New Year's Eve 2007, the last of the mighty, mighty reunion shows. This show took place at Lupo's in Providence, RI. Doors opened at 8 and it took over a ½-hour to get in due to the amount of people. By the time I made it in and onto the floor, Darkbuster was finishing their set with their kickin' version of the Budweiser theme song. I was ticked that I had missed their set but they must have gone on shortly after the doors opened, which is odd since most clubs usually give people an hour to get in. But my expectations were growing since (from what I heard) Darkbuster sounded great and they were the first band on.
Street Dogs were up next and they lit up the crowd something fierce. I have seen the Street Dogs many times but this is by far the best they have ever sounded. The guitars, bass and drums were clean and tight. Mike was working the crowd and climbing up the speaker stacks to get the people in the balcony sections up off their asses and moving. Highlights included "Not Without a Purpose," "Tobes Got a Drinking Problem" and "Drink Tonight." The only problem I noticed was about halfway though they played the very powerful/emotional song "Final Transmission." It sounded great but its slow pace threw off the adrenaline and intensity of their short set as it took a few songs after it to get the crowd back into a frenzy. The band ended their set with one of my favorites, "Fighter." When Mike was done singing he launched himself off the stage and crowd surfed his way from the stage to the bar at the back of the building. Not a bad way to get around.
Now after these two bands, my expectations were extremely high for Zox. Boy, was I disappointed. They were bad. The sound guy must have been taking a break because the bass was so loud that it sounded like a piece of crap tricked out Honda Civic had pulled up next to me at a traffic light. You know -- that sound of strained speakers still trying to put out 10,000 watts in the 10 kilohertz range. It was painful. Zox managed to play three songs but were then pulled from the stage much to the crowd's pleasure.
Throughout my years I have caught the Bosstones many times and they have never disappointed. Tonight would be no different. They took the stage with their black and white plastic Santas just after 11 and played for almost two hours. From the first scream of "Doctor D" to the last note of "Rudie Can't Fail," they proved where the Mighty Mighty comes from. It's hard to believe that they were coming off a four-year hiatus because they sounded perfect and they (and everybody there) were having an absolute blast. The dancing Bosstone Ben Carr must have been an aerobics instructor during their break because he was going non-stop from one side of the stage to the other. The horn section was first-rate, and not to dismiss the other horn players but Chris Rhodes can play the fucking hell out of a trombone. It has been a long time since I went to a show where bodies were flying off the stage and the crowd singing along to every word. They pulled songs off of every album and at midnight they played an excellent skankified version of "Auld Lang Syne." They did take a quick break after an hour-and-a-half and Dickie swapped his suit for a T-shirt and workout pants and proclaimed that "if I wore this every night, we could have kept the band going for another 10 years." Nothing like teasing us.
Here is a breakdown of the songs they played. It is from memory and it is not in order so hopefully I got them all.
- Dr. D
- Simmer Down
- Holy Smoke
- He's Back
- Everybody's Better
- So Sad to Say
- Someday I Suppose
- I Hope I Never Lose My Wallet
- Where Did You Go
- Hell of A Hat
- Another Drinkin Song
- Howwhywuz, howwhyam
- Cowboy Coffee
- Noise Brigade
- The Old School of the Bright
- Sugar Free
- The Impression That I Get
- Royal Oil
- Tin Soldiers
- Kinder Words
- Toxic Toast
- Rascal King
- You Gotta Go
- 1-2-8
- Don't Worry Desmond Dekker
- Rudie Can't Fail