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By Brandon Barber |
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Ah, "The Road." That filthy black ribbon girding the land. Inspiration and abomination at once. Aside from teamsters and traveling salesmen, you'd be hard-pressed to find a subsection of society more intimate with its nuances than musicians. Bands often define themselves in the cozy confines of a cargo van. Living as a single unit, hurtling from city to city in a motorized storage closet, scarfing down fast food, harboring dreams of world domination. Road life affects bands in different ways. Countless acts come apart at the seams on the road. Others thrive in it. One such band is The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, guitarist Nate Albert, bassist Joe Gittleman, Tim Burton, Kevin Lenear and Dennis Brockenborough on horns, drummer Joe Sirois and back up vocalist Ben Carr). The band has flogged the road for eight years. Constant touring has been punctuated only by brief periods of recording. The emphasis is on brief. The Bosstones adhere to the Mike Watt philosophy of recording which regards albums as nothing more than really expensive flyers for live gigs. "In the past we would write however many songs that we needed to fill an album and get back to non-stop touring," explains Bosstones guitarist Nate Albert. Their press bio sums up the Bosstones ethic best, "12 guys in a decrepit blue van with no A/C, building blood loyalty among growing legions of fans across the country." Although the Bosstones have since traded in cargo vans for tour busses the attitude still remains. On tour throughout the summer, the band has traversed the country several times in support of their newest release, Let's Face It and as a featured act on the Warped Tour (line up included: Fishbone, Pennywise, NOFX, CIV, Fluf, Deftones, Red 5, Unwritten Law, Blink-182, Rocket From the Crypt, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 311). Warped was one of the largest tours of the summer and their experience seems to have been a positive one. "If we were to put together a festival tour, which we would never be allowed to do, it would be just like the Warped Tour," laughs bassist Joe Gittleman. "We only got to do four shows last year, so we're psyched to do the whole tour this year." As the band gains momentum, they are faced with problems that have almost become a cliche in contemporary music. Some fans reject any sign of success, such as a major label deal or a festival tour, as a sign of weakness and quickly stamp such bands as sellouts. This problem is familiar to the Bosstones. "There's always someone who thinks that they were down first," says Gittleman. "Those kind of people are always going to be cooler than someone else." "Yeah, like my Mom," quips Albert. "The fact is," he continues "is that we've been trying to sell out for years, but no one was buying. we're doing the same thing now, people are just buying the records." The subject obviously strikes a nerve with the band. "When we started playing some clubs in Boston that were too big for some people you hear the same kind of thing," says Gittleman. "We're doing what we've always wanted to do. Those people who like to point fingers are basically being told what to do -- a lot of them. They're not doing what they dream about, you know. A lot of people are out there working for the dollar and I don't think that we're like that. I sleep well at night." Dedication to this ideal seems to be bringing back dividends. "Something that I've noticed," states Albert. "Is that our fans have begun to follow us from show to show, never getting enough. Some start out in Providence, get as far as Chicago, or Minneapolis." Insight into the touring phenomenon is rare and usually controlled by record labels and the media. JAMTV had the unique opportunity to rip a few pages out of the road journal of Mighty Mighty Bosstones guitarist and songwriter Nate Albert for an insider's look at the life of a consummate touring band. What follows are a few selections that were e-mailed us and put up largely uncut.
Mineappolis Land of Replacements
It's sunny and Hot today. Thank god yesterdays shows were inside. We had a twister warning! Crazy amounts of rain and lightning. It made the bus drive kinda freaky. Anyway, today should be good. Everyone is sunburned and little beat. We are in the middle of a 19 show run without a day off. We can't complain though. Everyone on the tour has been super gracious. But I think that this might be the hottest tour we have ever been on except maybe Lollapalooza '95. That was the year that they had that crazy
heat wave in the Midwest and so many people were dying from the heat that they had to store the bodies in meat refrigeration trucks. Yikes! We made it through that okay. Sinead left the tour though.
Love,
Buffaaaloooooo 7/22/97 Rain, Rain, Rain... It was coming down like nails in Chicago. Our Bus was out for the count. Broken alternator. We sat in our trailer. Mud fest. They canceled all of the other stages except ours. Descendants all switched up gear and did a rad mini set of punk rock covers. Thunder, lightening and mud. Pennywise (the band) lost their bus a few days later. I think its some kind of bus virus going around. We've had Fletcher (lead guitarist for Pennywise) and his Girl Corina on our bus for the past two nights. We all love Pennywise and Fletcher is a super funny and cool guy. His Girlfriend is a sweetheart to boot. Saw that movie Scream for the first time on the bus last night, Crazy. Oh yeah, it's raining again today. Barbecue We have been grilling almost every night on this tour. Lagwagon just joined us and they sponsored last nights feast: Joey (Lagwagon's lead singer) whips up a fine steak. Descendants caught some salmon and have been adding that to the smoke pit as well. Good stuff. Do The Rock Star I would say that the Warped tour vibe is the antithesis of the Lollapalooza back stage vibe. Every one is super laid back and open to everyone else. Lolla had a bit too much of that old rock star thing floating around. I can't stand that stuff anymore. I don't know if we ever could but so many bands seemed to be total dicks that I thought that was the norm for a while there. I would hate to live like that that's for sure. There are these bands that watch themselves on MTV and start to believe that that is who and what they are. Believing your own myth and all of that. It's kind of sad really. We saw a lot of that this summer on all the radio shows we played. These bands couldn't figure out exactly why they sucked. More soon...
Love,
Pittsburgh Words With [Bosstones backup vocalist] Ben Ben is on four cups of coffee. He is flying and ready to go. D-man is feeling good today "you guys are awesome." They found Cunanan. Ben is watching CNN and wants to go to the show. Nate: "Ben, give me some info on the tour" Ben: "Its real...I don't know the cops hassled us at the Grill last night" Nate: "Why?" Ben: "Cuz the venue didn't want to be responsible for our friends" Nate: "The man was coming down on us" Ben: "Right on" Nate: "Kevin and Reed took care of then. Dude have you seen Chuck Bizkits" Ben: "Once. Yeah he is looking like odd ball from Kelly's Heroes and ah, he wears a 666 jersey. He rocks. He is putting the power behind Social D. definitely. He was in Black Flag and Danzig. Robo was in the Misfits. Was he in the Germs later on too? " Nate: "Okay that's it" More random nonsense from the Warped tour. 16 shows in a row and counting......
Love,
Jacksonville We are back on tour and back in Jacksonville Fl. This time for the HORDE tour with Neil Young. We are only on the last five days of the tour. I watched Neil the other night and was really moved. He is a really great guy and an all around cool vibe. It feels like we have been touring non stop since March. and it looks like we will be on the road until next summer. We play the Video music awards next week. It will be cool to see Beck and the Foos again. I hear the Stones are going to play too! That kind of stuff always impresses the parents. After that we start our own nine week tour of the U.S. We will be bringing BimSkalaBim, the Drop Kick Murphy's and the Royal Crowns. All very cool and rocking bands from Boston. Towards the end of the tour we will be on Saturday Night Live. Oct.25th I think. After that we will be leaving for Europe for three weeks. I've just gotten the schedule; Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland and England! After that we are coming home to do our hometown throwdown at the Middle East Club in Cambridge. After that...New Years Eve Bash in Boston! Then to Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii with Pennywise. Yikes. See you guys on the road
love,
Houston It is hot! Well, we're missing autumn in New England again! The leaves were just starting to turn when we left for tour. Its kinda the second week of our "Boston On The Road Tour" -- that's if you count the MTV music awards. That, my friends, was a strange scene. Dicky met Bono, I got a very nice picture of Donald Trumph with Tony Bennett (they were sitting behind us) and we jammed with John Popper. It was a fun week in NYC though, the Epitaph Summer Nationals were going on at the Ritz at the same time as the MTV thing. Some of us bailed the show early to get over to see NOFX and Hepcat and try to come back to reality. As hard as we tried we couldn't seem to break the surreal spell which MTV had cast on us that week. NY was crawling with bands, Chemical Brothers, M. Manson, Etc. The next night I went to the Fat Records party at Coney Island and got a chance to check out Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies! It was the fourth show that they have played and they ruled. Its always cool to see Fat Mike and Chris Lips. I was bummed I missed Limp who played earlier that evening. Phil from Dance Hall Crashers is now with them. I ran into some of No Doubt at the show and ended up bowling with them and some of the Sublime and Blondie crew until the wee hours of the a.m. Tony (Tony Kanal of No Doubt) made all of us look very silly. After all of that we really needed to get home and get grounded before hitting the road for "real." We had a day and a half off and here we are again! Two month US tour with Bim, Amazing Royal Crowns and Drop Kick Murphy's. This was a big week, not only did the tour really get started but the band went platinum! When we put out Devil's Night Out I don't think any of us really saw that as ever being a possibility; Selling one million records! Phew! Anyway, I hope that everyone is well. I will be back online on a regular basis. My mom was pissed that it had been so long since my last entry. Sorry mom.
Love,
Las Vegas We’ve been in Vegas for two hours and I have already lost $100!!!! LA, San Diego, Phoenix etc. Its been a long week. Saw Chris Lips (No Use, Me First) at SOMA last night. Those guys are in the middle of their own U.S. tour with LIMP. We first met Chris when he was working for WAX (r.i.p) four years ago! Its was good to see him again. We are headed for San Fran after the show tonight for a day off. Dicky is headed to LA to sing on the Rancid record before the show on Thursday in Fresno. I will send in something a little more interesting then. We have to figure out what to do for our next video so if any one has any ideas please send ‘em my way.
Love,
San Francisco Sorry, I forgot to tell all yall, the next video is going to be for the song Royal Oil. Maybe that will help to get the juices flowing. We have the day off today in SF and thank god we are out of Vegas. Joe Sirois and I seem to have a little problem when it comes to ‘the luck of the draw’; we have none. We both kinda lost our shirts at the old Black Jack table. But how can you resist, especially at the Hard Rock where the tables have little pictures of the Clash and quotes by the SexPistols on them?! Well we were pretty good sports about it and left without making too much of a fuss. Joe Gittleman doubled his money. He has that Midas touch. I don’t think that Mr. Vegas put any money down. Maybe thats how he got his name. He was the only one of us who kept a cool head there. The show was rad though. Too much ice flying around the room, but all in all a very cool show. Its kinda crazy but the last time that we played in Vegas NO Doubt opened for us. That was years ago and for some reason we haven’t really been back there since then. When I saw those guys in NYC we were laughing about how much the show sucked. It was in a movie theater that still had the seats in it and no air conditioning that I can remember. Things sure have changed. Well, my hotel room doesn’t have air conditioning either but.....
Love,
UC Davis We just finished our home video! I think that it will be out by mid- November. It has all of our videos(11!) and a new one by Higgs of a new song that we left off of the album called ‘Common Decency’ Our friend Chris who did the "Impression" video put the whole thing together. I hope you guys like it. Some of the videos are super borderline but they are all kinda funny anyway. The San Fran show was great! We all love that town. Its kind of our home away from home. 60 degrees, sunny and sold out. We’re in Davis, CA today and have to fly on the redeye tonight to Atlanta to do a big festival show there and then fly to Seattle the next day! Thanks for the video ideas. I think that its coming together. We should be shooting some time next week. Dicky had a cool idea for it. I’ll fill you in as it comes together.
Love,
Bozeman Hey there!? We finally got our next video together! We’re doing it with our main video homey Chris A. We are smashin’ pumpkins in slow motion. Something like that. We are playing tonight in MT( BIG sky country) and then to Denver and New Mexico then Back to Boston to shoot the video somewhere close to Joe Gittleman’s house outside of town. Thank you sooo much for all of the cool video ideas. We ended up going with Dicky’s idea. Though I am not all together sure what we are doing I am going to be going with the flow anyway. Things have been pretty mellow out here lately. After we shoot the video we have another two weeks then get a few days off in NYC for SNL which will be on Oct 25. More soon.
Love,
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