Well ska fan’s listen up, cause this is one you don’t want to miss. Reel Big Fish, the band you have learned to love for their deliciously satirical lyrics are making a tour with some of the biggest names in ska history! Catch 22, RX Bandits, and Lucky Boys Confusion are playing the whole tour and as an opener you can hope to see Suburban Legends, Genoa, or Big D and the Kids Table.
A synopsis of the show from an eighteen-year-old at the House of Blues in Las Vegas:
Alright well let me start off by saying that I was really pumped for this show, and for the most part it didn’t let me down. There were a few flaws, some with the bands, others the venue itself, but for the most part it was awesome.
Suburban Legends:
My friend Stuart put it best when he said that this group was basically “
Queer eye for the ska guy”; they were hilarious to say the least. If you’ve been to a lot of shows you usually find yourself feeling fairly sorry for the
opening bands; they commonly have the most shit to put up with; and they have to get the crowd going from scratch, it’s no easy task. But to Suburban Legends credit I think they did a pretty swell job. Imagine, if you will, nine guys in white t-shirts and tight jeans all doing a synchronized
dance routine while still managing to play some fairly decent ska. And then imagine that they started making the dancing even more intricate by throwing their instruments to each other, in-synch. I mean, as
blatantly ridiculous as it looked you couldn’t help but give these guys some credit for managing to get this whole act together without making it sound like the pop crap you normally see from such dancers. And so I found myself
skankin’ along and even joining a little
skank circle all the while being entertained by these crazy guys.
Lucky Boys Confusion:
I had heard a few songs by these guys which I mildly enjoyed, one being
City Lights and the other
Arizona Stand. Unfortunately it seems that they have drastically changed their style and neither song was played. The thing about them was that they tried to be punk but came across as emo, and then added a little rap, which in the end, turned out to be shit. Their hit song,
Hey Driver, was about their only remotely good song.
Catch-22:
Oh man, what a let-down. It wasn’t that the band sucked, I mean they played fine, it was just that they were squeezed into this small time frame and couldn’t take any requests and had a rushed feel to every song. I don’t know if you have ever heard these guys, but they are pretty amazing, especially on their
Keasbey Nights album. Anyways they played two of their older songs and a handful of new ones which are really mediocre, and ended the set with the song Keasbey Nights, without a doubt their best song ever. However, in this
double speed rendition there was hardly any way you could sing along, and the good solos were just a short blur which you had absolutely no time to enjoy. But I did manage to have a lot of fun, and the show wasn’t over yet.
RX Bandits:
I didn’t know quite what to expect from these guys, I enjoyed some of their later work, but hadn’t heard all that much of their earlier stuff. Well I soon found that they had a huge following of young (10-14)
emo girls that absolutely destroyed the “happy” crowd atmosphere. I mean I personally try to avoid those concerts were
angry teenage girls stand around pouting as they stare at the band in the front row. And then when you try to move at all their pouts turn to glares and you feel as though you’ve just killed a kitten or something… Needless to say, I didn’t exactly enjoy myself during this set.
Reel Big Fish:
Alright these guys definitely made my list of
top bands I have ever seen in concert for their performance. The
crowd was nuts, the
band was nuts, hell even the
security went a little nuts. Here is a band that you can listen to on CD for years and never really experience the greatness of their music without seeing them live. The lead singer
Aaron Barrett, had this giant
Mohawk and did not stop either singing or jamming the entire set. On horns were
Dan Regan and
Tyler Jones who pulled out some sweet ska rhythms.
Matt Wong, the bass player seemed a little timid up until he was singled out and serenaded by Aaron, who did a little rendish of
Bob Marley’s
Could You Be Loved for him. Finally, there was
Scott Klopfenstein (of the song
Scott’s a Dork) whose voice was so girly that he did all of the women’s parts. But I had to hand it to him, he could play a mean trumpet. Together they made an incredibly amazing band that rocked the house, everyone on the pit level was dancing and moshing, it was amazing.
All in all the show was incredible, and if they continue the tour again next year, you can be sure to see me there.
Learn more and buy tickets for the remaining shows at www.reel-big-fish.com