Ska Weekender Harbour Cruise @ Sydney Harbour (07/11/10)

Mon 15th Nov, 2010 in Gig Reviews

For the second time this year Ska Weekender has graced Sydney with its presence. After a successful Saturday at the Annandale it was time to hit the harbour for the unique and popular Ska Weekender Harbour Cruise cover show. After fighting a losing battle against a harbour ferry for port access, we finally set sail with a full boatload of happy revellers filling all spaces on the boat and exploring all of its crevices.

Not long after people had managed to get their first drink from the bar the drones of an English accent leapt from below “Hey you! Don’t watch that! Watch this!....” rose from the bottom deck and the once busy top deck cleared and filled the lower deck.

Backyskank, paying tribute to Madness, were beginning to skank it up with a set that hit straight to the core of Madness. Stage antics, bad jokes, and dancing with the crowd provided a great start to the day. All the hits were covered (pun intended) in a very impressive, engaging and merrymaking performance. A perfect start to the cruise.

Los Capitanes stepped aboard next to entertain us with the wiley sounds of Sublime. Very early the power to the PA dropped out, but the band followed the one main rule of live music – if something buggers up, just play on! And with the crowd in tow they continued the song in choir until finally we had nothing to do but wait for power to return.

This was a sometimes messy set it must be said. Admittedly, it would take a lot of effort to learn near 10 songs you don’t normally play and have it perfected. With this in mind, you could only ignore the odd missed note, or vocal struggle with the band managing to reinvigorate the crowd that were notably bigger fans of Sublime than Madness.

Headlining tonight and covering their own debut album Bitter and Twisted, Area 7 have pulled themselves from the depths to provide us with a tight and valiant performance. Despite John (Stevo) Stevens struggling with a dry sore throat and a stand in trumpeter you could only enjoy the energy and vibe they created.

The usual suspects’ Bitter Words, Start Making Sense and Himbo start the set expectedly and it would be hard to start any Area 7 concert stronger than this. As we moved toward halfway Stevo needed a vocal break and where better to bring in a random singer from the crowd but with a cover of The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry. It was a sterling effort and such antics are always well received.

As the set came to a close it would be silly not to mention Second Class Citizen and Nobody Likes a Bogan. If you were passing the Ska boat by during these songs it would surely seem to be skanking on the water as the crowd bounced in time trying to take in every last moment before we returned to shore to walk the plank.

The weather was perfect to be on the harbour for a Ska cruise, even the cabin crew secretly enjoyed the ride. You could not argue with the selection of music provided with some classic Ska from varied eras, countries and styles culminating in a fitting tribute to the genre in the best location possible.