Less Than Jake played Groezrock festival at the weekend and being a band who didn’t want to travel all the way to Belgium to play just one show they decided to come over to their second home the UK to play a handful of shows which saw them stop off at Kingston, Liverpool, Leicester and Oxford and tonight I headed down to the Academy in Oxford for the final show of this very short tour.
First band up tonight were the London trio The Kenneths and they were on top form from the start with front man Josh making jokes shouting out “we are Less Than Jake thanks for coming” as soon as he took to the stage and moments later the pounding drum beats from Aicha kicked off and the band blasted their way into a crazy assault of punk rock sounds full of incredible dual vocals and punk rock attitude with frontman Josh reminding me of Mindless Self Indulgence’s Jimmy Urine with his whole look and Mexican jumping bean stage presence.
The Kenneths had a 30 minute set and it was the perfect amount of time for them to show the near sold out Oxford Academy what they are all about and all three band members brought their own individuality to the band and shared the same passion.
Just before playing ‘What Happened To The Radio’ Josh had a comical rant about the radio as he shouted out “fuck Chris Moyles, fuck Zane Lowe, fuck the radio, fuck Radiohead’ and considering he was in Radiohead’s home town tonight it went down extremely well and so did the song being a pure melodic sing-a-long number, the main highlights from the bands set was the fast paced anthem “What Happened To My Sex” and also right at the end when Josh decided to finish the set in the crowd with select members of the crowd holding his microphone as he sung his lungs out.
Considering The Kenneth’s have only been together for a year they are doing extremely well for themselves earning themselves some high profile support slots and it is clear to see why as they are a fantastic band who are super confident and also have a selection of top notch songs to back their confidence up.
The main support band of the night were Trash Boat a five piece pop-punk band from St Albans who have recently signed to Hopeless Records and tonight they were on top form bouncing around the stage unleashing their pop-punk meets hardcore sounds, they were loud, melodic and super energetic and wasted no time at all during their 30 minute set.
Judging by the circle pits and manic mosh pits kicking off in the centre of the venue throughout the bands set the crowd loved what they were hearing with songs like ‘Boneless’ and ‘Eleven’ going down an absolute storm with the majority of people in attendance.
Tonight was my first time seeing Trash Boat live a band who have been getting some major praise recently and I can see why as they put everything into their set however the only bit of criticism I have is that towards the end their set became very samey and they lacked big stand out songs which would help separate them from other bands in the genre.
As soon as the clock hit 9.30pm the lights dimmed and Less Than Jake took to the stage and like always Less Than Jake put on a fantastic performance as they treated their fans to nearly 1hour and 30minutes of ska-punk mayhem where they played an impressive 18 songs and shared a lot of banter with the crowd and each other along the way.
Their set kicked off with ‘Sugar In Your Gas Tank, which was followed on by ‘The Ghosts Of Me And You’, ‘Good Enough’ and ‘Dopeman’ and many other fan favourites such as ‘Johnny Quest Thinks We’reSellouts’, ‘All My Best Friends Are Metalheads’, ‘History Of A Boring Town’ and many others.
Early on in the set Chris Demakes takes time out to eat a Banana on stage and chucking the skin from it at the photographers in front of him whilst Roger Lima jokingly flirts with the female photographers and Buddy who’s on top form running all over the stage spots a selection of stick on moustaches in the crowd and retrieves one from an eager fan and attaches it to his face as a monobrow which he continued to wear for the duration of the bands set prancing around the stage in pure enjoyment causing lots of laughter throughout.
During their set Chris spoke about the bands recent live album ‘Live From Astoria’ whilst also mentioning that they are playing their special home coming weekend of shows in Gainesville Florida in September called the Wake and Bake weekend and also teasing the fans with potential news of another UK based Less Than Jake tour before the end of the year.
The bands main set came to an end with ‘Plastic Cup Politics’ and minutes later the band came back on stage for a triple headed encore which featured the likes of ‘Look What Happened’, ‘Give Me Something To Believe In’ and ‘Gainsville Rock City’ as the band and their fans rocked out as hard as they could for the final 10 minutes.
As the band left the stage you could see the excitement on their fans faces as they made their way out of the venue smiling from ear to ear after witnessing their musical heroes putting on yet another top notch show whilst also having hope of more live shows before the year is out.
The Kenneths – 4/5
Trash Boat 3.5/5
Less Than Jake 4.5/5
Review By Trigger |
