fire Department. And in the years he has spent in a band, he’s made some of the most genuine, passionate and angry punk rock around.

While there are a few reasons for this, McColgan, who speaks with a chunky, thick Boston accent, credits his family, his background and, above all, his city.

“When I was growing up, it was an unbelievable time for punk bands in Boston for sure,” he said. “We all got along and peacefully co-existed – the Ducky Boys, the Unseen, the Trouble. It was a vibrant, powerful scene. There’s no unofficial code, but people are just really proud of being from Boston. You look out for your own.”

After a youth of singing in the choir, McColgan soon found his punk calling first with a little-known act called the Snots and reached higher acclaim when he helped form the Dropkick Murphys in 1996 from, as he says, a few friends in a barber shop jamming together. Finding himself uninspired, McColgan quit the soon-to-be punk powerhouse to join the Boston Fire Department.

“At first, it was a breath of fresh air to take a break from music. I immersed myself in training to be a fire fighter because, well, it’s very important to staying alive,” he said. “It was something that fascinated me, as my uncle had been on the job, but I just couldn’t stay away from music.”

Upon McColgan’s decision to hang up his helmet and jacket, the Murphy’s had long moved on without him, having already released two successful albums.

With his former band moving up the bracket of the punk elite, McColgan needed a new crew, and hence, the Street Dogs were born.

His new band relied similarly on the fast, popping percussion and rhythmic, buzzsaw guitars of the Dropkick Murphys and much of the ‘street punk’ genre for that matter, but it added a harder political edge along with fist-pumping choruses and some more melodic, pop-punk passages. Savin Hill, the Street Dogs’ first release, hit shelves in 2002, and McColgan was back in the game.

And with so much life experience already under his belt, he knows the tough guy attitude is bound to come out somewhere.

“Having served in the military, I have an understanding, an empathy for that struggle. But it doesn’t make me a hero. I shouldn’t get a medal or a pat on the back. It’s just a point of reference, or identification I have. And it’s certainly found its way in some of our songs,” he said. “With Street Dogs, we try to stay versed on current events. We all have strong feelings on political issues, but there’s no conscious effort to be that band. I just don’t think we can separate ourselves from it.”

McColgan’s bandmates, just like him, come off musically as punk purists, still carrying the flag of the genre’s original purpose – to stir up the system and wake people up to make a change. Members Johnny Rioux, Marcus Hollar, Tobe Bean III and Joe Sirois, former drummer of Boston mainstay The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, share with McColgan a love for that original, raw sound – and it shows. The Street Dogs’ last album, Fading American Dream, rocks like The Bouncing Souls going to Congress.

“I think by its very nature, punk is a reaction against compressed, popular, happy-go-lucky culture, be it in music, fashion, social issues or classism. Punk was just a big middle finger and a shot of adrenaline, a flamethrower to all that. A bit of truth serum shot right into something totally nuts,” he said. “Punk’s never been afraid to rattle the system or question the answers or get in the ring with authority. It’s been the genre’s responsibility to do that.”

But McColgan is no proselytizer, and his music’s not for conversion. He just wants to open some eyes.

“We don’t want to indoctrinate anyone and say that if you disagree with us you’re not up to snuff on political issues, but we feel like we need to release what’s inside of us in song, what’s going on in the war, in politics, in anything,” he said.

At the forefront of his political message, of course, are the election and the war – the latter to which McColgan feels a close connection. Though he feels that “Obama is the guy,” there’s no denying that the Street Dogs will long be a vehicle for political dissent, adding, “Still, it’s the lesser of several evils.”

Not even close to stopping, the band is now on tour with fellow politi-punkers Anti-Flag and have a new album ready to drop in June called State of Grace.

And if we couldn’t have guessed, McColgan adds, “It’s a mean one. It is definitely a mean one.”