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.

HELMET AT WEBSTER HALL

photo credit: Brian Ives (really!)

It's been years - well over a decade, actually - since I've gone to see Helmet in concert.  I haven't seen them since Page Hamilton reactivated the band in 2004, five years after he dissolved the band.  I was curious if they'd be as powerful today as they were back then.  And when I say "they," I mean Page and anyone who he hires.  Helmet is no more (or less) a band than Nine Inch Nails, which is an observation, not a criticism.

Like Trent Reznor, Page Hamilton hires really great musicians who play as if they are full members of the band, who played on the classic records.  And as a result, seeing Helmet is still really powerful, just like it was in the '90s.

I first experienced Helmet at the Roseland Ballroom in 1992, with the release of their classic Meantime. They opened for Faith No More (it was a mind-blowing show). They were this weird combination of Zeppelin-esque power with Fugazi-esque post-hardcore.  They sounded like a bullet: sleek, hard, fast, with no adornment. They didn't dress like rock stars: they didn't dress like anyone you'd notice.  "Grunge" bands from Seattle are often credited/blamed for moving away from looking like "rock stars," but generally speaking, you'd notice if a guy from Pearl Jam, Soundgarden or Nirvana walked by you in 1992. They didn't look like they were in Poison, but you knew they didn't work on Wall Street!  The guys from Helmet, on the other hand, looked like anyone you'd see at a bar, or at a baseball game.  If you walked by them, you might not even notice them, which I think was part of the idea:  the only time they wanted you to notice them was when they were on the stage. The thing is, their music was so brutal and hard, that even though they looked conservative, they were way less accessible musically than the alternative rock bands of the era.  They influenced a lot of the bands who I really like (including Rage Against The Machine, Pantera and Tool) and many that I don't (KoRn and all their brethren).  Their music really resonated with me: it was metal but without any of the unnecessary stuff (long hair, misogyny, drum solos). To me, they symbolized getting past all the b.s. in life. That's just my interpretation, but they really resonated with me, and of course I loved (and love) the music.

photo credit: Brian Ives 

So, how was tonight's show?   Like I said, powerful.  It wasn't a "greatest hits" show.  Page noted that Helmet did a 20th anniversary tour for Meantime already; he also joked that at his age - 52 - he has to choose between sex and taking a nap.  The message being that he isn't playing all of the Meantime songs, and that he wasn't going to play a marathon set (the show was a co-headlining concert with The Toadies, and Hamilton also noted that there was a strict curfew, because Webster Hall is actually a disco). I wasn't super familiar with all of the songs that they played, truth be told.  Meantime and the follow-up, 1994's betty are two of my favorite albums of the '90s but I've not spent as much time with the rest of their discography.  The thing is, Helmet songs have such a great groove, and so much force, that I can enjoy them without knowing them by heart.  That said, I was bummed that they didn't play "Biscuits For Smut" and "Unsung." But some of my other favorites were in the setlist, including "Exactly What You Wanted," "In The Meantime," "Milquetoast" and "Wilma's Rainbow" were all amazing. And just as awesome as I remembered them.  Of course, I've never stopped listening to the band's recordings, which are among the most brutal albums in my collection. In a good way.

I didn't stay for the Toadies - but at my age, I have to choose between rocking and going to bed on time (and plus, I wanted to catch the Olympics!).  No disrespect to the band, but after Helmet, I figured it'd just be anti-climatic to me.