I got knocked back a little bit Thursday afternoon when I saw the Facebook post that let the world know that The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were calling it quits.
I was stunned. Just the night before, my wife and I were mapping out our 2022 and 2023 vacation plans. She wanted to go to Hawaii in December, but I reminded her I wanted to go to Boston to attend my first Hometown Throwdown, the annual holiday shows at the Bosstones put on the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
The Throwdown has been on my bucket list for a while, probably since the band released Live From The Middle East, which was recorded during the 1997 Throwdown and released in 1998. That happened to be the year I moved from Columbus to El Paso, Texas, making it a much more difficult trip to pull off at a most expensive and difficult time of the year for a newspaper reporter who focused on college basketball.
At end of 2019 as we entered a new decade, I made a list of 10 things I wanted to accomplish in the new decade. No. 4 was seeing the Bosstones during a Throwdown. That dream is now over.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are a solid No. 3 on my all-time favorite band list, behind KISS and Watershed. That’s amazing to me because I was very late to the Mighty Mighty BossTones party. I heard their cover of “Detroit Rock City” on 1994’s Kiss My Ass tribute album, and around that time “Pictures to Prove It” was being played occasionally on then CD 101. I got a copy of the Question The Answers CD, and my journey was off. I loved the disc and it led me to purchasing the earlier material, which had its moments but didn’t really increase my interest in the band.
Seeing the Bosstones live did that. I saw them November 16, 1996 at The Newport Music Hall. This was before they were about to break out big with “The Impression That I Get,” which would be released about four months later. The band did play what would become its biggest hit that night.
Seven months later, the Bosstones came back and played The Newport again. Another fantastic show that was heavy on the Let’s Face It album. I was starting to get back into running a little bit around this time and that record was my soundtrack.
I got married in 1999. Dara, being the saint she is, let me name our wedding photo album “Pictures To Prove It.”
There were two Warped Tour shows (2000 in El Paso and 2002 in Nampa, Idaho). Warped Tour sets are short, so you don’t get the same experience as a full-on show. I did get my photo with singer Dicky Barrett after the 2002 show that I use as my Instagram profile picture.
The band went on hiatus for a handful of years, and I kind of assumed they were done. I’m glad they weren’t. Their next two albums, plus a release of B-sides and unreleased material were excellent and better than anything they’d previously done. We drove down to Salt Lake City and saw them open their “Way Out West” Tour in 2014 and were blown away. It had been 12 years since I’d seen them, and they were better than ever. “Another Drinkin’ Song” was in the set, which made my year.
And the band kept going. Their politically charged While We’re At It is a masterpiece and offers an excellent commentary on what was/is happening in the country. I flew to Portland in 2018 to see the opening night of that tour.
During the pandemic, they released When God Was Great and again hit it out of the park. An excellent collection of songs that range in styles and themes, clever and rocking. We flew to Denver to see them at the historic Ogden Theatre, and they killed it. Dara was officially on board to attend a Throwdown.
It turns out that night was their fourth-to-last show. I’m so glad we spent our Labor Day weekend in the Mile High City to see Bosstones at their best. Dicky asked the audience if anyone was seeing them for the first time and told them, “Well, this is what we do.”
Well, not anymore. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are going out at their absolute best. Selfishly, I’d wish they continue. Maybe there’ll be a reunion? Someday I suppose.