What a better way for a band to celebrate their 20 year anniversary than to go out on tour? Luckily for the fans in attendance at The Rapids Theatre in Niagara Falls, NY that was the case for the band Less Than Jake this past Wednesday night. They took the stage shortly after 9:00pm to the O’jays clasic “Money, Money, Money,” and were lead out by the dread-locked bassist Roger Manganelli, who started them into “Gainesville Rock City”. They played through two more songs, “All My Best Friends Are Metalheads”, and “Happy Man”, before taking a moment to address the crowd. Lead singer / guitarist Chris Demakes mentioned that this was the first time the band has played Niagara Falls, and went on to “inform” everyone that the name of the city had been changed. He said that because of the poor economy, the name was auctioned off, and Canada outbid the U.S. Therefore, the city would now be known as “Viagara Balls.” When he received a few boos from the crowd, he said they put a lot of work into that joke, and they were offended. This was just the beginning of the bantering that would take place throughout the night.
Less Than Jake played a little bit of every aspect of there 20 year career throughout their 20 song set. Starting with their debut album, right up to their lastest release. Even throwing in a couple of cartoon theme songs from The Animaniacs and Sponge Bob Squarepants, that they played during two seperate moneygrabs. What I mean by moneygrabs is that they chose two lucky “contestants” from the crowd to step into a “phonebooth” with Less Than Jakes dollars blown around inside, and they had to grab 22 of them to win one of everything form the merch booth, before the music stopped.A fun way to to get the fans invloved for sure!
At one point Manganelli wanted everyone to know about his ingenious marketing scheme. He said he had found a way for their fans to get two of the most important things they need. He said if you were to purchase a certain brand of rolling papers, you would get a code to download free Less Than Jake music, which prompted Demakes to chime in with, “That may be part of the reason we haven’t played in Canada yet, with the “border problem” and all”.
They finished up their set with “Rest of My Life”, and as LTJ Dollars were thrown out to the crowd as they exited the stage. The crowd began the “Less Than Jake” chant, growing louder and louder, encouraging them to return. When Demakes strapped his guitar on, he thanked the crowd and stated, “We picked the worst night to play. A Wednesday night in the snow, but you crazy bastards came out anyway, so were gonna play a few more for you.” They played a three song encore closing with “Look What Happened.” As they left the stage they distributed guitar picks, LTJ Dollars, and Manganelli took the time to pull the setlists from the stage and hand all but one out, which he made into a paper airplane in an attempt to get it to the back of the house. He failed miserably, as it crashed into the pit. Everyone got a laugh and he hopped down and handed to someone in the front row.
It turned out to be an insanely fun night for the fans in attendance. The combination of The Rapids Theatre venue size, with some great ska and punk music, and the incredible energy Less Than Jake brings, left me with a smile on my face. After all, music is all about emotion, and Less Than Jake is a whole lot of damn fun.
Set List:
Gainesville Rock City
All My Best Friends Are Metalheads
Happy Man
9th & Pine
The New Auld Lang Syne
Overrated
Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts
Science of Selling Yourself Short
Short Fuse Burning
Help Save The Youth of America From Exploding
Animaniacs Theme (money grab)
Shindo
Goodbye Mr. Personality
Plastic Cup Politics
Spongebob Squarepants Theme (money grab)
Life in a Boring Town
Rest of My Life
Encores:
Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore
How’s My Driving, Doug Hastings?
Look What Happened
We would like to thank Ralfael Castro from the Rapids Theatre for assisting BackstageAxxess in reviewing the show.
