For
at least the past 6 years Reel Big Fish have headed
over to the UK in February for a lengthy tour
across the UK however this year the tour was slightly
more special than normal as the band came over
with Less Than Jake on a co-headline tour with
Zebrahead in support and as soon as that tour
came to an end Reel Big Fish got announced for
loads of festivals across the UK and to coincide
with the festivals they announced the ‘don’t
stop skankin’ tour which see’s them
play various towns, cities and venues across the
UK that they haven’t played in years throughout
July and August, and tonight
I headed down to the Guildhall in Gloucester to
see Reel Big Fish play to a sold out crowd.
Tonight Reel Big Fish had Essex ska-punks The
Jelly Cats and Bristol’s electronic ska
rockers Magnus Puto supporting them and I headed
into an extremely empty venue just in time to
see The Jelly Cats take to the stage who are made
up of Emma May (vocals), Rob Allen (drums), Ollie
Cooper (bass) and Alex Polak (trumpet) and within
seconds they had the small gathering of people
in the palm of their hands with their infectious
songs and energetic stage presence.
The
Jelly Cats had a 30 minute stage time and they
made the most of it as they played songs from
their debut album ‘When I Do’ as well
as songs from their more recent EP ‘A &
E (Alcohol And ego’s)’ with the likes
of ‘Home’, ‘Get Along’,
‘A & E’, ‘T-W-A-T’
and also a cover of the classic Blues Brothers
song ‘Everybody Needs Somebody’ really
standing out for the right reasons tonight as
The Jellycats seriously laid down some out right
infectious ska-punk sounds whilst dancing their
arses off on stage.
The
main support band tonight were Bristol based Magnus
Puto and as soon as they took to the stage vocalists
Andy Frenchwindow and Pat Fallon moved the microphone
stands to the back of the stage grabbed their
mic’s and proper let rip with their electronic
ska hip-hop cross over.
The energy Magnus Puto let off on stage tonight
was amazing as Andy Frenchwindow and Pat Fallon
took control of the whole stage as their battle
style vocals complimented each other whilst James
Eyres took control of the guitarl, Pat
Fawbert Mills on bass, Chris Ball on drums and
Josh Wood on keys completing the bands full on
in your face sounds.
Through their set Magnus Puto played a good set
which consisted of ‘Footsteps’, ‘Gettin’
Trouble’, ‘Another Way’, ‘Feels
So Good’, ‘Shining Light’ yet
it was their single ‘Loved Ones’ and
set closer ’Electric Lady Light’ which
really got the crowd moving tonight and what set
these guys off from the rest of the bands on the
bill tonight was the electronic beats which dominated
their songs in a huge way.
A
good 10minutes before Reel Big Fish took to the
stage tonight there were massive chants of “Reel
Big Fish” echoing around the venue as the
now sold out capacity crowd were chanting for
their heroes to take to the stage and as soon
as they did they smashed straight into ‘Everyone
Else Is An Asshole’ before unleashing ska-punk
mayhem for the best part of one and a half hours.
Like always Reel Big Fish brought the party to
the stage tonight with Aaron Barrett wearing his
finest Hawaiian shirt with ska-punk style sunglasses
and John Christianson
dressed head to toe in a tracksuit with his trademark
lightning bolt t-shirt and a pair of bright yellow
sunglasses whilst the rest of the best went more
down the suited and booted route showing off the
smarter side to Reel Big Fish.
Musically Reel Big Fish brought out all the hits
tonight as they played the likes of ‘Sell
Out’, ‘Where Have You Been’,
‘FU’, ‘Beer’ whilst generally
jumping, dancing, skanking and making a fool of
themselves on stage whilst the crowd were setting
off circle pits like their lives depended on it
and during ‘Where Have You Been’ Billy
Kottage dived into the crowd for a bit of crowd
surfing with frontman
Aaron Barrett shouting out ‘Be gentle with
him we want our boner back’ making a double
meaning reference to Billy Kottage’s instrument
of choice.
One of the best moments of the night was when
Reel Bigh Fish played their fan favourite ‘S.R’
a song which see’s them repeating the same
song in as many musical styles as possible as
the country music and metal versions featured
some great crowd participation with barn dances
and a lot of head banging and at the end of the
song Aaron Barrett shouted out “I would
play a dub step
version but I left my laptop at home” which
has actually left myself and the crowd tonight
eager to hear a dub step version.
Reel Big Fish finished their main set with ‘Beer’
and it was the perfect finish as the majority
of tonight’s crowd had hit drunkenville
due to the amount of beer they had sunk so it
was only right that they were treated to a song
about their best friend beer.
After a short break and massive chants of “Reel
Big Fish, Reel Big Fish”, the band returned
to the stage and played a quick burst of ‘Ole’
to coincide with the World Cup that has been taking
the world by storm for the past
month and then they played ‘Monkey Man’,
‘I Want Your Girlfriend To Be My Girlfriend
To’ and ‘Take On Me’ which proved
to be a triple whammy of sing-a-long songs with
Emma May from the Jelly Cats joining Reel Big
Fish on stage for guest vocals during ‘I
Want Your Girlfriend To Be My Girlfriend’
helping finish a great night of music in such
a perfect way.
On the back of tonight’s show I will defiantly
be checking out The Jelly Cats and Magnus Puto
again and as for Reel Big fish like usual they
were on top form and I can’t wait for them
to return to the UK again hopefully for their
yearly set of shows in 2015.
The Jelly Cats 4/5
Magnus Puto 4/5
Reel Big Fish 5/5
Review By Trigger
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