Bim Skala Bim celebrates 40 years of Boston ska
When the band Bim Skala Bim first appeared in 1983, Boston didn’t have much of a ska scene. They worked hard over the years to make sure we got one.
This Saturday the band celebrates its 40th anniversary at the Crystal Ballroom. True to their roots, it’s an all-ages matinee. “When we started there were just a couple of ska bands in town,” frontman Dan Vitale recalled this week. “There was Dub 7, who we really looked up to because they opened for the Clash on Cape Cod. As a young band we were very much into reggae as well as ska, in fact some of the first airplay we got in town was for our reggae songs. We didn’t have anyone to compare ourselves to, but we all loved Bob Marley and UB40. At that time it wasn’t easy to be an all-white reggae band, but now you can’t swing a stick without hitting one.”
Bim Skala Bim has also been a remarkably stable band: All seven of the band’s original members have remained in the picture over the years, and all will be appearing this weekend. Other former members will also be dropping in, including the female singers who guested on the first two albums — Lauren Flesher and Jackie Starr respectively — who’ll be onstage together for the first time. Vitale promises they’ll include a song from each of the band’s dozen albums.
An early highlight of those 40 years was the band’s first European tour, where they opened shows for a number of first-generation ska greats. “We got signed in Europe before we did in America, and we’re still the early American ska band that any British ska fan would know. Our first show there was at the Sir George Robey (a music pub in North London), opening for (Jamaican ska legend) Prince Buster. It was completely sold out, everyone was going nuts. We were onstage and Prince Buster is standing in the middle of the dance floor, with his arms folded, staring right at me — I didn’t realize that meant that he liked us. But he ran up and gave me a huge hug afterwards.”
Another memorable tour happened in the US in 1997, when Bim played the middle slot between the headlining Mighty Mighty Bosstones and an up-and-coming band called the Dropkick Murphys. “Funny how the opening band on that tour is the biggest one now. I actually knew Kenny (Dropkick’s frontman Ken Casey) before the band started, my other band Steady Earnest played his wedding. We loved the Dropkick Murphys right away.”
But that doesn’t mean that Vitale is a fan of all the US ska that’s hit big in the past couple of decades. “I’m not pleased with everything that I’ve seen. To put it bluntly it’s turned into a cartoon with bands singing about beer, that kid of thing. Of course I drank plenty over the years, but we don’t think that’s what it should be about.”
These days Vitale lives on an island in Panama, so the Bim shows tend to happen during his twice-annual visits to renew his visa. “I produce a lot of bands in the country where I live. I work with people from all over the world from my shack on the beach, and I kinda love it.”