#15: The Pietasters

I want to get to know you in the present tense. I want to get to know you in the biblical sense

Kicking off the top 15 are The Pietasters. The following 5 bands will have 15 favorite songs.

Wiki Says: The Pietasters are a seven-piece ska/soul band hailing from Washington, D.C., with additional members from Maryland and Virginia...In 1990, a group of friends were attending college at Virginia Tech in the mountains of Virginia. Among them were Stephen Jackson and Chris Watt who had previously dabbled in playing punk rock covers.

Soon after, a mutual friend, Tal Bayer, began attending nearby Radford University. He was very much into ska and reggae and suggested that they form a ska band. After recruiting a high school friend, Tom Goodin, and an Architecture classmate, Ben Gauslin, The Slugs were born. Soon, they were skipping classes, melding ska, reggae, R & B and punk rock while practicing for hours to learn songs by Madness, The Specials, Bad Manners, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Skatalites, The Business, and others. Unfortunately, the name The Slugs was already taken and the band needed a new name. For a few months, the name was changed to the Dancehall Crashers. It was too similar to another ska band out west so the search for a new name continued. Some British neighbors used to refer to the heftier guys in the band as Pietasters, which is British slang for "fat guys". The name stuck and The Pietasters were born.

Discovery: The Pietasters (1993)

Oolooloo (1995) -Favorite album all time #25

Willis (1997)

Awesome Mix Tape Vol. 6 (1999)

Turbo (2002)

All Day (2007)

Favorite Songs: 15. New Breed

14. Same Old Song

13. Can't Stand It

12. Don't Wanna Know

11. Night Before

10. Wasted

9. Biblical Sense

8. Drunken Master

7. Girl Take It Easy

6. Ordinary

5. Out All Night

4. Maggie Mae

3. Movin' On Up

2. Oolooloo (Favorite song all time #65)

1. Freak Show (Favorite song all time #62)

Years Active: 1990-Present

Seen Live: 5 times

July 2006-Asbury Park, NJ

January 2009-Baltimore, MD

August 2009-Asbury Park, NJ

November 2009-Baltimore, MD

June 2010-Baltimore, MD

The Pietasters are special because my friend Andrew has been playing drums with them since this summer. Also they're very good. Songs about drinking, prostitutes, cheating, oh the wonderful topic they'll cover. They also have very sweet songs like "Time Won't Let Me" which is playing now on my iTunes. They are fantastic live, even better than they are recorded, which is no easy task. As the live shows indicate, I've gotten into them much more recently from being down here in Baltimore and fully intend on listening to them every more as time progresses.

Up Next: Band from Boston, singer from Essex County, New Jersey

Does Your Phone Fully Capture The Pietasters at The Senator Theater? Droid Does

Saturday night the Pietasters headlined the Baltimore Ska Review show at the Senator Theater in Baltimore. Now I've been going by the historic Senator for almost 3 years, but I'm usually very drunk when I walk by it. None the less, it still looks really cool, and I appreciate the history of it. Needless to say, I was quite happy to see one of my favorite bands would be playing a show there.

The place itself was like nothing I've ever experience before for a show. The lobby had dozens of movie posters for sale, but I didn't take much time to look through them. Right through there is the concession stand, which lies below none other than the Millennium Falcon. I didn't look closely, but I saw they had popcorn, soda, and a wide variety of beers and shots to be purchased.

Around the place was more movie memorabilia. Outside the men's room were the marquee letters for the outside board. In the men's room was General Han Solo, frozen in carbonite. It's hard to see, but it is autographed by Harrison Ford at the bottom corner. There was also an R2-D2 garbage can right outside of the bathroom.

The way the show was set up was also very unique. There was a stage set up in front of the screen, and all the seats were open to everyone. Plenty of people stood in the isles, but mostly when the Pietasters were on. Behind the bands the screen had different things playing without sound. First up were these weird, early 90's computer animated short films. During the Pietasters was the first act of "Fantasia" and then all of "Yellow Submarine", which was trippy even without knowing what was actually going on in it. The seats were probably the most comfortable I've ever dealt with in a movie theater. I missed The Modarators and the Players band as I arrived about 2 hours after the show started. I got there in the middle of The Scotch Bonnets (pictured right) set, and they were very good. They were followed by Unity Reggae band, who was also very good and did some good covers (notably "No Woman, No Cry" and "54-46").


Around 11:45 the Pietasters took the stage. Despite technical difficulties, they had a great set and played until about 1:30. This was the first time seeing them knowing more than just one album, so this was the first time I could really enjoy them on a larger scale. Despite that, this was probably they best they had been when I've seen them, especially when you consider that their drummer was new as of about 3 hours before taking the stage. This was also the first time in 3 years I saw them with a trumpet player, so that was a nice touch as well.

Their set (in no order besides the way it came up on my iTunes) included:

• Don't Wanna Know
• Chain Reaction
• Can't Stand It
• Wasted
• Something Better
• Freak Show
• Tell You Why (Opener)
• Maggie Mae
• Girl Take It Easy
• Biblical Sense
• Movin on Up
• Drunken Master
• Out All Night
• Higher
• Without You
• 2-3 songs I didn't recognize
  

As the title of the post suggests, it was aided by new semi-new Droid phone. Well, here are some additional images of the Pietasters I took with it last night to go along. If I figure how to get the video of "Drunken Master" on here I'll add that too.