Reel Big Fish’s performance was amazing, as expected. Their typical interweaving of humor and random banter during their performance kept everything moving at a swift pace. They started their set three separate times. The first was a failed (later to be revealed as scripted) attempt at a cover of A-Ha’s Take On Me, the second was a complete performance of the same song, and the third involved dimming the lights and running on to stage (as they did for both attempts at Take On Me), except they played Another Version Of You instead. I tried to explain it all to a coworker the next day, managed to confuse myself in the process, and ended up getting a Snickers bar instead.
Their set list was rather predictable, with the exception of a few covers from their last release being thrown in to the mix. Scott Klopfenstein took over the female vocals on She Has a Girlfriend Now, which was performed by the ladies from Tip The Van the last time I caught a RBF show. He did a good job, but I would have much rather seen them on stage! The guys from Big D and The Kids Table are being graced by the presence of those lovely ladies at the moment. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, “Luuuucky!”
Gosh.
The English Beat was by far the standout performance of the evening. Their live show went way beyond my expectations, and seeing a group that has been around for three decades move like they did on stage made me feel like a complete asshole for feeling like an “old man” in the crowd just a few minutes earlier. Granted, this isn’t the complete original lineup, but check out in the video below! They made The Supervillians look like a bunch of mannequins in the Sears musical instrument department or something, if Sears were to have something like that (which really wouldn’t be too suprising.)
The performance was tight, the crowd was moving and everyone had a good time. It’s reassuring to see bands like The Beat out and touring amidst all of the crap that is being put out these days. Ska really isn’t dead! Now if we could just get The Specials to make their way over here…
The opening act, The Supervillains, put on a decent show. Their ska-reggae sound should feel somewhat familiar to Sublime fans, while their impressive instrumentals place them somewhere just outside of the former’s shadow. While their performance was nothing to complain about, their gear sounded completely off and made me wonder how they’d sound with a better setup. The bass guitar was muddy and managed to overpower everything else at times, and the guitar wasn’t coming through as clean as expected at times either. Part of the problem may have had to do with everyone being packed so closely on the stage, as most of The Beat’s gear was already set up behind them. Their talent shined through the technical issues though, and their cover of Billy Joel’s Movin’ Out made me forget about it all. I don’t know; it must be a Long Island thing.
The show went longer than I had expected, and I finally made it home around 2:30 Friday morning. A little more than two hours sleep, and I was starting yet another day. Just a few hours later, I found myself looking at the Nokia Theature, just across the street from my office, wondering when the next great show was coming to town. It didn’t take too long to find out…
More video clips from this evening and other shows are available on my YouTube Channel.
