Less Than Jake
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Granada
Better than: Most crowds with this many leather jackets and Ugg boots.
Less Than Jake's major-label debut, Losing Streak, came out 15 years ago, meaning they're a band to which I've been listening to literally half my life. They've aged better than the band's other third-wave compatriots, owing as much to a healthy respect for '70s rock as the band's ability to write quality pop songs. The ska-punk thing is almost an afterthought. Less Than Jake could drop the horns and start covering Cheap Trick every night, and they'd still be entertaining as hell.
In addition to rocking out a set filled with popular favorites, Less Than Jake had quite a few set-break bits of entertainment. They made a love connection happen for a young man named Jerod: As "Last One Out of Liberty City" played, they got a lively, lovely young lady to shove her tongue in his mouth. As an added bonus, she full-on jumped up and wrapped her legs around him. There was also an onstage beer-drinking contest among four men with goatees, won by the guy running the sound for the monitors. (Note: Never compete in a drinking contest with someone who works in a club).
The audience on the floor in front of the stage went crazy for every song. It was a nonstop moving throng of dancing, bouncing, screaming kids, which contrasted with the nearly stock-still, completely nonreactive crowd in the rest of The Granada. It's almost as if the people down front were there as folks seriously into Less Than Jake, while the rest were there because they'd happened to see them at Warped Tour once. I've seen shows where even the folks by the bar fist-pumped like they were stageside, which makes the blank stares of audience members with a clear view to the stage rather disheartening.
Set List
Shindo
Sugar in Your Gas Tank
Look What Happened
Conviction Notice
Scott Farcas Takes It On the Chin
Great American Sharpshooter
Automatic
Last One Out of Liberty City
Help Save the Youth of America From Exploding
All My Best Friends Are Metalheads
Overrated (Everything Is)
Animaniacs
Sponge Bob Squarepants
Nervous In the Alley
Liquor Store
Does the Lion City Still Roar?
P.S. Shock the World
How's My Driving, Doug Hastings?
Plastic Cup Politics
Encore
Rest of My Life
The Science of Selling Yourself Short
The Ghosts of You and Me
The Supervillains were kind of ska, kind of punk, kind of jam band -- kind of hard to describe. (For fans of Sublime and the Avett Brothers, maybe? Certainly for fans of the green, as they had a song called "Resin.") The band was energetic -- definitely a tight unit -- but I just wasn't feeling what they did. The harmonies were there, but it just seemed calculated to appeal to an audience to which I was not a part. It might have something to do with the lyric, I wanna hit it 'til your pussy aches, to say nothing of covering Billy Joel's "Movin' Out." The worst cover I've ever heard of the Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad" was just the icing on the cake of annoying stoner cracker-dom.
Off With Their Heads dedicated "I Am You" to the Replay. This a band that appreciates drinking. Not a drunk band -- just the sort of band that accompanies drinking really well. Frontman Ryan Young sounded like his range had expanded since the band played the Jackpot last summer. He was legitimately hitting some Danzig-esque "whoa-oh"s. Closing with In Desolation's best track, "Clear the Air," just cinched the fact that Off With Their Heads is one of the best bands in punk today: emotional, ripping, excellent.
Red City Radio was the "regional" opener. They've also recently signed to Less Than Jake drummer Vinnie Fiorello's Paper + Plastick Records. Up from Oklahoma, this four-piece knocked out anthemic 'org-core that was influenced by Less Than Jake's fellow Gainesville residents, Hot Water Music. The band had gravely vocals with sing-alongs -- much like Off With Their Heads, but less diversity.
Critical bias: Tearing myself away from the second season of Fringe nearly required an act of God.
Notebook dump: "Why the fuck did Off With Their Heads OPEN for THEM?" (after the Supervillains, with lots of underlining and capital letters)
Overheard in the crowd: "Let the fucking birthday bitch up-front!" (from a girl with X'd up hands double-fisting Bud Light tallboys)
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