Oh, and listen to your mother: Show some respect. Put on a suit jacket when you play for company.
THE ADRENALINE FACTOR
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones have always fused modern punk attitude (practicing the politics of tolerance and cool) and classic rock 'n' roll passion (play it raw, sweat hard) with a Vegas work ethic (entertain).
The eight-man, Boston-based group--Nate Albert, Dicky Barrett, Dennis Brockenborough, Tim Burton, Ben Carr, Joe Gittleman, Kevin Lenear and Joe Sirois--landed the independent Taang! label while playing to bigger and bigger mosh pits throughout the Northeast. They attracted a rabidly royal fan base by spiking hardcore punk's thrashing energy with ska's syncopated rhytms and horns, and by returning their fans' loyalty. The adrenaline factor of their shows--for band and audience alike--makes them a hot ticket. That, and their steadily expanding following, helped the Bosstones get signed to Mercury Records in 1994 ("We didn't really want to go major," says Barrett, "but we were in a position where we had to. Mercury said they wouldn't screw with us creatively, and things have been good ever since.") The Bosstones have since launched their own label, Big Rig Records, which has released discs by Mung and the great Safe and Sound: A Benefit in Response to the Brookline Clinic Violence; hosted MTV's "120 Minutes"; filled Lollapalooza '95's opening slot; and recorded Let's Face It for Mercury, their fifth full-length studio album. Barrett and Gittleman talked with Gtg Magazine about how the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Gig Magazine: Have you seen any changes in your audiences as you've grown from a regional to a national band?
Dicky Barrett: At least people who come to our shows, they want the same thing, and that's to enjoy themselves. "Hey, I put down my 17 deutchmarks and got my deutchmark's worth." I see us being the same eight guys, traveling around. THere's more people there. Come one, come all, they'll get the same treatment. The biggest surprise I found when we first left Boston--I never had any plans of ever leaving, I come from a family where everybody just stays there and you go to New Hampshire and everybody in town wants to know what it's like--everyone's the same and has the same wants and needs.
Joe Gittleman: I think maybe the perception of us has grown, certainly. But kids are kids, shows are shows, Bosstone shows are extremely similar all over the world, I find, from Japan to the Inland Empire [in Southern California].
G: What kinds of performance adjustments have you made as you grew out of smaller clubs into bigger concert halls?
Barrett: I got three or four more feet to run across. A little more area to cover. Not a lot other than that. A little more elbow room. We just deliver our songs the best way we know. I got five or six different really corny arena-rock type things we say. "We love you, hello!" "Thank you! The people of Austin are the most beautiful in the world! Ah, one, two, three!" Naaaah, It's a little bit different, but it's in ways that are tough to describe. We played with Aerosmithm we've done big shows in parts of the world, and our thought was, "How're we gonna do this? We're not packed in a club." And I said we'll get up there, be ourselves, play the songs we know, start to embrace a lot of people. You've got to have longer arms .... To hug ...
G: Any instrument or equipment changes?
Gittleman: We have people, the bigger places require more equipment, and there's hassle to that, but it makes no difference to me.
G: Any logistical impact on your touring schedule and merchandising?
Barrett: We like to tour, and that's what we do, so we tour a lot.
Gittleman: In a word, no. We still tour a lot, we toured a lot when we played in front of 150 people, if we ever play in front of 150,000, I'm sure we'll tour a lot then, too.
G: Do you get roadies and dressing rooms now?
Barrett: We've got a guy who's been selling t-shirts since we started, this other guy who does our drums, he's been there since we started. I guess you would call them roadies, but they're our friends. Part of the familt, we like to say. You get dressing rooms sometimes, but theoretically dressing rooms aren't that nice.
G: In past interviews you've said you were glad "not to be MTV darlings," so what's it like now that you're making videos?
Barrett: I said that because any success or popularity the band has gotten, it's because of hard work we've put in touring. There's bands you didn't know about yesterday, maybe weren't even a band yesterday, and sometime last night their video got 900 plays and by morning everybody's [talking about 'em] and by Tuesday you don't know 'em. We're interested in being a band, and all that involves. It's a lot of hard work and sweat.
Shooting videos is kinda fun. You wouldn't know it by looking at MTV, but [we've done] seven or eight. It's not our love, it's not our passion, we like to write songs, not make movies about them.
Gittleman: I get my pleasure out of making the records and playing the shows, the video's just something you have to do along the way. You do it with a smile, whatever's asked of you, you want it to be good. I think we're getting better at making videos and it's fun.
G: What business changes should bands coming up behind you anticipate?
Barrett: Pay attention while you can. If you don't care about what it is you're doing, about the show or the music you're making or the people who're coming to see you, you don't need any advice at all. That's what should be first. If it's not, I don't think there'll be any business for you.
Gittleman: If they want to go about it the same way we did, you've got to put more emphasis on your live show, and your touring, and you want to go through the cities and you want it to be exciting, you want it to be happening, not just another concert. And I think we've been good at doing that, we try to keep it fresh and energetic. It's just the fun of it all that makes us want to do that kind of stuff.
G: You guys used to wear a lot of plaid. What gives?
Barrett: I'm wearing a nice plaid suit today, as a matter of fact. We like fine men's fashion when we perform. [Laughs.] We've worn a lot of plaid in our day, so if you see less of it it's only because there's so much else to wear. We want to exercise our right to be fashionable. As long as somebody's putting down money to see us play, the least we can do is wear a nice shirt.