by Tanner Erdman
The Mighty Mighty BossToneS, often known simply as The Bosstones, are known for their trademark plaid apparel. The band’s name speaks to their origins in Boston, Massachusetts. Since the band’s beginnings in 1983, Dicky Barrett has been the lead vocalist, Joe Gittleman has been the bassist, Tim “Johnny Vegas” Burton has been the tenor saxophonist, and Ben “Bosstone” Carr has been a dancer. Other roles have seen several different names, but currently, Joe Sirois is the drummer, Leon Silva is a saxophonist, Lawrence Katz is the guitarist, John Goetchius is the keyboardist, and Chris Rhodes plays the trombone. Clearly, the band’s music benefits from the sounds made by all these different instruments. Variety allows for different sounds across tracks on the same album; whether an instrument is included or not changes and adds to the sound, and the register of the instrument included is also a factor (i.e. if the tenor saxophone is included as opposed to the baritone saxophone). The Bosstones’ music falls into the “ska punk” genre, as a mix of ska (a music genre that is initially from Jamaica that preceded reggae) and hardcore punk, which originated in the 1970s, and the band is often credited with being one of the creators and main proliferators of the genre as a whole.
Since the band’s debut album Devil’s Night Out (1989), the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have only increased in popularity and volume of performances. For example, the band’s 1997 album Let’s Face It received a platinum award for sales, and further maximized this commercial success with the hit single “The Impression That I Get.” From 1994-2007, save for a brief hiatus from 2003-2007, the band hosted an annual several-day Hometown Throwdown music festival in December (besides the first festival, which was held in July) in downtown Boston. This music festival was hugely successful, featuring a full lineup of local artists and an anecdotally “great turnout.” The festival has not been held in recent years due to complications with COVID-19, but the Bosstones still have tour dates set for 2022 and are reportedly planning to host the festival in Greater Boston this year, likely during the week between Christmas and the New Year.
The band’s history represents a true underdog success story. The founding members met when they were members of separate yet complementary bands, and frequent substitutions between their members brought Gittleman, Barrett, Burton, Carr, and several others together; Barrett has shared in several interviews that the Bosstones’ founding members bonded over their close hometowns and shared inspirations in bands like AC/DC, The Class, and 2 Tone ska groups. The band’s first album was not their own; their recording debut was on a ska compilation album called Mash It Up. They were featured on a slightly later album as well, entitled Mashin’ Up the Nation, during the publication of which the band was taking a brief hiatus while a few members finished high school. Also around this time was when the band added the “Mighty Mighty” to their name to avoid any copyright issues, as an acapella group had used the “Bosstones” name during the 1950s. In 1989, when they came back together, the band got a lucky and unexpected break when Taang! record label gave the band a recording contract, despite inconsistent turnout at their live shows. It was under the Taang! label that the band released their first album; Devil’s Night Out was received positively in local circles, but met opposition from both ska purists and hardcore punk fans who didn’t appreciate the band’s mixing of the two previously distinct genres. However, the congruency of the genres and the Bosstones’ mixing of the two served as a sort of catalyst for the ska movement to finally move out of the underground. It was around this time that the band adopted their trademark plaid costumes as well as worked with Converse sneakers to promote Chuck Taylors. As the band’s career began to take off, members left and were replaced most often to pursue academics, but the turnover didn’t stop their rise to popularity. They did their first national tour in 1991 and signed with a major record label in 1993. Recent performances have featured Jimmy Kimmel on bass clarinet, or a joint tour with the Dropkick Murphys, another Boston-based band. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones recently released yet another album in 2021, bringing the total discography to 11 albums, and continues to tour, perform, and produce music under the management of Big Rig and Hellcat Record companies.
Because of their long history, rich experience, and creative performance style, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were undoubtedly a hit when they visited SUNY Geneseo. Their visit to SUNY Geneseo was significant because in 2001 there were not many punk bands performing at universities. Perhaps in some ways, they “broke the barrier,” leading to other punk bands performing on campus.