Meeting the Might Mighty Bosstone's Dicky Barrett, and... Steven Page?
On finding the story in unexpected places
Meeting my Heroes is an occasional essay series from Matt Carmichael.
Sometimes the story isn’t where you think it is.
My college roommate, Jon, grew up outside Boston. He was a fan of a ska band called the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and he played them for me a lot until I just started playing them for myself. He, Jack (who would later be a roommate in my first post-college apartment) and I started 3 of the first 2,500 or so sites on the Web. Jon’s was about the Bosstones. Mine was about Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. I think Jack’s was a little more eclectic but had a lot of Lovecraft involved.
Anyway, there was a summer music festival called H.O.R.D.E. and in 1998 or so it came through with the Bosstones and the Barenaked Ladies on the bill.
There was a media area set up in a gazebo off to the side of the stage and members of the press such as your dad would wait there between acts, maybe have a bottle of water, maybe work on our notes. From time to time band managers would come out and set up interviews with their artists, which was kind of unusual — normally it would take a lot of work to set those up.
A bunch of us were hanging around when up strolled Dicky Barrett, the lead singer of the Bosstones. I’d interviewed him a couple years earlier for art + performance at Northwestern, inspired by Jon, I’m sure.
Anyway, a young woman had asked his manager for an interview and he went straight for her. “Hey, are you from Spin Magazine,” he asked. “Yes!,” she replied, “do you want to talk now?” And he said, much to her surprise, “No, I don’t. I hate Spin.” And he started to walk away. “Wait, I’m from Spin online,” she called after him. He paused almost as if considering and half-turned back. “Nah,” he said. And off he went.
She was sad because she thought she’d lost her story. I suggested she look at it another way: He came out and told you off in person, to your face. He didn’t send his manager back. He wanted to do it himself. Now that’s a story.
And see, it was, wasn’t it?
I love Dicky for that. And also for the overall no-nonsense way he seems to live his life. And not in the way some people say they “just speak the truth” as a cover for basically being rude. But I digress.
This was one of those moments that illustrated that sometimes, maybe even often, the story isn’t the story you thought it would be. Sometimes the story sneaks up on you. Sometimes you tell the story. And sometimes the story tells you off.
Bonus lesson: Later that afternoon the manager of the Barenaked Ladies came and grabbed me. He asked if I wanted to interview Steven Page, one of the band’s singers. I wasn’t prepared at all but they were a fun band so I figured, “why not.” As we were walking back to their tour bus the manager told me that they had a new album out and a couple of other useful tidbits.
Then I sat down with the leader of this super quirky Canadian band and asked a couple basic questions and just let the conversation go. I couldn’t possibly be anything but relaxed because despite not being prepared, there also wasn’t anything at all at stake. My editors weren’t expecting this interview either.
We had a great, relaxed conversation. If you’ve ever listened to one of their songs, you can imagine that Steven Page was a clever, funny guy — and he was. We talked, I took notes and then we were done.
Sometimes, the best stories tell themselves. If you listen, and ask just enough questions to keep the conversation going.
That’s my story of meeting Dicky Bosstone and a Barenaked Lady.
Here’s what I actually wrote, for an awesome, early music ‘zine on the Web called Addicted to Noise. In reading this again, years later, it turns out I also interviewed the guys from the Allman Brothers Band spin-off, Gov’t Mule. After that, you’ll find my interview with Dicky, who thankfully didn’t hate my publication.
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TINLEY PARK, Ill. -- From the stage of the World Music Theatre, Barenaked Ladies vocalist Steven Page surveyed the crowd that had convened for the Chicago-area stop of the H.O.R.D.E. (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) tour.
"Are there any hippies in the house?" Page yelled. And, of course, there were.
Hippies are as much a part of H.O.R.D.E. tours as tanktop tan-lines and navel rings.
So what else is new? Well, this year, plenty.
The seventh edition of the annual H.O.R.D.E. festival has slimmed down, jam-wise, and added an eclectic array of bands that expand the tour's roots-driven tradition. Yes, tour staple Blues Traveler are in the bluesy, jamming mode and Ben Harper and Gov't Mule have their rock-ier aspects.
But this year's H.O.R.D.E. lineup includes a wide range of other acts, from the unbridled ska sounds of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to the quirky crowd routines of the Barenaked Ladies to the softer shadings of Alana Davis and Paula Cole. On some dates the H.O.R.D.E. will also include such modern-rock stars as Fastball and the Smashing Pumpkins.
While the new lineup had its musical points, the lack of a defining stylistic theme contributed to the feeling that a lot of concert-goers were merely killing time waiting for specific acts. As Lisa Telling of Chicago said, "Blues Traveler are the only reason to be here. The rest of the bands suck." She paused, then added, "except for Ben Harper." The shifting focus, however, was good news to some. "H.O.R.D.E. will be good as long as John Popper doesn't do any 30-minute harmonica solos," Scott Crooks, a three-year H.O.R.D.E. veteran from Chicago, said.
As is the case with most tours, the bottom line on the new H.O.R.D.E. slant will be decided by the bottom line. Thus far, it hasn't been encouraging. Without such crowd-pleasers of the past as jam-rock favorites Dave Matthews Band and blues-rock vets the Black Crowes, this year's H.O.R.D.E. has had to contend with venues that have been less than full. The opening date of the tour last week in Minneapolis was even scrapped due to slow ticket sales.
But the show -- and the tour -- is slogging on. Davis opened with a brief set of four songs, and Cole followed with an hour of songs that set the mostly mellow tone of the day. Many concert-goers chose to spend the afternoon sunning themselves on the lawn, playing cards and napping under the perfect, cloudless Chicago sky.
Later in the afternoon, Harper warmed up the crowd, emotionally and physically. His set artfully swung through various moods, starting as slow and languid as the day itself and building with more guitar and percussion. Now and then, there were acoustic lulls, but these soon gave way to swelling sonic crests. At the end, Harper stood at center stage -- no mic and no guitar -- swaying while the music swirled around him.
The Barenaked Ladies then abruptly changed the pace, with a crowd-winning set that was witty and uproarious. They peppered their act with well-known fan cues (when to throw Kraft dinners, or wave their shirts), and then improvised in response to what was going on around them at the time. At this show, the Ladies took their inspiration from a festival organization that was giving out condoms. Midway through their set they launched into the "female condom jam." The refrain, "Who needs sex when you've got female condoms," galvanized the crowd.
Before the group's set, singer Page said that the interactive parts of their shows go over well with crowds. "It's not as much of an inside joke as people think," he said, adding that as the tour progresses, the Ladies will be playing more songs from their new disc, Stunt. "By the end of summer people will have gotten to know [the album] better," Page said.
The Ladies' set was also enhanced by the unusual seating policy at this year's H.O.R.D.E. shows. According to the tour's program, the pavilion seats are open to anyone until the last two sets -- unless the ticket-holder of the seat shows up.
So, during the Barenaked Ladies' third-to-last slot, the pavilion was filled with fans who had turned out to see them specifically. The effect was electrifying. On the sing-along to "Brian Wilson," 10,000 voices carried the hit word-for-word in a display that sent chills.
"I have one of their albums, but I think I'll go out and pick up some more," Crooks said.
Headlining the second stage, Gov't Mule seemed intent on defining themselves as an entity separate from the Allman Brothers, from whom they have now fully split.
Will they win over fans of say, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones? "If you're a music fan, why not?" singer/guitarist Warren Haynes said. Abts agreed. "If we had horns, we'd probably be a ska band." The Bosstones put on a fairly traditional set, mixing up old classics such as "Where Did You Go" with their better-known recent hits "Royal Oil" and "The Impression That I Get" . They were joined onstage by Popper for two songs, including a Bosstones fave, Bob Marley's "Simmer Down." Lead growler Dickey Barrett was proud to have Popper's harmonica join the Bosstones' already-rich lineup. "What a life!" he told the crowd. "Theoretically I should be tending bar or working on your roof, but I get to play with John Popper." Headliners Blues Traveler have the easiest musical task at this year's H.O.R.D.E. Basically all they have to do is trot out their usual blues-based jamming style to keep their fans happy, which they did during their closing set.
Chris Cormier, a Blues Traveler fan from Chicago, is following H.O.R.D.E. for the first part of the tour through the Midwest. He said he couldn't have been happier with the set the group played at the festival's opening at Alpine Valley.
While waiting for Blues Traveler to take the stage at this stop, he showed off the tattoo on his arm of the late Beatles leader John Lennon and said, "They closed with 'Imagine.' I cried."
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Texas. Dallas to be specific. Dicky Barrett, lead growler of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, speaks into a telephone. "Yee haw, we're in Dallas," he says, "where they killed my president."
The eight-piece band out of Boston is on yet another tour. Doing a few dates here, a few there and a few with Fishbone. The Dallas show is one such date and the roar of Fishbone's sound check can be heard as far as Evanston, thanks to the magic of AT&T.
These guys are never off the road. The Bosstones were on tour for about 11 months last year, according to Dicky and they will be on the road until sometime in spring when they break sometime to go into the studio. "I couldn't give you specifics. If I think about it, I'll start crying," he said.
The Bosstones will be recording the second album for their new label, Mercury. This is a big change for the Bosstones. "We had to do something. The independent label we were on, they were dishonest and crooked people and didn't feel the need to pay us and we were starving and living in the streets. And worst of all the Bosstones almost broke up," said Dicky. They were apprehensive about signing, but Mercury convinced them that their sound would remain their sound. So they signed on and will stay as long as they like it, "But we don't need any business-suited weasels telling us how to make the music we have been making for five or six years," said Dicky.
No one can really describe their sound. It's been called ska, it's been called grunge [Grunge! Show me the man who called us Grunge, interjects Dicky] they have been called a mixture of a little bit of everything. Dicky calls their music “plaid” and that makes as much sense as any other description. Generally, they like to let the music do the talking but they are a ska-influenced, rock-influenced band with a strong horn section for a twist.
Quick break to interview clips. Roll sound:
A+P Why the horns?
"We had to somehow cover up my vocals. Go a little easy on the listener's ears," explains Dicky who then gives a sample reaction from a Bosstones fan: "Oh, those are nice horn sounds, now what the #@$#@# is that gargling noise."
A+P Do you do much to your voice for singing?
"Nope. I was born with it. It never hurts and it never goes on me but it also never sounds good so I don't know where we're at."
[minor call-waiting pause, ah the magic of AT&T]
A+P I've heard stories about your audiences… tearing up the stage in Detroit… that you kept playing even though the roof fell in in Rochester.
"I think the people who come see our shows are the most important thing about it. We consider it more important than even ourselves. If there weren't people at our shows we would be screamin' at a wall. It would be nonsense in a vacuum. We treat 'em like that... We're on their side.
Back to the narrative... Dicky pulls some physics out of nowhere and explains that the Bosstones thrive off the crowd energy. "It's been scientifically proven that energy can be drawn from energy. If you see a kid losin' his mind a jumpin' from a #$%#$% PA stack, you can't help but gettin' excited."
Two more points to cover. First, the Seattle Effect. Now that the Bosstones have become the first American "ska" band to sign with a major label, some of that attention is rubbing off on other Boston bands. Dicky thinks this is cool. "It's proven that anytime a band gets some attention, other bands from that area get some attention as well. There are a lot of great ska bands out there. We're not one of them," Dicky clarifies this statement, "I think we're a great band, I just don't think we're a great ska band. I'm not braggin'. I'm just proud."
And yeah, the Bosstones are basically just a band, with the same ideals as any other. "We all grew up together. We weren't interested in real work. And we loved music. So we formed the Bosstones. Things just kinda snowballed and the snowball continued to get bigger that's exactly the way we like it. No lookin' back... We're an extremely lucky band. I think a lot of people would say that. 'They're lucky'," relates Dicky.
Last issue, that of selling out, brought up by Dicky himself--uncoerced. "So you want to ask the big question? The Converse commercial? The Plaid?"
"What about it?"
"Ahhhh, It's all nonsense. The Converse commercial was fun and we didn't feel like we were prostituting ourselves. And the plaid means a lot more to us than it ever did. "
This is not a band who have sold themselves to the Mercury Man. This is a band who's sound is always changing and too many people have equated that change to weakness and attributed it to the effect of joining with a major label. Dicky: "All it has to be to be a Bosstones album is to have the eight of us on it... The first album is not like the second and the second is not like the third."
This is a band slated to do a kick-ass, all-ages show Tonight at the Vic at 7:30 p.m. Look for me, I'll be jumpin' off the PA.
[narrator in 2024: note, Matt did not, in fact. jump of the PA.]