Monthly Archive for December, 2007

The other night I went to see the biggest music gig (Shout It Loud) of the year at Billboards nightclub which featured the fantastic ska bands Streetlight Manifesto, Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake.

The night started perfectly with the 7 piece band Streetlight Manifesto kicking things off. While I’ve only recently got into these guys, their three records titled ‘Everything Goes Numb’, ‘Keasbey Nights’ and ‘Somewhere In The Between’ are all fun releases with lots of funky ska beats. While the vocal work is probably the weakest aspect of this band it didn’t show during their set. The amount of energy and enthusiasm they showed was really impressive and the presence of 2 sax’s, 2 trombones and 2 trumpets really gave them a great dynamic sound. The only complaint that I would make was that their time on stage was too short and since the average song length was 5 min only about 4 songs were played. My favorite of the set was Somewhere in the between from their newest album with the same name and I would suggest starting with this song if you’ve never heard these guys before. Overall Streetlight Manifesto really blew me away (I just blue myself) and hopefully in the future I’ll be seeing them headline their own separate show.

Next up on the bill was Reel Big Fish. The fact that they weren’t headlining the show disappointed some people but as I had already seen them play earlier in the year I didn’t mind them offering the final set to Less Than Jake. They kicked things off with your guts (I hate em) and then played a solid set of classic hits like, ban the tube top, she has a girlfriend now, where have you been, the set up you need this and a personal favourite of mine turn the radio off. While I had heard all these songs at their gig earlier in the year I can’t get enough of these guys and the crowd absolutely lapped it up. They also played some material off their newest album ‘Monkeys For Nothing And The Chimps For Free’ including the songs the new version of you, another F.U song and the nonsensical party down. I’m slightly disappointed that they didn’t play live your dream but the rest of the Fish’s new material sounded so good and showed that everything they touch turns to gold. They then ended their set with the fan favourites beer and sell out which always go down a treat and make the mosh pit go crazy.

While a lot of the crowd had run out of steam after the Fish’s set they soon hit the floor again after Less Than Jake made their appearance. I hadn’t seen these guys live before but since they have so many great albums under their belt I had high expectations. Before I saw them live I always thought that they only had one vocalist. However during the show Chris Demakes (lead vocals/guitar) and Roger Manganelli (vocals/bass) took turns singing most songs and showed that each contribute a lot towards their sound. While I can’t remember what song they started off it wasn’t long before everyone went mental to songs off their ‘Hello Rockview’ and ‘Anthem’ (my fav) albums. Classics like help save the youth of america from exploding, great american sharpshooter, Johnny quest thinks were sellouts, sugar in your gas tank, never going back to jersey, short fuse burning and plastic cup politics really went off live and got everyone fired up. In fact I’ve never seen a band draw so much participation from the crowd and at one stage they even got a couple of bouncers up on stage carrying out a drinking contest. While I’m normally not a fan of bands (i.e. NoFx) crapping on with jokes on stage, Less Than Jake were an exception as they were entertained while the crowd tried to get their breath back in between songs. During one song they got some girls from the audience and made her kiss a roady for a whole minute which was pretty funny.

Chris also announced during the show that he will be replacing Jay (from Frenzal Rhomb) from the Triple J radio show while he takes a break. These guys have an obvious connection as Less Than Jake actually have a song titled Jay Frenzal which is about how he fucked up their van while touring.

The only downside of their set was at the start where for some reason the sound volume wasn’t mixed properly and a lot of the saxophone and trombone sounded way too loud, distorted and out off tune, but by the last song gainesville rock city everything sounded fine (maybe I was just deaf by then). The highlight song for me was overrated (off their last album ‘In With The Out crowd’) and it had the whole crowd singing along and jumping up and down. In the end Less Than Jake smashed my expectations (in a good way) and I hope they return again soon with a show where they play one of their albums track by track live just like they did in L.A earlier in the year.

Overall it’s impossible to split who played the best set on the night as the caliber of the bands was just too good. One thing for sure is that the ‘Shout It Loud’ show will definitely be the a contender for gig of the year. Speaking of which, stay tuned for the nominees of the ‘Best Of’ awards that will be announced shortly on this website. The winners will then be announced in a later podcast so stay tuned.