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Due to circumstances
beyond my control I missed support act Bullets To Broadway but, from
comments made from the stage during Less Than Jake's set, it seems they
hadn't played anyway. I tried confirming this with a few people in the crowd
but everyone anywhere near me had only turned up for the headliners set so
I'm still none the wiser.
Anyway Less Than Jake hit the stage at about 8:30 and proceeded to get the
packed Academy crowd moving, its a while since I've actively participated in
a mosh pit but I was more than happy to observe a large section of the
Academy crowd in perpetual motion tonight!! If I have any major criticisms
of tonight's show they are mainly rooted in the brevity of the set played by
the band. This was the opening gig of Less Than Jake's first UK tour in a
good while and the headliners were only onstage for a total of 75 minutes
and that was including the encores.
Simply not good enough in my eyes I'm afraid, especially given that the band
kept assuring us that they were really up for playing the UK and (in an
attempt to secure some jagermeister from the bar) stated that they would
play until 4am if they had to! On the plus side everything the band played
tonight was spot on and there was a good deal of energy being exuded from
the stage (especially from bassist Roger and saxophonist Pete "JR" who has
to be the only thrash saxophonist on the planet!) with a set drawn mainly
from their older material (the new album "In With The Out Crowd" isn't
released until the end of May).
So whilst I'm disappointed that the set was so short (after all the band
have 7 studio albums and various other recordings to draw on for material)
while Less Than Jake were on stage its safe to say that an absolutely
storming time was had by all and the Academy was awash with smiling faces,
testament to the entertainment we'd all enjoyed. |
