Ska punk is one of the most entertaining live experiences that any music fan could ask for, and what better example of that than ska punk legends Less Than Jake? With their tongue-in-cheek lyrics, hilarious on-stage antics and continuous piss-taking, their set at Koko tonight is guaranteed fun from start to finish. If you’re looking for something serious, please step aside.
When you’ve been a band for over twenty years, you don’t need gimmicks or special effects – you don’t need them, but they sure are fun! As soon as Less Than Jake hit the stage with popular opener ‘Look What Happened’, gold confetti bursts out from the stage and showers the crowd, setting a party mood right from the off. This co-headline tour, which they share with old friends Yellowcard, might see them up first tonight, but this doesn’t deter them one bit. If anything, they just encourage the beer-drenched mosh pits to start even earlier! It doesn’t stop there; as the set continues, themed balloons are tossed into the crowd, toilet roll guns are fired and fans are dragged up to dance on stage (whether they like it or not!). Even after over two decades as a band, Less Than Jake can still party harder than you.
Surprising as it may seem, ska punk is one of the most versatile subgenres of the punk scene, and the set list tonight just goes to show it. The fast-paced ferocity of songs such as ‘Automatic’, ‘Ghosts of Me and You’ and ‘Plastic Cup Politics’ see enough crowd surfing and head-banging to rival any punk rock show, while more bouncy, ska-influenced tracks like ‘Nervous in the Alley’, ‘Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts’ and ‘The Silence of Selling Yourself Short’ send an irresistible, dance-inducing vibe through the crowd, until not a single person can deny the groove. With the band jumping from one sound to the other, the energy doesn’t let up for a moment.
After a chaotic encore of ‘History of a Boring Town’ and fan-favourite ‘All My Best Friends Are Metalheads’, Less Than Jake exit the stage to emphatic cheers and applause. This venue has never seen such pandemonium at 9:30pm on a Tuesday, and that’s something that only a band like Less Than Jake can deliver. Yellowcard may be seasoned pros, but even they have their work cut out as they prepare to follow that!
