Ted Leo & the Mighty Mighty Bosstones

I take full responsibility for any facts my brain has mixed up in the last decade.

Around 2003 or '04, me & some friends drove up to Detroit to see Ted Leo & the Pharmacists play at the Shelter, which is the basement space below St. Andrews Hall. We pull into the deserted parking lot across the street from the venue and see a couple teenagers sitting on the steps dressed in stereotypical ska punk clothes: checkered vans (nothing wrong with that), Hot Topic bondage pants, Manic Panic hair, and Mighty Mighty Bosstones shirts. 

"I wonder if the Mighty Mighty Bosstones are playing St. Andrews Hall?"

"Ha yeah right, I thought they broke up."

The Bosstones hadn't had a hit since 1997's "The Impression That I Get", in the brief period of time between grunge and the boy band explosion when ska punk barely squeaked into national attention. They've also been around almost as long as I've been alive, so it's understandable that their longevity would result in a solid tour schedule; but in 2004, ska punk was thought to be dead and gone. 

So Ted Leo starts playing, and about 20 minutes in, all of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones exit the dressing room next to the Shelter's stage and walk through the packed crowd while carrying their instruments. The dressing room placement seems a little awkward, especially for the guy carrying the trombone. The whole display seems a little cocky, despite the necessity to get to their show, since a line of a dozen men in tailored suits walking away from the stage looks disrespectful no matter the context. 

The Bosstones disappear within a minute and all attention returns to Ted Leo, who is slaying in the full-band +  keyboard Hearts of Oak version of the Pharmacists. There are no punches pulled, all the hits are there, and everyone is enjoying themselves. 

Then, even before the 10-minute rendition of "Stove By A Whale" (where they're joined on 2nd guitar by I believe James Canty), the Bosstones return from serenading skanking teenagers upstairs, and soaked in sweat under their suits, march through the crowd yet again, lugging their horns past an appreciative crowd that is eager to hear "Timorous Me". The Bosstones, who probably commanded a much larger check for playing the big room, played for half the time as the indie band in the basement. 

The Pharmacists finish up and man their own merch table while, presumably, the Bosstones sit in their dressing room and wait to get paid. The two instances of the show being interrupted are forgotten, or remembered as a bizarre interlude to an otherwise great show.