Ska legends the Toasters return to Nashville Jan. 18 with the Soul Radics and a.k.a.:RUDIE
by Thomas Harding on Jan 16th, 2012
On an October night in 2003, Sinizine.net’s resident slacker, crotchety before the age of 50, abrasive, blow hard, “Those were the good ol’ days” know nothing vinyl critic– yours truly Thomas Harding– was on his way to what would have been the first ska show of his short life.
That summer, I has stumbled across a copy of Moon Shot!, a Moon Records NYC label sampler. I had been dabbling in ska since a few months prior to discovering the CD and had picked up a two-disc compilation called Skarmagedon Vol. 3. For those unfamiliar with this series (also on Moon Ska Records), these were series of two disc compilations of up and coming ska bands of the day. Vol. 3 was the 1997 issuing which, as many of you surely know, was sort of a banner year for the third Wave, and this one is by far one of the best in the four-volume series. Unfortunately, as these compilations features up and coming bands, many of the bands never made it and, in some cases, the only place you can find their output is on these CDs.
So back to the point, Moon Shot! featuring bands that had made it (some way before 1997) was the first exposure to ska bands whose output I could actually go out and buy with little trouble, and who weren’t christian bands named OC Supertones or Five Iron Frenzy or not Christian bands Goldfinger, No Doubt, or Bosstones (also if you cant get throw down this year, I will take that ticket off your hands buddy). Moon Shot! was like hitting ska pay dirt for me. To be truthful, this CD to me at the the time as about 600% dynamite. Every track a scorcher in its own right. The lead off was the Toaster’s anthemic “Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down”.
Now it’s hard to believe, but in 2003 the internet wasn’t what it is today. There were none of the social networks of today, and the ones that were around have been rightfully forgotten. You still had to scour and seek your information in the world of Web 1.0; you had to want to know about it. This meant that you had to check message boards, web rings andband websites that were typically months if not years out of date just to find out about a tour. Even older cats will tell you about mailing lists where bands actually sent you real mail! I never saw one for my self but I hear the legends and have seen the bones (i.e. scans of newsletters and zine ads).
I began trying to find out when and where I could see one of these wonderful bands live. This was just after I had begun driving and was pretty excited that I could drive 30 miles from Murfreesboro to see my favorite bands in Nashville. Imagine my dismay when I found out almost every band I loved on Skarmagedon Vol.3 had broken up when the bottom fell out from under the third wave in 1999 or 2000. The Bosstones were even on indefinite hiatus. It was dark times indeed (yet looking back still not as dark as they are now…always darkest before its pitch black). I was finding the internet to simply be a source of depression and frustration so I turned instead to the local college radio station and the local music rags like the Nashville Scene and the Rage (which was the more alternative version of the Scene). I do not recall where it was that I found out about the show, if it was on the WMTS concert calendar, or in The Rage, but I learned that one of my favorite bands of the few ska bands I knew was coming to town in early October. I instantly got my few friends who were into punk, ska, or whatever they thought was “punk” at the time to along with my plan to check out the show which was on monday night of fall break. It was too perfect. All was set.
Until the actual day of the show, of course. A series of phone calls revealed that all my friends had bailed. I opted to go it alone. I drove by my buddy Stan’s house to see if I could convince him to join me after all, but as he wasn’t home. I pulled around the block. I had, of course, been jamming the five ska CDs I owned at the time for the whole day. I don’t know what happened next to true. I do know that the opening horn blast from “Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down” ripped, the front of my up to that point totally pristine 1989 Isuzu Trooper plowed into the biggest, squattest brick mail box I have ever seen. I watched in horror over my crumpled hood as the mail box slowly, slow motion slow, as in video-of-bullets-tearing-through-an-apple-slow, tipped over and fell to the ground with a thud on top of the flower bed of the most pristine lawn in Murfreesboro. That was it. My car was destroyed, there was gonna be no show that night.
And that is how my first ska show was actually Five Iron Frenzy’s farewell tour two weeks later.
Fast forward a few years. A little older, not much wiser, I have enjoyed the Toasters’ live set on two occasions since then. I’ve seen them play to five people (not including the folks in the opening bands) as well as to a packed house in the same room some 5 or 6 years later. Both times the band gave it their all and delivered a solid set with tight musicianship. Both times the members of the band were there out front interacting with fans and seemed glad to talk to everyone who stopped to say hello.
If you’ve never had the chance to see the longest continually active ska band in America, you are in luck. On Wednesday January, 18th the Toasters will be rolling back through Music City. Come out to the Muse at 7pm to catch the full set with local favorites and long time friends of the Toasters a.k.a.:RUDIE as well as Music City’s Soul Radics. Sinizine.net will be covering the show so keep it locked here for all the photos and interviews. I can assure you, the odds of you having a blast are a lot better than the odds of me hitting that mail box in 2003. And that happened. So, you know, the odds are what you would consider favorable.
For more information on the Toasters and the other bands playing on 18th, please direct your attention here: