Images: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Interrupters August 17, 2014 at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones might be from a place not called Las Vegas (somewhere in Massachusetts, I’ve been told), but you wouldn’t know it from looking at them. The 8-piece skacore group looks right at home on the Vegas stage with their dapper suits and confident swagger. They’re basically the ska/punk Rat Pack and in a perfect world, Caesar’s Colosseum would be headlined by a Bosstones residency in place of Celine but instead we were treated to just one perfect night with the band at Vegas’ newest venue, the Brooklyn Bowl.

The Bosstone’s set, their first in Vegas since a sparsely attended free gig at The Palms in 2008, kicked off with “Dr. D,” a choice cut from their 1992 album More Noise and Other Disturbances before transitioning to the best one-two punch of the year so far – “Rascal King” from multi-platinum smash Let’s Face It and Question the Answers opener “Kinder Words.” The venue, whose floor is about the same in size as the House of Blues’ bottom level but with a stage similar in height to the one at Hard Rock Live, was packed with fans belting out “Kinder words here we could pick / A kind approach might do the trick / Hurt you, hurt me, well that needs to stop” along with vocalist Dicky Barrett and bopping their heads to the song’s unmistakable horn line.

The Bosstones’ many brushes with the mainstream, including their appearance in Clueless and the massive success of “The Impression That I Get,” meant that the show was packed with a very diverse crowd. The circle pit, which started from the first notes of “Dr. D.” and didn’t stop until about a minute after set closer “A Pretty Sad Excuse” stopped ringing over the sound system, was a fascinating mix of rude boys decked out in checkered suits, orgcore punks with big beards and black shirts, and straight up crust punks with mohawks brightly colored and pointed right up to the venue’s high ceiling – all spinning arm in arm, stopping only to pick each other up and sing along to tracks like “Someday I Suppose,” “Don’t Worry Desmond Dekker” and Clash cover “Rudie Can’t Fail.”

For those of us not in the pit, it was fun to just watch the veteran band perform with all the energy and passion you’d expect from a group born out of hardcore bands like Impact Unit and Gang Green. Of course it’s a blast watching the Bosstone himself, Ben Carr, dance up a storm on stage. It’s infectious and presumably impossible to refrain from at least tapping your toes a little bit too. The whole band sounded great, with various members stepping up to share vocal duties with Barrett. Barrett himself still has that unmistakable raspy croon, and at different points in the set borrowed a fan’s hat while singing appropriately, “Hell of a Hat,” invited a fan on stage to join Carr in dancing and shoved the mic into the crowd for various audience sing-alongs, with “Hope I Never Lose my Wallet” among the biggest reactions.

Being at a show like this one, with a band who helped define my taste in music (Let’s Face It was one of the first five albums I purchased with my own money that weren’t written by Weird Al), I couldn’t help but smile the whole time. My only time seeing the group was when they played Warped at Sam Boyd in 2002 and I was about as far away as possible so I like to consider this show my first time, and it was about as perfect as one could expect, with a great mix of deep cuts and hits and a crowd eager to dance and sing along with the seminal ska punks. I wish every show I went to was that filled to the brim with amiable energy.

Opening the show was Los Angeles ska/punk band The Interrupters. Though the band’s members come from a pop/rock and rap/rock background, The Interrupters sound more like Rancid during that band’s Life Won’t Wait period, with hints of roots reggae and rockabilly mixed with 3rd wave style ska punk. This makes sense since they’re signed to Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong’s Hellcat Records, frontwoman Aimee Allen has been involved with Armstrong’s “Tim Timebomb” project and guitarist Kevin Bivona spent time touring with Armstrong’s other band the Transplants. The foursome has a lot of stage presence and the members, particularly bass player Justin Bivona, have a lot of raw talent. I really like Allen’s voice, which reminds me a bit of Kim Shattuck from The Muffs. Their songs were extremely catchy and the vibe infectiously joyous. The crowd really enjoyed their set, starting a circle pit that continued through the intermission tunes (side note: more venues should play Ramones and The Clash between bands. Kuddos Brooklyn Bowl!)

What kept me from completely enjoying the band’s set, however, were their lyrics. There were more than a few cheesy moments reminiscent of very early Anti-Flag – a lot of “fuck this because it sucks, fuck that because it sucks, fuck the man” without a lot of substance backing it (side note 2: I’m one of those people who thinks Anti-Flag has improved with each release). When Allen sings “I wanna sing, you wanna censor me / You got control, makes me act defensively” on “This Is The New Sound” it seems disingenuous when the rest of their songs go half-heartedly after the easiest targets (the TSA, for example) or are purposely vague to the point of losing passion. Hopefully the band can step things up in that department by the time their next release happens, because regardless of what anyone has to say about this band’s decidedly un-punk roots – they put on a really great show.

Photos by Emily Matview | https://www.flickr.com/photos/holdfastnow/

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones setlist:

Dr. D
Rascal King
Kinder Words
Graffiti Worth Reading
Someday I Suppose
Shit Out of Luck
Everybody’s Better
Rudy Can’t Fail
Sunday Afternoons On Wisdom Ave
He’s Back
Another Drinking Song
Royal Oil
You Left Right
Hell of a Hat
A Bricklayer’s Story
Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah
Hope I Never Lose my Wallet
Don’t Worry Desmond Dekker
They Will Need Music
Toxic Toast
The Impression That I Get
The Impossible Dream
The Old School Off The Bright
A Pretty Sad Excuse