Review - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones @ the Fillmore (6/27/18)

The Mighty Mighty BossToneS @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating)

The BossToneS are back baby, and they kicked off what lead singer Dicky Barrett called the ‘summer of ska’ last night at the Fillmore to a near capacity crowd. The band was last here in San Francisco nearly 4 years ago for a show at the Fillmore in 2014, and I've personally lost track of how many times I've seen them perform live since I was a kid. For this tour, they’re out on the road supporting the release of their 10th full length album, While We're At It (iTunes) which was just released on June 15th. Wearing matching white jackets, black shirts and white ties, the 9-piece ska-core band from Boston were dressed to impress, and did they ever!

Show openers included Mexico's Los Kung Fu Monkeys and UK-based Buster Shuffle, who we later learned were on the bill due to Bosstones bassist Joe Gittlemen who had personally asked them to join the tour. 

Bosstones dancer, Ben Carr (Photo: Kevin Keating)

To say this was a fun show would be a massive understatement -- the audience in the nearly-full Fillmore had just enough space to move, and I swear that nearly everyone in the house was dancing at some point throughout the night; I mean, how could you not dance with the legendary Bosstones dancer, Ben Carr, while he was up on stage throwing-down non-stop throughout the entire 90-minute set? Seriously, take a look at the video below to see how much the crowd was enjoying themselves!



This could easily have been a show that featured the majority of songs from the new album, but the band knew better and kept the 26-song setlist to as wide of a mix of songs as possible from across their entire catalog. Personal favorites included "Dr. D", "Someday I Suppose", "Simmer Down", "Never Lose My Wallet", and the song they closed out their main set with, "The Impression That I Get".

Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (Photo: Kevin Keating)

Before performing another fan favorite, "Hell of a Hat", Dicky noticed someone near the front of the stage who was wearing a USPS hat and asked if he could wear it. The letter carrier threw his hat to Dicky who proceeded to talk about how they were both 'old school' -- still delivering mail, and still performing live, respectively. After the opening verse of the song, Dicky threw the USPS hat back to its owner, and promptly asked for another hat from a different audience member. He must have worn about 3-4 hats during the song, and afterward, offered to autograph the USPS hat for the Postal employee. In one of a number of funny moments, the sharpie that was given to Dicky from one of the roadies didn't write well enough, which led Dicky to fire him on the spot -- jokingly of course! In a couple of more serious and sentimental notes, Dicky expressed his love of ska to the audience by telling us that it's all he ever thinks about, and that more importantly, besides loving our friends and family, he hoped that we'd all love one another after leaving the show last night, just before the band broke into "Don't Worry Desmond Decker".

Dicky Barrett of the Bosstones (Photo: Kevin Keating)

It was absolutely fantastic to see the band back together, touring, and most importantly, putting out new music. If you're reading this from outside of the Bay Area, be sure to check out their tour schedule to see if/when they'll be coming to your town and don't miss this show! We've posted more pictures on our Facebook page that you can find here, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter for more concert news, reviews and interviews!

*Correction: The original version of this post stated that it had been 10 years since the Bosstones were last in SF.