Last night, I went to go see Less Than Jake play for what (I think) was the 15th time. Among those 15 shows are many that I count as some of my favourite times ever. Seeing the band play Losing Streak in its entirety while I was in 11th grade was a formative experience for me as a music fan and there were also many times where feelings of confusion and self-doubt that were circling in my mind were momentarily clarified by the peace I would feel watching the band play.
I've always viewed seeing the band as a ritualistic thing; a thread that I can follow through various stages of my life and something that has always managed to contextualize thoughts and worries I have at that particular moment. It's equally enjoyable to see the band on my own, when I get to make the experience all about myself, or with share it with someone else, when I get to share some special to me with someone else.
Knowing that they are my favourite band, my sister bought me tickets for the show as a Christmas present, which was a nice gesture since my super fandom of the band has turned her into a big fan herself. We went to go see Less Than Jake together in 2014 and it was a great night that brought us much closer together as siblings. This time I was bringing my partner Rebecca with me, who had never seen the band before, but knew about my embarrassing fervour for them. It was exciting to be able to bring along somebody that I love and introduce them to something else that I love.
In the days leading up to the show, my excitement started to really ramp up. It had been about 4 years since the last time I had seen the band, which was the longest I had gone in between LTJ sets. When I was younger, I used to lament gaps in sets this long, but this time I hadn't even noticed it until I looked up how long it had been. As you get older, some of your priorities change and things like PhD applications start to take precedence over seeing a ska-punk band play at Wakestock.
The show was a true throwback to an earlier version of Timmy as Four Year Strong, who I was briefly infatuated with in my younger days, were direct support for LTJ. I hadn't listened to the band, or really that type of music, in a long time and Becks remarked that being at the show was like looking at a younger version of themself, which I echoed. I hadn't been to a big concert like that in a long time, so the set-up of a big stage in a big room featuring a big band going through the set they've prepared for a major tour was very unfamiliar to me.
I was downright giddy as we waited for Less Than Jake to take the stage. I said "I'm so excited." numerous times and inundated Rebecca with anecdotes about previous shows and useless information about the band. I can be a real shitty "male music fan" sometimes, but when it comes to Less Than Jake, I just can't help it. I love them so much and as soon as they come up in any conversation, I lose any faculty in moderating what comes out of my mouth.
They're my favourite, you know?
The set started with the band playing Mark Metcalf's monologue from Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" music video over the P.A. before Roger yelled "I wanna rock!" and they opened with my favourite track of theirs "Sugar in Your Gas Tank".
Cool!
The next song that the band played was "The Ghosts of You and Me", which is maybe my second favourite song of theirs. You kidding me?!
However, my excitement subsided a bit when they got to the verse of the song and the band was noticeably off-time with each other. Chris was having a lot of trouble keeping up with the pace of the song and was fumbling some of the riffs that weren't super difficult to begin with. I chalked it up to it being early in the set and him not being warmed up yet, hoping that the rest of the set would go better.
It didn't really though. It became obvious as it wore on that only two of the members of the band were still capable enough to pull it off live. A lot of songs were slowed down and most had parts where the members were significantly out of sync with each other. It bummed me out a lot to watch it live. There were still glimpses of their former glory (a super tight "How's My Driving, Doug Hastings?" and pulling out the superb deep-cut "1989"), but for the most part it seemed like the band had aged 10 years in the 4 it had been since I saw them.
Their live shows have always been filled with shenanigans, like when they had a huge spinning wheel to determine the song they would play next, but it seemed like they were pausing a lot during this set in between songs to the detriment of the experience. At one point they pulled four audience members onstage to have a dance-off for the entirety of the next song that they were going to play, which turned out to be "Look What Happened". Guys, if you're going to play what is, without a doubt, one of the best punk songs ever, you don't need a gimmick onstage to distract from it. Let the song speak for itself, because it's really, really good.
Sidenote: I downloaded this live video on Kazaa while I was in high school. It's one of my favourite videos ever and still makes me so happy watching it right now.
One of my favourite things about seeing Less Than Jake is that there's always a significant amount of older fans who have clearly been coming to the shows for a while in the crowd. Yesterday's show wasn't an exception and the older contingent was out in full force, with me being a member now. Part way through the set, Chris introduced a song as being "an old one" and then the band started "Overrated", to my confusion. Then I realized that that song is 12 years old.
But what was most confusing was that all of the young crowd embraced the song wholeheartedly. It's not that I hate the song, as I got over my "LTJ fan In With the Out Crowd" disdain a long time ago, but it's that I remember when playing that song was met with groans by the audience and the band did it with shit-eating grins the whole time. There was definitely a time when playing the poppy songs off of In With the Out Crowd was a whole "thing" for fans of the band, but now it seems like that record has been subsumed into the rest of their back catalogue. Sometimes you don't notice how much things have changed until you get a clear and glaring sign, and this was one of those.
When the band had trouble working through a couple more older songs, I suddenly realized that this would probably be my last time going to see the band. There's no point in continuing the ritual when the experience isn't really fun anymore. That saddened me at first, but once I sat in that initial sadness for a bit, I decided that rather than sulk I would embrace the show as the way I would see them go out. I still sang along to every song and the words still meant a lot to me.
The set reminded me of two things more so than anything else.
First: A couple of years ago, I saw Propagandhi touring on the album Failed States. They played a decent set that, obviously, leaned on their new album, as most bands touring a new album do, but during the set I realized that I more than likely wouldn't be going to see Propagandhi live anymore. This sounds very judgmental and grandiose, but it's supposed to be more of a personal statement. It was a private moment where I thought that to myself. I was a little sad that the band was the same as when I fell in love with them and I wouldn't get to see that anymore, but I also thought "...and that's okay." All the power to them to keep touring and putting out records, but I believe that I passed the point where I would get really excited to go to that show. The same thing happened yesterday with Less Than Jake.
Second: Before Less Than Jake played, Becks and I were talking about Reel Big Fish, because they are one of the few third wave ska acts who are still actively touring. Whereas Less Than Jake has had the same lineup since 1999, and the came core members since its inception, we were discussing how RBF has turned into frontman Aaron Barrett playing with a different case of touring musicians each year. I thought it was sad to see someone trying to force the band to keep going when it's not nearly the same experience as it was with the members who participated in writing the songs initially and lauded LTJ for staying together.
Now in hindsight, I'm not so sure. Less Than Jake illustrated that though it's very cool that the members have stuck with it, not everyone ages well as a musician. People get old and stop playing as much. The band that was their entire life for all of their adulthood is now something they tour in for part of the year. I'm sure that RBF, with its cast of pitch perfect studio players, is much tighter live than the version of Less Than Jake that I saw yesterday, but then again, who wants to go see an old Aaron Barrett play with a bunch of young guys who learned the song before the tour? Also not ideal.
I'm not sure that I can come up with a concrete answer to that riddle. Realistically, I would prefer that bands would hang it up once they realize they can't do it the same as they used to (I extremely pro "blaze of glory"), but that's easier said than done.
Having said all of this, yesterday's show does not change LTJ's place in my heart at all. One subpar show doesn't erase 14 amazing ones or two decades of great music. Watching that "Look What Happened" video above, or this one of them playing three songs at Reading Festival (I have watched this more than any other video on the internet) still stirs up strong feelings of love and belonging. I even felt a little guilty writing this post, because so much of it was me explaining how bad the set was. Nothing can take away what the band has meant to me and so many others, I still think that they deserve to be applauded more than they have been for all that they've done.
Long live Less Than Jake. Less Than Jake forever. Thank you for being the best band in the world for so long.
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