I’m a massive fan of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and so I knew when heading into the massive best 1,000 albums ever project that the ska punk (ska core?) legends would be featured multiple times, and prominently so.
Part of the great fun and satisfaction from embarking on this endeavor – which took a full five years to complete! – was discovering for myself where I landed on the details of where albums and bands and genres “landed” overall.
With The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, it soon became clear to me that Live From the Middle East is the scorching live album that best represents the band’s sound and singular energy overall, with Devil’s Night Out, the band’s debut release from 1989, a very close second.
The fact that both albums made it to the Top 50 of the best 1,000 albums ever shows how truly special TMMB are to me, and if you’re reading these words, I strongly recommend checking them out or paying them a revisit.
Links to each pop culture-meets-memoir piece below along with selected quotes from each album piece.
Here we go: the six best Mighty Mighty Bosstones albums ever.
1) Live From the Middle East (#37 of the best 1,000 albums ever)
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the Bosstones live many times – in upstate New York, Long Island, and on the Vans Warped Tour on both the East and West Coasts – and they never once disappointed.
I love that Live From the Middle East starts off with 30 seconds of anticipatory crowd noise and cheering. The energy pulsing out of that venue is palpable, and by the time the band launches into “1-2-8,” both the musicians and the crowd are clearly going bonkers, feeding off of one another’s vibes.
2) Devil’s Night Out (#48)
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.
3) More Noise and Other Disturbances (#283)
It can’t be emphasized enough how great the horn hooks are with this band, not only making their music super infectious and catchy, but also it helpfully counterbalances both the hardcore punk elements of their sound and, importantly, Dicky Barrett’s rough and growly voice.
4) Question the Answers (#557)
Since I came to it late, Question the Answers always felt like a later-era MMBT album, even though it really wasn’t. But that sense does bear out too from the standpoint that the band, while still fairly loud and raucous at times, tones things down overall — a trend that would continue on Let’s Face It in 1997.
It’s a very solid sweet spot, in other words, even if the early albums do show off the band’s energy and wild ska core-meets-ska punk charisma at its very peak.
5) Ska-Core, The Devil and More (#600)
If the Bosstones were born to do a single cover, it may well be Bob Marley & The Wailers’ “Simmer Down.” They take the original and bump it up just a notch in terms of adding in a little rock feel and slight aggression, the latter coming in the form of Dicky Barrett’s famously scratchy vocals.
6) Let’s Face It (#779)
“The Impression That I Get” is the most popular song the band has produced. It’s testimony to the band’s sense of humor that on the insanely great 1998 live album, Live from the Middle East, lead singer Dicky Barrett announces, “I think we know this fucking song!” while the highly recognizable (and, at the time, highly overplayed) guitar riff and horns kick off.