I was in Boston some few months ago working for The Man. It was a sweaty, sinful afternoon, and the city seemed to want to engorge me in its jaded quicksand of smothered ideals and blatant hackery. Working for The Man is dirty business and I knew I had to get out of there. I took an unpleasant stroll down to see Packed Lunch. The venue was a dim, almost abysmal little number down by the Whitey Bulger Memorial Hospital. A dumpy little bar that used to be trendy but now is just plain weird was hosting an event called "Ska the Vote." I think Tom Menino was up for reelection and the local Berets and AKs crowd didn't have any need for his fascist grove thang. After a few pathetic preliminaries got through embarrassing themselves the local boys who everyone was there to see, Packed Lunch, did their set. I was surprised and faintly lifted from the mire of gloom to note that all of their songs were homages to the old "Real Ghostbusters" cartoon series. The crowd was mesmerized after the first few chords of their opening number, Lost And Foundry. The excitement steadily grew through When Hallowe'en Was Forever and Ragnarok & Roll. Then, when the band suddenly segued into A Ghost Grows In Brooklyn the entire joint exploded, and as I looked around, I realized that hope is never truly lost. Dino, Tim, Adam and that other fellow seemed to be emanating psychedelic lightning bolts of the power of self-determination, like the ghost-repelling rays of Egon's power packs. I knew that Packed Lunch would never buy The Man's OCP. The finale performance of The Collect Call Of Cthulhu was marred when Dino Montenegro suffered extreme head-bleeding, and I think Tim Carter was in the throes of Reefer Madness, but it barely mattered. We almost HAD to love the boys when they reassured us: "no one comes to Lupusville"... That was then, this is now. The Man fell to the forces of free-market capitalism, and I'm still on the run from the pigs and their fifty hard hours of community service. I know I'll get by... on day at a time. And the next time I say my prayers, maybe I should ask God to bless those incorrigible rouges of Packed Lunch. Was this review helpful to you? A jazillion people said "yes."