I had it in mind to get to Grinders early. I wanted to grab a bite to eat and have an item or two off their awesome beer list before the show. And I didn't think I'd be the only one with this idea. And being it's a tiny joint...
I hit the ATM to get some cash for this little fiesta and my window wouldn't roll back up. It would groan but it wouldn't move. For crying out loud, I just dropped enough money to hear the Mighty Mighty BossTones at Grinders, including a beer or two, ten times over. And it's still not fixed.
I'm thinking about what this means to my ability to lock up my car. The Crossroads isn't exactly a tough neighborhood, but it's not a place where I would leave an open car for several hours when it's pretty obvious that anyone parked there is not coming back to his car for hours and hours. Not that my car is such a prize, or that my stereo is so covetable, but why present an obvious opportunity?
I drove to my mechanic's house to see if he could at least help me get the window up. He wasn't home, and his wife was clearly unnerved to have a customer coming to the house on a Saturday afternoon. Of course this isn't my fault, I'm not the one who has taken two cracks at fixing the problem, to the tune of something like $700 and failed to get it right.
I asked my Bro to switch cars with me and he agreed, but then he was able to help me get the window up, so all was right and good in the universe.
I wasn't as early as I planned to be, especially since whatever they're doing to I-35 had it down to one lane for miles and miles again.
And it turns out I was plenty early. The show was advertised as being at 7:00 p.m. I took this to mean the Mighty Mighty BossTones would be taking the stage at 7:00 p.m. Or at least their opening band, if they had one, would be on stage by then.
Think again. That was when the doors opened. Apparently everybody but me understood this, because when I got to Grinders at 6:00, there was no waiting, I grabbed one of the several bar stools that was available and ordered myself some grindage. I had a Philly and a bottle of Sixth Glass. This is a beer I normally would not order in a bar, because it's a 25 oz. bottle, and it's potent 10% ABV. So it's 'one' beer, but it's equivalent, more or less, to a six-pack. But since I'd have the whole show to metabolize this monster, it seemed like the time to indulge.
I left Otis in the car, hoped there'd be some sort of meet & greet opportunity at some point. There was a group of people hanging out by the stage, but I didn't think they looked like BossTones. Not that I have the faces of all eight members memorized, but I'd recognize Dicky pretty easily at least. I later learned, when Deal's Gone Bad took the stage that they had not been roadies, as I theorized, but were the opening act.
And what an act they were. A long-time Ska band, though one that hadn't been on my radar, they turned out to be a headline caliber act. Their singer has a heavy Otis Redding influence, and they even did a Redding tune, though they Jamaicified it considerably.
It's interesting the nuances of various Ska bands. The BossTones have a pretty obvious hardcore punk influence, where The Urge was a hip-hop/heavy metal/ska cocktail. Deal's Gone Bad has a big R&B element with a a more pronounced Reggae flavor.
Deal's Gone Bad also played the Bottleneck in Lawrence tonight. Talk about a hard-working band. Play a set at the Crossroads to open the BossTones, then break down and take your gear to Lawrence and do another show? Yikes.
I found myself standing next to a very interesting chick. Which is to say, when I went to get closer to the stage, she was standing pretty near where I wanted to be. And, yeah, wherever she was standing was probably where I wanted to be. But she turned out to be more than just a gorgeous, tall redhead. We ended up talking some, and she just got more and more awesome as the night went on. Plays bari sax, used to do so in a Ska band; about my age; into a lot of the same bands; Rocky Horror, played Columbia in a stage production in fact; shared my surprise at the obviously commercial DK shirt this one punk was wearing (back in the day, DK didn't sell shirts, you had to make your own, but as me and this woman who was increasingly fascinating me noted, he was too young to even be Jello's love child from a DK tour)...
One down side: she smoked. Not constantly, but that's a pretty big bummer. Still, by the end of the two shows, when we'd both worked up a good sweat jumping about and singing (screaming) along with the band, I'd decided I had to try and get a number. Smoking is obnoxious, and normally a deal breaker for me, but she was just too good to be true. Alas, I got a name but when I went for the number, she said her boyfriend would probably object. Crap.
Then she told me she'd been listening to Let's Face It in her boyfriend's car and the next time he drove it, he heard it and said he'd finally found music he truly hated. I pointed out the obvious, that this means he is totally wrong for her and now she has to go out with me, but it was just for the sake of form. If she was as charmed by me as I was by her, she'd have given me the number and not mentioned any other entanglements.
Mighty Mighty BossTones in KC, Crossroads 8/23/08 from Chixulub on Vimeo.
Anyway, as you've probably gathered (especially if you've watched my little video collage; the idea of which was not to bootleg the show but to give you a sampling), the BossTones are not lacking for showmanship. I mean, they have a band member who's main responsibility is to jump around and dance. They wear freakin' suits even though it was shorts & t-shirt weather. And Dicky knows how to work a room.
Between songs at one point, Dicky asked a group in the audience where they should go drink tonight after the show. I'm thinking, well, the best beer list in KC is fifty feet that way...
But after the show the band evaporated. I'd really hoped to get Otis autographed, even asked the roadies where they thought the band might actually go to unwind after. I was told they had headed straight to the hotel because they had to leave early tomorrow.
Crap again. First I strike out with the most interesting chick I've met in a year or more, then I fail to get my rocket signed. Would you believe it was still one of the best nights out I've ever spent? For real, you get a chance to catch the BossTones, you don't skip it.
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