On November 11th 2002, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones made their stop at the House of Blues Orlando on the Jacknife to a Swan tour along with BigWig and Avoid One Thing. The first band to take the stage caught me by surprise and that was the Orlando based ska-core band the Spitvalves. I've seen the Spitvalves numerous times and they always impress me with their energy and their actual set. What surprised me though was the fact that they played first. They're bigger here than Avoid One Thing is but no big deal. My only complaint with their set this time around is that they played more new songs that I wasn't familiar with but they were still good.

After the Spitvalves came Avoid One Thing. Avoid One Thing is actually Joe from the Bosstones' side band and I think I was the only one in the crowd that knew that, but oh well. The songs they played sounded pretty good I knew one song and that was their song "Yakisoba" but the highlight of their set was when someone in the crowd was heckling them and she got caught then Joe was like "we're a punk band so next time you go to hot topic you can find our cd there." Funny Stuff, but I guess you had to be there.

Next up was the New Jersey band BigWig. To keep it simple...these guys rule. They came out to that "it's amore" song and did their usual fire drum intro and blasted right into the song "Numbers" and didn't hold any of their energy back all the way up to the closing song "SellOut" In between those songs they also played "Sore Losers," "Waste," "Moosh," "Mr. Asshole," "Flavor Ice," and their covers of "Knowledge" and the "Cheers Theme" plus a bunch more. Crazy. Check these guys out!

Ska sucks and it isn't cool anymore. Nobody told the Bosstones that and if they did the Bosstones don't care. The Bosstones have a swagger all of their own once they get on stage. They've earned their swagger over the years too. These guys are great. I didn't know a whole lot of their songs though. They played alot more of their older songs, which alot of people liked. Everyone in the crowd was dancing, skanking and just chillin when they slowed things down. Highlights for me included: "Everybody's Better," "You Gotta Go!," "1-2-8," "Where'd You Go?," "Numbered Days," "The Impression that I get (which they played like the 4th song in which was kinda surprising) and an encore with "Someday I suppose."

All in all, a great show with some laughs and some great music.