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   eye WEEKLY                                            February 23 1995

   Toronto's arts newspaper                      .....free every Thursday

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   LIVE EYE                                                      LIVE EYE

review

THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES
with Face To Face
Feb. 15, The Phoenix.

by
EMILY SMITH

You may ask why we need yet another punk rock band from Southern California. As one who is astoundingly familiar with the word "excess," I say there is no such thing as too much punk rock. And who cares if all these bands sound like Bad Religion?

Face To Face (which is kind of a bogus name for a band that is, like, totally cool, but what the hell), just for a change, are girlie-pop-for-boys like Green Day (and similarly they do the skull-shakin' wigging-a-go-go thing onstage too) but with the ol' skate-punk edge.

Sporting cut-off army trousers (don't ya know it's winter, dudes?), brightly colored lids and tattoos galore, Face To Face screamed through a horned-hand set o' tunes from their bad-assed new album Big Choice (title based on those impossible-to-win arcade games by the same name), including the confused "Sensible" and the epic Descendents number "Bikeage." Mighty awesome.

And more mightiness ensued when the Bosstones took the stage. Other than a clever pun on the name of their hometown (Boston, in case you couldn't figure it out), the word Bosstone appears under Ben Carr's name on their albums. He is the Bez (the guy in the Happy Mondays who danced around with maracas) of the band. Skanking wildly enough to put out his own exercise video, Mr. Bosstone was an added bonus to the snappily dressed outfit.

For some reason, a distressing number of people in the audience felt that their own ideas of fashion were required onstage either to dive or dance around until Dicky Barrett (lead singer) pushed them off. In the case of one over-exuberant youth, Barrett grabbed him and announced, "We got rules that apply not only in the States, but everywhere. You get a wedgie!" Hygiene horror was the result as Dickie said, "He's not wearing any underwear! You filthy little guy!"

It was a bit difficult to make out Barrett's gravelly vocals on some songs, but the Bosstones have a rockingly powerful live sound with clean brass and crisp guitars. Highlights of the show (which, according to Dickie, was "the first leg of this part of the tour and I'm already legless") included the metallic-ska of "Someday I Suppose," "Holy Smoke" and the Stiff Little Fingers punk anthem "Tin Soldiers," all from Don't Know How To Party. The Bosstones are even mightier live than on disc. Outstanding.