Al Chambers got into the downtown area shortly after 4 p.m. Friday to get a parking spot for the Lincoln on the Streets concert featuring Dropkick Murphys and Rancid that was set to start three hours later.
On the way to get a coffee at Starbucks, he saw a guy riding a rental scooter. He thought nothing of it, until he discovered who the rider was.
“It ended up being Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys,†Chambers, a DKM superfan wrote in a Facebook post. “I very calmly was crapping my pants. He treated me like a lifelong friend and bought me my coffee.â€
Casey, the band’s leader and one of the vocalists, was meeting the other singer, Al Barr, and a representative of the Claddagh Fund, the band’s charity, at Starbucks, where they masked up -- “if one of them get COVID, the whole tour shuts down,†Casey said -- and had a talk with Chambers.
Chambers, who has worked at UPS for 33 years and has the aching knees to prove it, told the Murphys that he arrived early to get a place on the barricade to take the weight off his joints.
“I know they looked at the gray hair and my age and thought, ‘How’s he going to make it on the barricade,’†Chambers said on Wednesday.
Instead, they gave Chambers a pass that allowed him access to the pit between the barricade and the stage, while providing him a chair.
“I didn’t see it right away and I never sat on it because I couldn’t really get to it,†Chambers said. “But right when ‘Foggy Dew,’ the song they play right before they go on, was playing, a roadie ran by with the chair that said ‘Reserved for Al.’ That blew me away.â€
Chambers didn’t sit down during the Dropkick’s high-energy show. He was in the pit, dancing, circling and moshing with people less than half his age -- and having the time of his life seeing the band for the first time ever in Lincoln.
In the middle of the show, remarking that seeing a bunch of younger people in the crowd of about 2,500, DKM might be able to add another 20 years to its career, Casey said, “we have fans of all ages, we have a girl over here who is 8 years old and a lifer over here named 'Al Chambers.'
“I died -- and went to heaven,†Chambers wrote.
The Dropkick Murphys are one of Chambers’ two all-time favorite bands. Hence their name “DROPKIX†on the license plate on Chambers’ vehicle.
“Jason and the Scorchers wouldn’t fit and no one would know what JATS is,†Chambers said. “... I think a lot of bands forget that fan really means customer. I’ve been a customer for 21 years with the Dropkicks and of the Scorchers since 1983.â€
After their coffee, the DKM trio and Chambers walked back to his car, so he could show them the plate.
“When I told them about the license plate, they must have thought license plate holder, I think they sell them,’†Chambers said. “Then they saw the plate and went, ‘That’s really cool.’â€
Chambers has followed the Dropkicks to Omaha, Council Bluffs, Kansas City, Chicago and saw two shows in their hometown of Boston in 2018. But he’d never had an in-person experience until Friday afternoon when he parked near St. Paul’s United Methodist Church and began walking to Starbucks.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been more in the right place at the right time," Chambers said. “All of a sudden there they were. Ken Casey was on a rental scooter and rode with me while we walked to Starbucks. Those are my kind of people.
Dropkick Murphys singers Al Barr (left) and Ken Casey lean on Al Chambers' car with the DROPKIX license plate. Chambers (right) looks on along with Oliver, (far left) who sells merchandise for DKM’s charity.