Ska Bands Steal The Show "The Daily Campus"
Tom Crosby
Issue date: 9/24/07
SUBOG's ska concert at Dow Field on Saturday may be the surprise hit of first semester. The audience was absolutely blown away by Johnny 9 and The Racers, Dan Pease and The Regulators and Tip the Van, three local up-and-coming ska bands.
Johnny 9 and The Racers were the first to play. A long-overdue ska ensemble, this six-man band from Cheshire has been together for more than seven years, and it shows. Full of life, vibrant, with rich sounds and a refreshingly upbeat theme to their catalogue, Johnny 9 and The Racers inspired everyone to get up and skank (dance around while waving fists and feet in a running motion.) The crowd-favorite instrumental, "The Wrath of Tony Danza," really set the tone for what the audience would get from the rowdy Racers - a lively, in-your-face invitation to get up and dance. However, the band also showed their ability to change pace with "Inside Out," prompting charismatic frontman Dave J. to encourage the crowd to "look to the left, look to the right, grab that someone special and hold them close."
Although ska has become somewhat of a niche genre, they manage to deftly defy stereotypes while maintaining energy and feeling. As they put it on their MySpace page, "Ska doesn't suck, you do." That really sums up the band: confident, fun and ready for their close-up. The band is currently working with Stubborn Records in New York to get themselves in the limelight.
Next up was Dan Pease and The Regulators, or DPR for short. Although most of the audience was there to see the more local Johnny 9 and The Racers, these guys stole the show. A fusion of "rock, reggae, ska and hip-hop," according to lead singer Kenn Kosiba (or Verbal Kenn as he is also known), this band is the closest thing to seeing Sublime live. The band from South Hadley, Mass. has amassed an impressive 20,000 friends on MySpace (the gold standard for unsigned bands). But what's even more impressive is that they've only been together since 2005.
Seeing is believing with DPR. Their stage presence is absolutely flooring - big beards, dreads and mohawks, larger than life in sound and stature. Although Kosiba's raspy lyrics ring reminiscent of Bradley Nowell and bassist Jake Curran lays down funky reggae basslines, flawlessly nailing "April 29th, 1992" and "Caress Me Down," don't call them Sublime - they're truly unique and they absolutely own it.
"They're the best band I've heard in a long time, and it's not just because I went to high school with them," said DPR's road manager Mad Lee.
And it really isn't because they all went to the same school - it's because they are seriously poised to become a big thing and remind everyone why the reggae fusion is such a great genre.
The band played several of their big hits for those on hand Saturday.
Most impressive were "Fire It Up," an old-school reggae style jam, and the drastically different "She Says," a chill number akin to the style of 311. This band really is on the brink of being the next big thing. It would be wise to put stock in them now.
The last group to come on, Tip the Van, was somewhat of an anticlimactic headlining act. After the intense, feel-good dance jams of Johnny 9 and the chill, melodic music of DPR, Tip the Van had a lot of work to do to impress the audience. They fell short of attaining this goal. Although it was a big Facebook event and the band is locally famous, their performance was less than inspiring. A lackluster cover of the overdone "99 Red Balloons" had the audience yawning as the lead singers laughed at lyrical missteps.
Compared to the first two acts, the headliners just didn't seem to be ready for the big time. However, their new song, "April Showers," was much more impressive and really brought out the vocal talents of lead duo Simone and Nicole. All in all, though, Tip the Van seems to not be worth the same attention as Johnny 9 and DPR.
This show was, in all, a great success. Everyone in attendance had a good time skanking and jamming out to some fantastic acts.
"If you didn't go, you missed a good time and a chance to meet a lot of cool people," said Peter DiMauro, a 7th-semester biophysics major, who could be seen frantically skanking.
A more emphatic Saurav Chatterjee, a 9th-semester molecular and cell biology major, simply said that those who missed the show missed "everything."
SUBOG is gaining a reputation of finding absolute diamonds in the rough to put on great shows. Although some may have been scared off by the stigmas associated with ska, this one was a definite must see, and if these bands are any indication, there's lots of young talent poised to bring the ska/reggae/rock/hip-hop genre to center stage.
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