Dicky Barrett, lead singer of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, wasn't telling the Warped Tour punks at LaSalle Park any secrets this past summer when in the middle of his set, he announced: "Buffalo's our second favorite city to play, outside of our hometown of Boston."
For Barrett, who grumbled about the Red Sox during a phone interview, the appeal of Buffalo lies in its blue-collar roots and its working class ambiance. As a favorite tour stop for the best-dressed band on the Warped Tour roster, the Bosstones will headline the 5th Annual Misfit Christmas Show this Friday at the Showplace Theatre with The Juliana Theory, Brand New and Slick Shoes.
East Coast cities' underbellies are integral to the Bosstones' repertoire. Part personal and part political, Barrett's lyrics consistently delve into what fascinates him about a metropolis on the skids - like gangsters. There's a song called "Mr. Moran" on the latest Bosstones album, "A Jackknife to a Swan," dedicated to the Gambino family underboss, the notorious John Gotti "rat" and Sammy "the Bull" Gravano.
"I have a desire and almost creepy interest in the Mafia," said Barrett, "even though in Boston the Mafia's always been fairly weak and ineffective. I grew up and knew a lot of borderline members."
Barrett's interest in mob stories is similar to any moviegoer's fascination with gangster life. However, Barrett's personal connection extends back to the streets; it goes beyond simply watching Tony "Scarface" Montana dip his face in cocaine and loving it.
"Yeah, you know in your heart that every member of The Sopranos are killers, but there's something about them that you love. They take care of their neighborhood; they have nothing to do with drugs; if they caught someone with heroin they'd throw them out. But that's only on paper and out of their mouths."
The gritty content in the Bosstones' music does not stand out like the stylish suits the band members usually wear on stage. Since the 1980s, the Bosstones have kept their upbeat ska-core sound, and it's still alive on "A Jackknife to a Swan."
The darker subtext isn't evident on well-known hits like 1997's "Knock on Wood" and "Rascal King." Bottom line: The Bosstones are a fun band, more easily identifiable playing a party band in the 1995 teen film "Clueless" than singing about crime bosses.
While "A Jackknife to a Swan" has rousing numbers like "You Gotta Go!," Barrett's fixation with Boston is far more evident on this album. It doesn't get any more explicit than the title to the sixth song, "I Want My City Back."
"If I wrote that song clearly, it would be called 'I Want the Rat Back,'" Barrett said. "It's a club that we grew up at. It closed down because they're building more BU dorms, coffee shops and new hotels. It sounds like whining, I'm sure, and it's been happening for years."
Other tracks are rooted in old urban legends, such as the album namesake, "A Jackknife to a Swan." The opening song recalls the tale of how "shortly after Evelyn/Was doused with gasoline/And just a few miles off the avenue/A lighter flashed into a puff of smoke."
Barrett's love of all things Boston is more powerful than his love for the band.
"I would take a Red Sox World Series over another Bosstones hit song, seriously," Barrett said.
Moving on to the archrivals of the Red Sox and the New York Yankees, the singer said, "I absolutely hate them. There are very few people I hate, but I hate them. Anybody that wears that pinstripe (uniform), I hate them. And the f---ed up thing about it, there's actually a Yankee fan in the Bosstones (Chris Rhodes, the trombone player). He's a Connecticut guy, which pisses me off even more because he had a choice."
But even outside of the context of Major League Baseball, it's apparent that the Bosstones are less focused on generating the major hits from 1997's album,"Let's Face It." After a long history with Universal Records, the band left the company after the release of their 2000 album, "Pay Attention," signing with Los Angeles punk indie label SideOneDummy.
Although their leave was partly rooted in their dissatisfaction with how "Pay Attention" was poorly promoted, Barrett said it was mostly a matter of crunching the numbers.
"I just kind of did the math," he said. "I really didn't want to make a $300,000 video, and they insist on it. This is a lot of money you have to spend on the video. It's crazy for me to make the thing because this isn't the day where there's a video every three minutes on MTV. Unless Kelly Osbourne's watching it in her room."
When Barrett talks about the major labels, it sounds as if he's referring to a sinking ship. For him, the bane of their failure lies in cyberspace.
"They always did things wrong - it was always about the dollar, and it was never about the people. They'll argue that and say that it's sour grapes on my part. But now with the media and the Internet, there's no way to hide. You can't say 'we didn't sleep' while this kid was in his dorm room figuring out Napster."
But it doesn't appear that Barrett is losing his fan base. He laughingly recalls how old school fans meet him and tell him yarns about how their toddlers dance to the Bosstones.
If Barrett doesn't make a penny out of his music, it's still fine with him, indicating he would take a day job to keep the band together - as long as laziness does not stand in the way.
According to Barrett, he closely identifies with their new song "You Gotta Go!" - a track about an unwelcome houseguest who mooches off his friend.
"We've all been there," he said. "If I wrote that song fairly, I would have written it from the perspective from the guy that's got to go. I'm usually that guy. Even for only a day, we've all experienced somebody we'd rather not have in our house. It's loosely based on that kid on the Osbourne show."
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
