As the end of the school year approaches, music fans look ahead for what concerts the summer will bring.

But the summer of 2000 brings no Woodstock, no Lollapalooza, no Lilith Fair, not even a Dotfest. So what will music fans do?

There’s always the hard hitting sounds of Ozzfest, bringing the country’s biggest up-and-coming scream-for-all acts. Then there’s the Vans Warped Tour, which will be co-headlined by Green Day and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, both with new albums on the way.

High Note caught up with Ben Carr, the Bosstones’ on-stage dancer, at the Cotton Club in Atlanta, Ga. over the phone to talk about being a dancer, the Warped Tour and the group’s new members.

Next Tuesday will mark the release of the Bosstones’ ninth album, “Pay Attention,” which brings what Carr describes as more musical maturity than ever to the table, and contains less of a ska element.

“As we get older and get better as song writers, the rock/pop comes out more. We still have a lot of the ska influence in there, we have some really ska songs,” Carr says. “As we were writing, we wrote 30 songs and we picked the 16 best songs to put on the album so it turned out [more rock/pop]. I don’t think it was conscious effort to go that way.”

After the success of 1997’s “Let’s Face It” and its hit single “Impression That I Get,” the Bosstones were left with the challenge of following up that commercial and critical success.

“We’re not the type of band that says ‘OK, this song was huge let’s write a song like that.’ We do what we do and if the radio likes it then that’s great,” Carr says. “If they don’t like it that’s fine, we’ll still go out and tour.”

To keep themselves from getting let down if the album isn’t embraced by critics, the Bosstones don’t set expectations but do appreciate some good feedback.

“We never expect anything, so if we get good reviews, it makes you feel good,” Carr says. “This album we spent 10 months of our lives on, so when you spend that much time and that much of yourself goes into something, it is extremely nice to get positive feedback and know that people do like it.”

Like many bands, the Bosstones focus on their fans and make music for themselves, and the band is happy with “Pay Attention.”

“We did the best album we could, and we’re putting it out there and hopefully our fans will still like it,” Carr says. “And if it goes big then that’s great. If not, we just wanted to do an album. This is our life; it doesn’t matter what happens with it as long as the people we care about like it.”

1999 brought the first line up change in this tight 8 piece’s 15-year existence, and the group’s latest club tour has the band breaking in two new musicians.

Lawrence Katz has replaced long time guitarist Nate Albert and Roman Fleysher has been added on saxophone.

“Our set list is limited to what songs they know so as we’re going on the tour they’re learning new songs,” Carr says. “By the end of the tour we’ll have our full repertoire back.”

Luckily for the band, it has not been difficult to work in the new members, musically and socially. Carr describes both guys as amazing musicians and says they picked up on the music right away.

“They’re both really nice guys, great guys to get along with,” Carr explains. “We thought it was going to be very difficult, but it actually ended up not being.”

But what Carr says was the hardest part about the situation was losing two friends.

“We’ve been in a band with them for 10 years, and they had to go their own ways, and we understood that,” Carr says. “It was difficult, but we have to go on, and they had to go on. We’re all still friends.”

One aspect of the Bosstones that sets them apart from other bands, besides Dicky Barrett’s grumbling, is its raspy vocals, which is Carr’s job as the group’s dancer, or as they like to call him, the Bosstone.

When the band started up in the mid-’80s the members were all underage. Carr didn’t play any instruments but was friends with the band and basically their roadie.

“In order to get into a lot of the clubs under age you have to be an actual member of the band. To get around that loophole they said ‘oh yeah he’s in the band,'” Carr laughed. “So when show time came up I usually got up there and sang one song, and it kind of grew into what it is now.”

Though Carr’s main role belongs with the live shows (he is also the group’s tour manager), he always considers himself a band member.

“Dancing doesn’t really come off on the album,” Carr jokes. “I’m there throughout the recording process to lend support and be part of the whole thing. I get in there on some backing vocals and bounce ideas off people.”

As the Bosstones venture through their present club tour, they look ahead to the summer where the band will be one of the featured bands on a number of festivals, including Chicago’s Q101 Jamboree and the Vans Warped Tour.

But whether it’s a club, a festival or the Warped Tour, the Bosstones have their preferences. Carr says he likes doing larger clubs on the tour at a good club where people can have the room to dance if they want or sit down and watch the show if they want.

One thing for is sure when it comes to the summer festivals, the Warped tour isn’t like anything else.

“Playing the larger festival types, it’s very impersonal. You don’t get to hang out and meet the fans and get good feedback,” Carr explains. “The Warped tour is so much different than normal festivals. They make it very fan friendly, tickets prices are low. Our main fan base is people that would be going to a Warped tour already.”

Carr says that all the other bands on the bill are friends of theirs already, so it’s fun back stage because they are hanging with their friends.

“But it’s also fun to wander around out in the crowd ’cause it’s a low-key friendly environment,” Carr says. “The people are all cool, great people. The crowds are their to have fun out in the nice sunshine. We did it in ’97, and there was never any incidents.”

Midwest dates for the Warped Tour include: Tuesday, July 11 in Minneapolis and Wednesday, July 12 in Chicago. For more information, log onto www.warpedtour.com.