There are few certainties in life; death, taxes, Sinners winning best picture and Less Than Jake returning to Manchester to deliver a kickass set of ska punk. The Winter Circus tour boasted an amazing lineup of punk and ska including Bar Stool Preachers, The Aquabats and Bouncing Souls.
First up was Bar Stool Preachers, a London based band that had that classic iconic punk sense of justice working together with that youthful exuberance inherent in the punk sound. There’s a whole lot of fast paced, boot camp drumming in the form of ‘Choose My Friends’ and even a cheeky little guitar solo on ‘Trickledown’.
As expected from a modern punk outfit, there’s a song about the Israel/Palestine situation with ‘Pick a Side’. The lyric “if you don’t pick a side in genocide, don’t pretend you fight for the power” is as infectious as it is powerful. It feels like it was perfectly written to scream in a crowd during protests, but isn’t a punk show a form of protest in itself? If you were into Bar Stool Preachers then you can see them on their headline tour in October/November.
Next up was The Aquabats, a wholly unique experience in the landscape of ska and pop punk. The Aquabats are a crack team of superheroes that also play ska in between their time fighting crime. Their set opened with the audience being flooded with sharks, which is a fairly uncommon event at The Academy, as they started with their shark repellent anthem: ‘The Shark Fighter’.
There were a wealth of weird and wonderful moments of madcap insanity punctuated by doots. You’d be considered a bit of a miserable bastard if you didn’t have fun with the giant pizza inflatables carrying crowdsurfers during ‘Pizza Day’ or getting to experience the theme song to the greatest TV show ever (maybe): The Aquabats Super Show.
There were several occasions where I would look away to make notes and I’d look up and see The Abominable Snowman or the titular Dr Space Mummy, one of the most evil characters of all time. If you missed The Aquabats, this review doesn’t even come close to explaining how wild and weird their show is, but you should catch them again; same Aquabats time, same Aquabats channel (whenever that may be).
Next up was Bouncing Souls, one of the most influential punk bands of the early 90s and a massive influence on everyone on this bill. One of the things that’s always impressive to me about the punk scene is just how much everyone respects the classics and understands the storied history of punk, and Bouncing Souls had many of those in their short set. Frontman Greg Attonito looked dapper in his two piece suit and cap, which added a bit of a comical contrast to the abrasive sound of tracks like ‘True Believers’ or the football song that probably isn’t about football but still ends up chanted at football games, ‘Here We Go’.
With a bass tone that could loosen fillings, the band kept up a breakneck pace throughout the set with punk classics like ‘Manthem’, ‘Hopeless Romantic’ and even the fan favourite from Burnout 3, ‘Sing Along Forever’. We were also treated to the eternal singalong masterpiece of ‘Lean on Sheena’ which kept a rowdy crowd of punks singing along.
You could argue that the set is a little bit repetitive but punk isn’t really about innovation; it’s about feeling and speaking to the malaise of a disgruntled listener and giving a sense of hope through one of the most powerful art forms ever devised. It can also be about dumb stuff too, and that’s where Less Than Jake come in…
After a dramatic intro of Ride of the Valkyries, Less Than Jake made their way on stage and got straight into the doots with ‘Nervous in the Alley’ accompanied by CO2 cannons and wacky waving arm flailing inflatable tube men. Later on, there were toilet paper guns during ‘Automatic’ and the hijinks went on and on throughout the rest of the set. It’s a phenomenal sight to see a band this seasoned burst onto the stage at such high energy and maintain it for the entirety of the set.
The next hour was filled with wall to wall pop punk bangers like ‘History of a Boring Town’, ‘Last One Out of Liberty City’, ‘The Science of Selling Yourself Short’ and so many more tracks with obnoxiously long yet hilarious titles. The majority of these tracks even came with wacky gimmicks like Skull Guy showing up on stage during ‘Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts’. Was he Johnny Quest or someone else? I have no idea because I’m a metalhead and know next to nothing about this genre outside of it being cool and making me want to play Tony Hawk’s Underground with mozzarella sticks.
Speaking of being a metalhead, ‘All My Friends Are Metalheads’ is a perfect example of an olive branch being extended to another subculture that would have hated all this stuff at another time. In a post monoculture world, there’s metalheads all over the venue and every single one is having an amazing time at this show. You can tell that the entire band has brilliant chemistry with each other. Frontman Chris DeMakes and trombonist Buddy Schaub have hilarious back and forth, with Schaub acting as a glorious hype man on tracks like ‘Help Save the Youth of America from Exploding’ as he bounces around the stage with reckless abandon.
The show ended with the loser with big dreams national anthem, ‘Gainesville Rock City’, a wholesome track that perfectly encapsulates everything that Less Than Jake have worked so hard to accomplish and acts as a celebration of their progress. There aren’t many bands that have been together this long that still have this degree of showmanship and dedication, so thank your lucky stars you exist at the same time as Less Than Jake.
Overall, this was yet another fantastic show from Less Than Jake and company. Even if ska punk isn’t your thing, you can’t deny just how much infectious energy goes into a Less Than Jake show. These guys are clearly seasoned professionals that know exactly what your average pop punk fan wants and that’s a fun filled night of high energy wackiness with a smattering of doots. If you missed them on this tour, you probably won’t have to wait long for them to get announced at Slam Dunk.
They’re not playing this year but it probably won’t be long till they do because they’re the Skindred of Slam Dunk, right?
