By Patricia Ricci
Editor

"You're not lucky that we came, we're lucky that you came to see us," says The Mighty Mighty Bosstones saxophone player, Tim Burton.

Burton is explaining the attitude he and the other band members -- Dicky Barrett, vocals; Nate Albert, guitar; Joe Sirois, drums; Dennis Brockenborogh, trombone; Kevin Lenear, saxophone; Joe Gittleman, bass; and "Bosstone" Ben Carr -- had as fans of other rock groups in Boston. It's the attitude that they make sure they keep now. And it basically sums up their entire philosophy.

In an age when a concert-goer could feasibly spend $50 for a ticket, it's refreshing to come across a band that cares about the music and the fans more than putting money in their own pockets.

With the release of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones fifth record Let's Face It, the band is poised to take the step from big cult/underground band to mainstream band status. And as with any band that makes that crossover, some fans are squawking -- saying that their heroes have sold out.

"There's not many people who scream sell-out," Burton says quietly a few hours before their show in Pittsburgh, PA. He's sitting on the plastic brown couch in their trailer. Behind him hangs a few old, crumpled travel posters of Europe. Outside, in the concrete lot where the trailer rests, members of the Swinging Utters and Pietasters -- the Bosstones' two opening acts on this leg of the tour -- play basketball, and the "thump, thump" of the ball reverberates through the room.

"But the ones that do, I guess should examine their own lives, you know. We play music we like, at clubs that we like, with a ticket price that we work hard to keep down, in venues that we try to make sure are friendly and have friendly security. We take extra time out of our year to play smaller clubs rather than bigger ones. We could make a lot more money than we do by charging a lot more money than we do.

"I mean, I understand that feeling," he continues, completely sincere. "I've had it. Your special band that you can relate to, and that you like because you feel they relate to you. And you don't want them to be a part of the mainstream because what makes you associate with them is that they're different. And it makes you feel cool.

"So, I do understand it, but the way we address it is by coming and presenting ourselves to people in the most direct and honest way that we feel we can -- and that's just by playing live shows."

Nothing could be more true. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones have stage presence -- and a lot of it -- but they have no pretensions, on stage or off. They make a living doing what they love and feel fortunate to be doing it.

They play for themselves and the audience -- not the critics and certainly not the record company. They haven't changed their style of music. They hang out in the crowd while their opening acts are on stage and talk to fans. They've given away T-shirts when fans have come up to them and said they can't afford one. And they've been known to do things like lower ticket prices if they find that prices are higher than they thought.

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones can be described in many ways, but "sell out" is definitely not one of them.

This is a band that has done things their way. They released their first two albums on Taang! Records without ever signing a contract with the indie label. Burton says that they used to call themselves The Band Without Pen. In the early years, they didn't have ANY formal written agreements with not only the record company, but their manager, booking agent, accountants, and everyone else they dealt with on a professional level. They wanted to make sure that they wouldn't have to compromise themselves or their music. And they didn't. They waited until they had enough of a fan base and enough leverage for things be on their own terms before they ever dreamed of signing on the dotted line.

When they did, they didn't go for the big money. They could have signed with other labels, for more money, but Mercury Records assured them that they wouldn't tamper with the Bosstones sound.

And they still make all the decisions -- from every aspect of the shows down to Barrett designing the artwork on the records. Burton says that they work with the record company in a partnership, but that they basically don't have any management. What they have is "people that work with us who implement our decisions."

"Wanna hear something cool?" says a crew member who just burst through the Bosstones trailer door.

"Sure," Burton answers.

"Know what the big rumor is?" continues the crew member, who's sporting a Pittsburgh Penguins cap. "Guess who's on the house list to show up?"

Burton pauses for about five seconds, then deliberately says, "Mario Lemieux."

"Oh, I wish," the crew members says wistfully and laughs. "No."

"Then Jagr, I suppose, right," Burton says matter of factly.

"Yeah," the crew member responds. "I can't believe it."

"We're big hockey fans," Burton explains once the crew member has left. "Boston's a big hockey town."

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones have never hidden the fact that they're from Boston -- they actually flaunt that fact with their name. They've always been proud to fly the Boston flag because of the support they've gotten, and continue to get from the Boston music scene. And they try their best to give back to it.

They do a series of concerts in Boston every year called "The Hometown Throwdown" where they play consecutive nights in local clubs and have Boston bands as their openers. They try to support the local Boston bands as well as they can, and even bring them on the road as much as possible. "Basically any decent band in Boston that wants to go on the road with us can do it," Burton says. But it's not always that simple. A lot of the members in those bands still have day jobs or families. "We do what we can."

One thing that they did was to put out a compilation of Boston artists called Safe and Sound: A Benefit In Response To The Brookline Clinic Violence on Big Rig Records, their own label started in 1993. The compilation is in response to the brutal attack on two Boston-area family planning clinics in 1994 that killed two young women. The proceeds of the album, along with a series of benefit concerts still taking place in Boston, raises money for women's healthcare nationally (through the National Clinic Access Project) and locally (through the funding of six Massachusetts' shelters for battered women).

"We got a lot of support from the Boston scene early on," explains Burton, "which is a really open-minded scene, especially at that time. That's why we fly the Boston flag so proudly. Boston has a lot to do with the way we were able to succeed and accomplish what we have become -- a decent band."

First formed in 1985, the lineup consisted of Barrett, Burton, Gittleman, Carr, drummer Josh Dulcimer, and then 13-year-old guitarist Albert. The Bosstones released their first record Devil's Night Out on Taang! Records in 1989. In 1990, they released a second Taang! effort, More Noise and Other Disturbances, with the new lineup consisting of drummer Sirois, and horn additions Lenear and Brockenborough. By 1992, with minimal label support, they were headlining 30-city national tours out of the back of their van.

That same year they signed the deal with Mercury Records and released the Ska-core, The Devil and More EP. After that came 1993's Don't Know How to Party and 1994's Question the Answers.

"We used to play bars, and that was part of the reason you started a band," says Burton. "You couldn't get in the bars otherwise if you weren't 21. That's how Ben got his role as dancer guy. He was our friend and used to hang around, but if it wasn't an all-ages show, he couldn't get in. So we were like, 'Oh, yeah, he's with the band.' So he'd get up and dance around, and he just took that role and ran with it -- expanded it."

They took the ska dress code and ran with that too, never hitting the stage in anything less than a suit. "We're going to give you a show," Burton says when asked about the suits, "we're not going come out on stage in a flannel shirt and ripped jeans." They became known for their plaid apparel as much as their music. It's not very often you see them in plaid these days, though. Now it's just a regular suit, something they've explained by saying no one wears the same clothes they did five years ago and that the Beatles didn't have the moptops forever.

Playing music that frontman Dicky Barrett has described as "plaid" for years, they've won over fans with their incessant touring and fun music. Their brand of punk and ska, has been said to be the ultimate party music. For years they've been playing the same punk/ska hybrid that's just now becoming popular.

Singer Barrett has said, "Trends have come and trends have gone, and when this one comes and goes, we'll still be the Bosstones on the other side of it."

He said this in reference to the so-called "third wave" of ska music running through the music industry recently. Ska has once again come to the forefront, and is getting attention. But it has always been popular according to Burton, regardless of whether the music industry chose to ignore it or not.

"Ska's great, fun, live music," Burton says. "People really enjoy it and it's been very important to us for a long time. It's been a real popular kind of party music for nightclub goers for years. A lot of cities have great ska scenes -- and they've been very supportive to us. And it's great that we get supported by that. We love the music.

"But even though we come from the ska and punk scenes, we don't profess to be a ska band. It's just one of our influences, it's part of what we do." They seem to be doing it a little more on Let's Face It. Their records have always been ska-influenced, but the straight ska is a little more noticeable on this one. It's part of their progression as a band, and as songwriters. Let's Face It is the first Bosstones record where the band took continuous weeks off to write. They spent equal amounts of time making sure that each song sounded exactly the way they wanted it to. It's also the first Bosstones record where Barrett sings much more than he screams.

"I can't speak for him," Burton says about the noticeable difference in vocals, "but I think he wanted to just basically approach the songs a little bit differently. He's still true to his style -- our style -- there's still a ton of backing vocals in there. But I think that he just wanted to stretch his wings a little bit and try something different."

The end result is the best Bosstones record to date. It has the trademark Bosstones hybrid that fans have come to love -- hard-core, ska, punk pop, tons of horns, and lyrics that mean something -- and it has enough of a new twist that it doesn't really sound like any other Bosstones record.

There is a definite message that runs throughout Let's Face It. It's a message of tolerance -- racial and sexual. The message stems from the diverse backgrounds of the band members themselves -- socially, economically, and racially.

"We're proud of the fact that we do get along so well," says Burton. "That's our message, what we'd like to show people. If eight knuckleheads like us, from very different backgrounds, can work together and create something and get along really well, then you can probably do that too. Whether it's at the office, gas station, or whatever it is you do."

They've formed a type of partnership with the Anti Racist Action Group (ARA). Early in their career the ARA set up a booth outside one of their shows in Columbus, Ohio. It went so well that's it's turned into a full-time relationship.

Burton says that they try to create the same atmosphere of acceptance at their shows -- one where every fan feels welcome. They have an open door policy, and anyone and everyone is allowed to come in and enjoy the show, and maybe get introduced to different things and people.

"We want them to feel good about who they are and about other people and where they fit into the world," he says of the atmosphere they try to create at their concerts. "We hope that our little microcosm of the Bosstones concert world was fun, and they get to meet some different people and learn that everyone is basically the same.

"That's one thing we've learned throughout our travels -- especially in Europe. There's differences on the surface, but deep down, people are basically the same wherever you go."