Bosstones were ‘like our big brothers’ to longtime tourmates The Pietasters
When the Mighty Mighty Bosstones do their annual Hometown Throwdown, they always bring along a few old friends and tourmates. One of this year’s guests has an especially long history: Eight-piece ska band The Pietasters have been a D.C.-scene fixture since 1990, and their connection to the Bosstones began soon afterward.
“They were like our big brothers that showed us the way around the music business,” Pietasters frontman Steve Jackson said this week. “Our own band always has times when we hit a plateau and then say, ‘This is it, the last thing that we’re doing.’ One of those shows happened at Club Babyhead in Providence in 1986. But that night our friend Dicky (Bosstones singer Dicky Barrett) showed up and said, ‘We got a new album coming out, and it’s called, “Let’s Face It.” Do you want to come around the world with us?’ ”
That wound up being the tour and album that turned the Bosstones into national stars with the single “The Impression That I Get.”
“It was good to see them get the accolades they deserved,” Jackson said. “But the Bosstones were always rock stars to us, from the first album on.”
The Pietasters also do their own Throwdown-type event, Happy Skalidays, at home in D.C. Their celebration continues at the House of Blues this weekend, when they play the middle set tomorrow, the final night of the Throwdown. Other guests this year were Piebald and the Doped Up Dollies on Thursday, Rude Bones and Vic Ruggiero tonight, and Kicked in the Head tomorrow.
For this show, The Pietasters are planning to have an expanded horn section and a guest appearance from original co-lead singer Talmage Bayer, who now lives in New Hampshire. “It will be a real homecoming show for us, just eight hours from our home,” Jackson said.
While the Bosstones drew mainly from vintage ska and punk rock, The Pietasters have a much stronger soul influence. This even led to their backing James Brown for a memorable radio station gig in 2002. “We always listened to his ‘Live at the Apollo’ as wind-down music after a show,” Jackson said. “Then our local alternative station called and said, ‘He’s doing a show and doesn’t want to bring his full band, can you pull this off?’ I told him we absolutely could. A few hours of rehearsal and we were backing him up, and he was really nice to us. He even took our frontof-house soundman on the road for the rest of his life. I’ll always remember watching the funeral on TV, and seeing my old grade-school buddy setting up the mike for Al Sharpton.”
The Pietasters have now been around long enough to see ska come in and out of fashion a few times. “We started out as this naive bar band having a good time playing party music. We’ve had the dumbest good luck over the years, and we just carry on wondering what the next surprise is going to be.”
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Hometown Throwdown, at the House of Blues through tomorrow. Tickets: $27-$46; ticketmaster.com.