Live Review: The Wiltern
By: Mike Mullenix

When reflecting on 16 years of being the voice and pioneer of the ska/pop-punk genre, what is it that keeps Less Than Jake on the road, and onstage every night? “Mortgage payments, kids, ex-wives, and arthritis,” replies Chris Demakes.  “Most bands will give you a run around, tell you they’re doing it for a whole bunch of reasons. I just completely took a long story and put it in a blender and gave it to you very concise.”

Wrapped in its own flavor of punk-cynicism, this is an adequate bookmark for where the band is after seven studio albums, two live albums, four compilations, two EP’s, and one DVD. It has definitely been a wild ride for the band as they head into the newest chapter of their career, releasing their seventh album, GNV FLA, on the seventh label they’ve been on, Sleep It Off Records.

Jumping to a new label is nothing new to Less Than Jake.  However, Sleep It Off Records is the brand new label started by the band themselves. At the moment, the label’s primary function is for the release of the album GNV FLA as well as the re-release of the rest of the band’s catalogue, including their DVD, A People’s History of Less Than Jake.

“You just have to do everything yourself. You have to hire someone to do press for ya, and be calling magazines. We’ve had to hire people and we have to work a bit harder, but we don’t have to answer to anybody so it all works out in the end. Like prison, it works out in the end,” explains Demakes.  Though they are the only band on this new label, it is speculated that in the future they will be able to function at a level to support new artists.

On Saturday, July 26^th, the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles played host to the Shout Out Loud Tour featuring headlining punk veterans Less Than Jake and Goldfinger. The bands were accompanied this time by Boston ska legends Big D And The Kid’s Table, as well as local heatseekers the Suburban Legends. Less Than Jake made it a point to strip their set down to its most basic core: unlike last year’s performance, which parodied The Price Is Right and boasted custom sets (depending on which album audience members picked). This year, the group took matters back into their own hands to deliver the pure Less Than Jake experience. Keeping mostly to the established hits, the band interweaved a few new tracks, like "Does The Lion City Roar" and "Conviction Notice" to keep the repertoire fresh. “We’ll play the new stuff and you watch, the beer lines will get longer, the bathroom lines will get longer,” comments Chris.

Though it was a power-house performance by all bands, the only true flaw of the evening was found with the band playing this type of venue. The acoustics were not quite right for the loud and brash nature of this music, and as a result the vocals tended to be distorted while the horn section typically overpowered the rest of the band. Aside from that, the venue’s reputation and demand for security kept the audience from complete free access to all of the General Admission areas of the venue. Though it is an understandable concern from the venue’s point of view, it was general inconvenient for a group of kids singing about being young, reckless and having no regard for authority. As Goldfinger’s singer, John Feldmann, so elegantly put it: “I like to be able to smell my crowd. I can’t smell you, so we are never playing here ever again.”