How many songs are you going to have?
In the age of the Internet, you can’t get away with doing the same set every night, which is what we used to do. So we’ve learned 70 to 75 songs. We’re also doing the new songs from the Medium Rare album [mostly unreleased material and vinyl B-sides, on Big Rig Records] we just put out — three songs we recorded out here in LA. And there are a few surprise covers, too.
Why do this now?
We were going to wait for the war in Iraq to end, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen anytime soon. It’s hard to believe that when we first went on hiatus in 2003, we had already gotten into this war, and it’s still going on.
I’m guessing that you come back east for the holidays anyway, right?
Yeah. My mother would kill me otherwise. I spend Christmas with my mother. It’s mostly a lot of swearing and drinking. No, it’s nice. My mother is crazy about Christmas. She’s one of those people you see around the malls wearing those Christmas sweaters.
What's the best gift you’ve ever gotten?
Jimmy gives amazing gifts, but his cousin Sal gives the craziest gifts. When I first moved out here, I was staying at the Roosevelt Hotel for six months. For my first Christmas, Sal gave me a free night at the Roosevelt.
What’s your favorite part of the holidays?
For years, the best part was the Throwdown. We’d finish a year of touring and we’d have five more of our most grueling shows to do, and then it would start, and you couldn’t help but love it.
I hear rumors of a future Bosstones album?
It’s nothing that we’d keep secret. We had fun recording again. So the possibility of our going into the studio and making a full-length is not out of the question.
