Reel Big Fish, The Aquabats @The Roundhouse, Sydney(03/12/10)

Tue 7th Dec, 2010 in Gig Reviews

A night billed with both third-wave ska veterans Reel Big Fish and The Aquabats is sure to draw a different sight to the usual sea of black t-shirts. Garish Hawaiian shirts and the finest sideburns since Brian Setzer last hit town were accompanied by punters dressed in homemade superhero outfits, fake moustaches and sombreros. The long line at the Roundhouse doors prove that these individual crimes against fashion were united for one thing; super rad music.

The early arrivals were split between the bar and front of stage when Canberra’s Los Capitanes took to the stage. Opening with a brief cover of Beyonce’s Single Ladies got parts of the crowd moving but enthusiasm faded into their first few originals. Despite a muddy mix coming from the speakers the six piece sprang about the stage with great energy, playing amongst the crowd and leaping from speaker stacks.

Their songs weren’t your standard ska affair with odd rhythm changes and vocals that seemed to switch from singing to barked rapping. It makes for an interesting listen but may have been a little off-putting to the uninitiated. Vocalist Tim Kent’s wry between song banter skimmed overhead a crowd prepared for talk of superheroes and dick jokes but scored a laugh when announcing a song titled All Your Friends are Fucking Indie Cunts. Finishing with a cover of Missy Higgins’ Scar dragged plenty of people out of the bar and into the huge skank circle that had formed. Not everyone was won over by their antics, with heckling starting during the bands final moments, but this seemed to be the minority sentiment and I’d bet Los Capitanes sold a fair few CD’s after their set.

A darkened room and a blaring video countdown signal that the worlds best full time superheros/part time rock and roll band, The Aquabats, were here. They were greeted with a roaring reception and Aquabat hand symbols thrown in the air. The small skank circles of Los Capitanes are replaced with a heaving mass of jumping and dancing wherever anyone can find enough room as the band open with Fashion Zombies! and Martian Girl. Synth player Jimmy the Robot was initially drowned out in the mix but this was rectified during the first few songs.

With The Aquabats live show it’s often hard to focus totally on the band because of the videos playing roughly in synch behind them, but singer MC Bat Commander was living up to his name; commanding the stage with his dance moves and kung fu actions. Running in the front of the crowd to give group hugs, punting empty water bottles to the crowd and topping off the set with a back flip from the drum kit, the beefy MC was really pulling out all the stops to make it a fun show. When noticing some aggressive movement from the floor, Bat Commander slowed things down and reminded everyone that you can dance however you like, but people who “mosh violently don’t have girlfriends.” The fun party vibe was lost when the band played the surprisingly slow new track, In My Dreams, from their forthcoming album but it picked up again for vibrant renditions of fan favourite Super Rad and set closer; Pool Party!

The house lights are back on and there is a hot and sweaty exile to the bar line and the bathroom, it doesn’t look like anyone has anymore energy left for another band. Beers are bought and bladders are drained before the floor is again full of a now slightly smellier and sweater crowd. Anyone who checked their twitter during the changeover would have seen Reel Big Fish tweeting that tickets are still available, but from inside the Roundhouse all you could see were excited faces filling up the place.

With a ‘best of’ released this year, anyone expecting a hit laden set wasn’t disappointed. Reel Big Fish took to the stage with Sell Out, followed by Another FU Song and Thank You For Not Moshing. Whilst the crowd seemed to burst to life the band seemed fairly reserved from the performance I’d seen earlier in the year. This didn’t last long however as Aaron Barrett and the rest of the band seemed to really warm up after the crowd were singing louder than them in Ban the Tube Top. On stage banter between Aaron and Scott Klopfenstein was awkward and juvenile but rarely overstayed its welcome. The band’s musicianship was on show during instrumental number 2,4,1; bass player Derek Gibbs and drummer Ryland Steen had impromptu and impressive solos when Aaron snapped a string mid song and had to change guitars. As another testament to their live skills, no one made a mistake as members of The Aquabats threw sliced bread at them from side of stage.

By the time RBF closed their set with Beer, including behind head guitar solo’s, brass choreography and the biggest crowd sing-a-long of the night, the audience still hadn’t run out of steam and neither had The Fish it seems. With encore chanting barely started it seemed that the band was already back on stage. Classics like Trendy and I Want your Girlfriend to be my Girlfriend set the crowd back in motion, but it was the genre swapping Suburban Rhythm that had the biggest skank circle of the night. The crowd aggression was raised as the band played punk and metal versions of the latter, but the tension broke when the entire crowd let loose to the final song of the evening, a cover of A-ha’s Take On Me. The band played their final song with a resounding energy, with all thoughts of a stale opening to the set forgotten.

For a gig sold as Reel Big Fish vs. The Aquabats it ended rather peacefully; the sweaty masses lurching out the door, singing along to Neil Diamond playing over the PA. These ska heavyweights had gone head to head, but the real winner was the audience, trudging into the cool Kensington air with smiles brighter than their Hawaiian shirts.