THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES AT WEBSTER HALL 8/7/12

photo by Maria Ives 

I can't believe it's been four years since I last saw the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.  That's way too long.  On a good night, they are one of the best live bands in the world, and last night was a very good night.

I wasn't really sure how packed Webster Hall would be: it wasn't that crowded last week for Helmet, and they're a New York band. But when we got to the venue, it was packed.  We missed the first band, but the second band, The Have Nots, were great.  I downloaded their song "The Years," and I'm probably going to check out some more of their music.

photo by Maria Ives 

But everyone was there to see the Bosstones, and the Bosstones didn't disappoint. Dickey Barrett, while not a "singer" as such, is a stone-cold entertainer, and a great frontman.  He doesn't just perform, he looks out for the crowd in a way that probably isn't too removed from the ethics of the hardcore punk rock scene that he came from.

Ben Carr - the "Bosstone" - he dances on stage and occasionally sings backing vocals - also keeps an eye out for the audience.  This is only worth mentioning because being at a Bosstones show is a frantic experience. There's a lot of energy in the room, with lots of slamdancing and (especially) crowd surfing. I have to give it up to the bouncers there, as well as the Bosstones' road manager, who showed a lot of patience with some overzealous and over-entitled crowd surfers.

photo by Maria Ives

But back to the music. The entire band is tight as hell, but I have to mention the horn section who are amazing.  Sax player Johnny Vegas has been with the band since the beginning, and sax player Kevin Lenear was with the band early on, quit in the 2000's, and rejoined a few years ago. One of their newer members is trombone player/singer Chris Rhodes (formerly of The Toasters), who is an amazing addition. These guys are, as Dickey says, "the best horn section in the world."

I kind of expected the band to stick to their 1989-2000 era, but, in fact, they played a lot of more recent material.  On paper, I would have thought it would have been a bad idea to do that. But the recent songs - "The Daylights" and "The Magic Of Youth" from last year's The Magic Of Youth, "Graffiti Worth Reading," "Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah" and "A Pretty Sad Excuse" from 2009's Pin Points And Gin Joints and two of my favorites, "Don't Worry Desmond Dekker" from 2007's Medium Rare and "Everybody's Better" from 2002's A Jackknife To A Swan.

Of course, the old songs made the crowd go ballistic: "Someday I Suppose," "Rascal King," "1-2-8," "Dr. D," "Devil's Night Out," "Hope I Never Lose My Wallet" were all incredible and the entire audience, men, women, white folks, black folks, knew every word. But the biggest moment of the show was when former guitarist Nate Albert (now a VP at Universal Music, I've heard) joined them for "Kinder Words."

Other than one near scuffle that I saw -- and one nasty head injury suffered by a guy crowd surfing (he turned out to be a Marine) -- no one seemed to get hurt and everyone had a blast.  I know that the Bosstones aren't a full time thing anymore, but it's just as well.  It gives a sense of occasion to every time they play.  I just hope it's an occasion I won't have to wait four more years for.

"WAAAAH! WHAT ARE THESE NOISES?" THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES AT STARLAND 07/13/08

It was so great to see The Mighty Mighty Bosstones again. They played on a three band bill with The Dropkick Murphys and Civet in the parking lot outside of the Starland Ballroom on Sunday. 

If I'd known what the deal was with the show, I might not have gone. But I'm glad I went. Basically, we had to go to a huge lot about a mile from the venue, then walk a half mile to get a school bus to take us to the Starland Ballroom's parking lot where the show was. It was all fenced in blacktop: kind of like going to a concert in a prison yard. It was hot. We sat through Civet, who were cool for a few songs, but their singer had the Courtney Love raging yell going on, and after a while I wasn't feeling it, although I can see that they have some potential. 

But, like I said, I was glad we went. It felt like we "earned" the show. And that's the thing about the Bosstones: you kind of had to go out of your way to get into them. Even when they had a hit single, they were never the band that was being forced down your throat on the radio or in print. The mainstream just didn't know what to make of them. Yet, they had and have tons of fans who are really loyal. Judging by the all ages crowd at the show, they have a new generation of fans, too: there were lots of young kids who were probably in grade school when the Bosstones released their last album in 2002. They were great: I was glad to see sax player Kevin Lenear back in the band. And I have to say that trombone player/singer Chris Rhodes was awesome, and is a good replacement for "The D-Man," Dennis Brockenborough.  And Dicky Barrett is indeed a cold blooded entertainer, and one of the best frontmen, even if he isn't the best singer. Here's hoping the Bosstones do more shows in the future. If they do a Hometown Throwdown in Boston this December, I'm there. 

RETURN OF THE BOSSTONES

I occasionally check out Amazon.com's upcoming release schedule, and I noticed a Mighty Mighty Bosstones collection, Medium Rare. The band has been inactive for a few years now: it seemed that their time had sort of passed: they looked like they were about to break huge, they didn't, and some important band members left the group (guitarist Nate Albert, who co-wrote a lot of the music, trombonist Dennis Brockenborough, who also sang backing vocals and sax player Kevin Linear). And of course, Dickey Barrett now calls L.A. home, due to his gig as hype man on Jimmy Kimmel's show.

So, I was surprised to see that they got together this past December to do another of thier legendary Hometown Throwdowns. For those who don't know, the Throwdown is a gig (or series of gigs) at a small club (or clubs) in Boston around Christmastime. I traveled to Boston for this twice, and never regretted the hundreds of miles of driving, the hours on the road, whatever. Once I drove up for the show, watched the show, and then drove home (I might not have done that if I didn't have tickets to see a solo acoustic Bruce Springsteen show the following day...).

Anyway, it's kind of annoying: I didn't read about this anywhere in the music press. I know that someone from Sleater-Kinney plays drums for the guy from Pavement. I know there's some band called Vampire Weekend that people like. I know that Lil' Kim and Remy Ma don't like each other. But I hadn't heard about an actual awesome band reuniting. That's depressing. I've seen a lot of rock bands in my day, and on a good night, the Bosstones were among the best. And they usually had good nights. I've seen them more than ten times, easily.

They've never been considered hip, but that's mainly because they started their fanbase organically, without any help from the rock hipster press. The rock hipster press doesn't like anyone who they didn't help create, period. They'll make it seem like the Bosstones are a bunch of dumb jocks or something. But those of us who have gone to the shows, we know the deal.

Considering that they come from a scene that has had it's share of skinhead problems, it's pretty ballsy that they had the Anti Racist Action League representing with tables at all of their shows. Sebadoh doesn't do that, do they?

Anyway, enough sour grapes. Obviously the band won't be a full time thing due to Dickey's new day job, but I hear they're playing New Jersey at a big, sort of punk rock festival. Even if they just do a half hour, I'm there.