The Boston Massacre, Manitoba Style!!

Manitoba made their Baaahstin debut this past Thursday, 5/24, and ended a 9-year drought between gigs here. Boston has always been a 2nd home for HDM and company, and despite all the Yanks/Red Sox foolishness that permeates both sides, the love has consistently flowed both ways. Thursday’s gig may have been the best of the best, as Church was packed, and my peeps were going nuts from Note One. Our boys were greeted and treated like the rock gods that not enough people besides us know that they are.

This was easily the best Manitoba show thus far, and every single member shone. HDM did a masterful job of defusing the Pink Hats in the crowd by opening the show with “Isn’t it nice that for once, we don’t have to fight over First Place?? Instead, we get to fight over who’s in LAST place!!” He had the crowd in his pocket for the rest of the night. RTB was on fire. I’ve never heard such hootin’ and hollerin’ during his solos, you would have thought that someone had dug Hendrix up for the night. JP was a total stress monkey before the show, just a bundle of nerves, but he was in the pocket from Note One, and as always, did most of the heavy lifting in the backing vocals dept. Daniel Rey proved that it’s always possible to find new ways to spice things up, and threw clever musical quotes from “Baba O’Riley” and “Born To Be Wild”” into “BLT” and “Kick Out the Jams.”

Somebody tell us — is there a national Dean Rispler Fan Club that we’re unaware of? We’ve seen the band in 4 states now, and at every show there’s a cotillion of fans screaming “DEAN!! It’s DEAN!!” The panty throwing can’t be far behind. (Memo to the DFFD merch dept: Dean the Dream ladies underwear, suitable for throwing. Sell them pre-gig, pick them up off the stage at the end of the show, and sell them again at the next gig. It’s gold, Jerry, it’s gold!)

No one wanted this particular party to end. The music ended, and no one wanted to leave! 100 people hung around to schmooze, get swag signed, and to do photo ops with the band.

The whole night was fun with a capital F. 3 days later, and I still have no voice — it sounds like I gargled with old razor blades.

Now on to a delicate subject — can we please, pleeeeeze get “Master Race Rock” into the set? The tune is a proven #3 hitter, and it’s sitting on the bench. There must have been 20 shout-outs for it during the Boston show. Maybe one of the 2 jam tunes can take an occasional break to squeeze it in?

Our next gig will be the Wavestomp harbor cruise on 7/22, for which the tix are going fast, and it’s all but certain that the band will be returning to Boston in the fall. Hopefully by then the Yanks and Red Sox will be battling it out for something besides the bottom of the division!

— Salvi C.