So why is The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Devil’s Night Out on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Devil’s Night Out brings back a flood of memories from my early college years at Binghamton University.
I’ll start with an early glimpse of how The Mighty Mighty Bosstones entered my life, which in itself contrasts with the slightly cuddlier and more mature version of the band that emerged after its (sort of?) breakout or crossover success stemming from “The Impression That I Get,” off of Let’s Face It (#779 of best 1,000 albums ever) becoming semi-popular during that brief mid- to late ‘90s pocket when ska music became trendy (to borrow the word from Reel Big Fish).
To wit: I was in my friend Dave’s dorm room and noticed a ripped patch of cloth tacked to his corkboard – in my mind’s eye the exact red and green plaid pattern that appears on the Devil’s Night Out cover art.
I asked Dave about it, and he casually told me that he ripped it off of Dicky Barrett’s pants (or shants?) after the MMBT’s front man dove into the crowd during a recent show.
To say the least, I was intrigued.
The precise timeline of the above story and this next one is murky to me, but what I do know is that when I saw The Mighty Mighty Bosstones perform live for the first time, it was and remains one of the loudest concerts I’ve ever seen in my life.
Now, at my current ripe old age, “loud” rarely equates to “good,” but in the case of TMMBT circa late 1992 or early 1993 outside of Albany, New York, loud also didn’t mean good.
It meant great. Like, really great.
While I’ve never been the biggest fan of “hardcore punk” music relative to other forms of punk and hard rock*, early Bosstones – best exemplified by the scorching and brilliant if slightly rough around the edges Devil’s Night Out – puts ear-bleedingly caustic hardcore punk together perfectly with some of the best ska riffs ever produced.
* There are exceptions, of course. For example, see the best 1,000 albums entry on Downset’s explosive debut (#52).
Devil’s Night Out didn’t just help define the Bosstones; it paved the way for the coming third-wave of ska and ska punk that would include some of my all-time favorite bands: Operation Ivy, Rancid, Reel Big Fish, The Suicide Machines, and Voodoo Glow Skulls just for starters. Even among that elite group, Devil’s Night Out stands as superior in its rough-and-tumble, joyous Boston bar-fight aesthetic.
“Devil’s Night Out,” the leadoff title track, is the perfect example and the quintessential TMMBT song, really.
If you’re not familiar with it or early Bosstones’ fare, the first 55 seconds are likely to scare you off unless you’re the kind of music fan seeking out caustic guitar work that feels metal-y in nature and Dicky Barrett screaming over the top of it at full gravelly growl.
Ah, but “Devil’s Night Out” is just getting warmed up. At the 55-second mark we get one of the sweetest ska riffs you will ever hear, powered by a dynamite horn section. And after that, we get a wild and ecstatically exciting interplay between the two modes, ska and punk dancing – nay, skanking – together in a way that would often be intimidated by other comers but never outdone.
And though TMMBT’s lyrics won’t ever be accused of being particularly “deep,” they are often fun, catchy, and super clever.
Well, the devil was drinkin’ and dancin’ up a storm
The band was so hot, my beer got warm
Just when I thought it would all cool down
That evil motherfucker screamed, “Burn this place down!”
A perfect sonic recipe for an undergrad getting slammed in the face with multiple new forms of music, in other words.
And a perfect sonic recipe it remains.
If all of Devil’s Night Out played solely in that mode, it would be plenty enough to make a great album, but TMMBT show remarkable range in their debut outing as well.
Both “Howwhywuz, Howwhyam” and “Hope I Never Lose My Wallet” are surprisingly effective and wistful mid-tempo rockers, for example.
That being said, “Drunks and Children” – a song that would get revisited on several subsequent TMMBT albums in different forms – represents what the fellas do at their very best: hard rock with a heavy lean into crisp, miraculous ska horn riffs, with Dicky in fun-loving party growler-in-chief mode.
At a slim nine tracks and just over 25 minutes of running time, Devil’s Night Out is a rock-solid listen that only gets better while remaining weirdly timeless over the years.
I’ll end on the slightly eastern-tinged and metal-ish “Patricia,” yet another Bosstones’ blast on an album jam-packed with them.
Some stats & info about The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Devil’s Night Out
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Boston Bands, Rock Music, Ska Punk, Third Wave Ska Revival, Alternative Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Devil’s Night Out released? 1989
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #48 out of 1,000
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Devil’s Night Out on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Devil’s Night Out that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
The band was so hot, my beer got warm.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.