The Mighty Mighty Bosstones / Guttermouth / Bigwig / Simple Plan live in Austin (2002) live show

This musically diverse show started off with Canada's A Simple Plan. Their radio friendly pop-punk isn't my style, but I won't deny that they played well together. Their stage banter emphasized how being in a band didn't make them any different than the crowd, which matched the lyrical theme of one of their songs. When they had equipment problems, one guy from the band asked why they always had problems, to which another guy said because they were people. Then the singer asked the crowd if they had problems and lots of people yelled and such. They were really friendy, telling the crowd to come talk to them afterwards and all that. Like I said, I'm not down with that genre, but it was a respectable enough set.

In a change of pace, Bigwig came out of backstage already playing fast, distorted punk as they walked. In the only use of stage effects of the night, the drumkit blazed with fire as they opened up with a song whose chorus went "Fuck your rules, Fuck your schools, Fuck your country." Nice. They proceeded to play lots of fast, screaming, mostly political/socially oriented punk. Highlights were "Pro Life-Taker" and the closer "Sellout."

Guttermouth came on next. I was liking them at first, but after the singer ran around spastically and mocked the crowd and anyone who crowdsurfed onstage for half an hour, I got pretty sick of them. That said, they played with lots of energy and were tight-it was obvious they'd been playing together for a while.

Finally the Bosstones came on and opened with "Old School off the Bright" from their new album. They did every single song I wanted to hear with the sole exception of "Someday I Suppose," which surprised me quite a bit. They played four songs from Jackknife to a Swan, three from Lets Face It, and a few songs scattered from throughout their long career. The crowd was treated to the Trombone player's singing on "Simmerdown"and "Everybody's Better," both of which were excellent. As usual, the Bosstones played with a ton of energy and were very tight. Good stuff.

(Pete)