PAWTUCKET — The Boston Red Sox don’t come down to McCoy Stadium to play anymore, but last night’s concert by The Dropkick Murphys and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones might have been the musical equivalent. The sellout crowd of 10,096 hinted in that direction too.

The Dropkicks are making a strong bid to become the American Pogues, with their mix of electric guitars, folk instruments such as banjo, bouzouki and bagpipes, and a very Irish combination of anger and cheerful fatalism.

Pride of place has something to do with it too, and a taped introduction by Red Sox broadcasters Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy and a burst of green fireworks as they began with the hardcore-inspired “Famous for Nothing.”

The percussive screams of banjoist Jeff Darosa during “Johnny We Hardly Knew Ya,” the oi-inspired “You’re Spirit’s Alive” and the power-hornpipe ending to “Bastards on Parade” were other powerful genre-crossing moments, and “The Fields of Athenry,” dedicated to Shane Duffy, a soldier from Taunton recently killed in Iraq, was heartfelt.

Bassist Ken Casey enjoyed the local atmosphere, shouting out to “A girl you grew up with, a mother of two, who is way too old to be crowd-surfing, Diane Brady,” and reminding the crowd that the band was making a live record out of the show: “So you better sing in tune, because we can overdub; you can’t.”

It was a home game for Dicky Barrett, the front man of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who preceded the Dropkicks. Barrett was born in Providence and grew up in Cumberland and Cranston and called the chance to play at McCoy “a magical, magical night.” He brought his mother out for a round of “Happy Birthday” and to get one more scandalized “Oh, Richard” for old time’s sake (perhaps because he announced she was “available”) before tearing into the hit “Someday I Suppose.”

The Bosstones’ pioneering (they’ve been around since the mid-’80s) mix of horn-laden ska and guitar-heavy punk rock was intact. Songs such as “The Rascal King” and “All Things Considered” were sinuous reminders of the second-wave ska (such as The Specials) that they grew up loving, and “I’ll Drink to That” and “You Gotta Go” were in the tradition of tuneful Boston post-punk that they purveyed individually before getting together.

And on some of their best-known stuff, such as “Where Did You Go?” and probably their biggest hit, “The Impression That I Get,” the two forms lived side-by-side, trading off on verses and choruses.

The all-female speedy punk quartet Civet opened the show with 20 minutes that owed plenty to their native town, with short, sharp hardcore-influenced song structures and beats and a sneering but tuneful Runaways approach to harmony. Nothing original, but they hit hard. Singer Lisa Graves made a cameo with the Dropkicks on “The Dirty Glass.”

rmassimo@projo.com