The Toasters- Atlas Theatre 1-29-13

"This one goes out to you Cheyenne. Because living here must be a real *Explative*" -Bucket 

The Atlas was empty Tuesday evening, save for about 80 people who braved the weather on a school night to see The Toasters. Still, I'm not sure there would have been a bigger crowd even if Cheyenne wasn't an ice rink already. While they are ska legends, the Toasters are hardly name brand, especially in a place like Cheyenne.

Their case wasn't helped by a string of incoherent local openers, which were often terrible and mostly unlistenable. In their defense, when some 60-80 people (in a room built for hundreds) are there specifically to see one act, any opener is going to have a hard time  Of course that doesn't excuse the terrible NOFX ripoff set (complete with incoherent yelling and swear words) that Ackrite put up or the random collection of over-energized/unintelligible covers and originals that locals It Gets Worse put together. Touring opener Mrs. Skannotto out of New York were the one highlight of the early sets, and I have to commend them for playing with such class and skill to a room which mostly just stared and leaned on the railings.





It was about 9:30 by the time the Toasters hit the stage. Singer/Guitarist, and only original member, Bucket seemed nonplussed about the crowd size and his stage presence was a delight after the front men we had been subjected to by that point. Fat Tire at the ready, his band played for just over an hour, hitting all of the classics ("Two Tone Army") and generally making for a pretty enjoyable set. The whole thing felt at its best  when the dance area filled up with skankers who were mostly dancing ironically, but still added to the vibe of the show. At one point Bucket mentioned he had forgotten the band had played here about 18 years ago. This was meet with some gentle applause from an audience which trended to the over 35 and under 20 heavily. A hard crowd to please and harder to gauge, even in the most festive of circumstances.

The final song of the evening, "Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down" earned a pretty good response, though the crowd couldn't organize itself to call for an encore. It seemed like everyone wanted to get to bed or something. One attempt to start a chant went from three to just one voice before stopping completely.  Just as well anyway. While The Toasters certainly have more songs, there is no need to draw out what was an undeniably strange evening and I can't picture something more awkward than walking off and on the stage for an encore at that point.

In any case, lesser acts have been "thrown off" by the sound tech and crowd size, but the Toasters were true professionals. One hopes that the city made enough of an impression on them to warrant a trip sooner than 18 years from now.