By Freddie Zamora
Boston’s own Mighty Mighty Bosstones came on stage clad in black suits and with their trademark dog symbol hung over the drum set. The crowd cheered for them as they came out to “Love Train,” being played on the loudspeaker, then they broke into the first song of the set, “Sugar Free.”
The Bosstones played in front of a crowd of screaming fans. The band was the headliner of Springfest, which in the past has been played by The Roots and other big name bands.
Happy to be in his hometown, lead singer Dicky Barrett said, “You know who we are, and we know who you are.” He proceeded to say, “Boston is the best city in the world.”
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones performed roughly 18 songs in an hour and a half. Ben Carr showed he could not stand in one position too long. He danced throughout the whole set relentlessly, showing no signs of weakness or exhaustion. He and Barrett often danced in sync. The Bosstones played a good amount of music from all their albums, and received an enthusiastic response from the audience. Among those songs were their hits, “The Impression That I Get,” which Barrett said he knew people would recognize before the song started, “The Rascal King” and the songs featured in the movie “Clueless,” “Someday I Suppose” and “Where’d You Go.”
The Bosstones also played their Bob Marley cover, “Simmer Down,” which was a soothing crowd-pleaser. The crowd danced, skanked and moshed throughout the Bosstones’ performance. There was also a great deal of crowd surfing, which alerted the guards by the barricades in the front. They took in any crowd surfers who made it to the front and sent them around the barricade.
Minutes after ending thier regular set the Bosstones came back minutes later to play two encore songs, “Mr. Moran” and “Tin Soldiers.”
They ended their encore with Barrett thanking the crowd for coming out and then thanking the rest of the band, and naming them one-by-one to the audience as they clapped for them. He then thanked the other bands that played with them, Kicked In the Head and Westbound Train.
The entire band gave it their all in their performance. They all moved around the stage while playing their instruments, and the band’s guitarist Lawrence Katz walked to the edge of the stage a few times to show off his guitar solos to the crowd.
Even before the show started, there were people chanting, “Mighty Mighty Bosstones!” There were also fans who were pushing each other to get closer to the barricade, but in order to do that, they would have had to go through a wall of people.
Students also got excited as they fought to get any piece of the Bosstones they could, from the tie that Barrett unfastened from his neck and threw into the crowd to Katz’s cast-off guitar pic.
Students were obviously happy with CUP’s headliner for Springfest 2003.
“I like [the Bosstones], they’re my favorite band,” said Dan Rahter, a freshman geology major. “I wanted them to sing ‘The Rascal King.'”
If you missed the Mighty Mighty Bosstones for free here at Northeastern, there are still opportunities to go see them this summer. They are going on tour with Voodoo Glow Skulls, Catch 22 and The Pietasters. For more information, log onto the Mighty Mighty Bosstones official homepage at: bosstones.com
