Less Than Jake with Voodoo Glow Skulls and The Pink Spiders
Mercury Ballroom
Louisville, KY
July 7th, 2023
Less Than Jake brought their Welcome To Rockview Tour 2023 to Mercury Ballroom on July 7th to a packed house, performing their 1998 album Hello Rockview in it’s entirety! Spirits were high this evening, with the crowd of fans ready for a fun night! Opening the show was Nashville rock band The Pink Spiders. They had people dancing from the first note and performed a varied setlist that spanned their various albums, singles, and EP’s. Singer Matt Friction chatted with the crowd a bit between songs, asking the crowd “Who’s ready for Voodoo Glow Skulls? Less Than Jake? Us too! We’re happy to be out on this tour!”. They also announced their new record, which was released this day, called Freakazoid, and performed a song from the album! “We are The Pink Spiders! This is the funnest tour we’ve ever been on! Voodoo Glow Skulls are up next-living legends!”. These guys were a great start to the evening, bringing a fun energy and getting the crowd warmed up! Next up was Riverside, CA ska punk band Voodoo Glow Skulls! Having formed in 1988, these guys have been rockin’ for over 3 decades and certainly brought the energy this evening! As the band made their way on stage, singer Efrem Schultz bounded on stage like a wild man, clad in a Lucha Libre mask with short black horns on the side and a colorful Mexican poncho. These guys brought an insane amount of fun energy to the stage and were super engaging with the crowd, who were equally as engaging with the band. Early on Efrem said he’s often asked what he wants from America, to which he replied “I want to make America skank again!”, eliciting cheers from the crowd! About halfway through the set, Efrem took the mask off and continued on, wild-eyed and long hair flowing! Starting their set with “Human Pinata”, “Misunderstood”, and “Delinquent Song” from their 1998 album The Band Geek Mafia, they performed a nice 14-song set list of older and newer songs that pleased older and newer fans alike! With plenty of singing, dancing, and moshing, they had the crowd hyped and ready to keep the party going!
Closing out the evening was Less Than Jake. Starting out their set performing Hello Rockview in it’s entirety, they then performed a few other older songs, much to the crowd’s delight. Full of fun, energy, and a great sense of humor, singer Chris DeMakes chatted with the crowd between each song. Full of funny stories, jokes, and hilarious crowd interactions, such as hilariously congratulating a female fan for having such a hot husband, the crowd laughed and interacted back with the band throughout the set. Fairly early in the set, DeMakes brought a fan onstage, a young man named Carson who was 19. Joking with Carson that he has to dye his hair and shave every day to look 48 instead of 49, while Carson, with his mustache, looked 49 instead of 19. He then talked about how this was the band’s first time at Mercury Ballroom, asking “Who’s seen us play before? We were never really big in Louisville, but it feels like we are right now!”. He then brought another fan onstage, as well as the fan’s girlfriend, with all 3 then sitting in front of the drum kit for the duration of the set.
Several large, white balloons with Less Than Jake printed on them were released into the crowd and kept afloat, occasionally making their way on stage to be bumped by the band members back into the crowd, adding to the fun of the evening. Ahead of playing side 2 of the record, DeMakes thanked everyone for coming out, jokingly giving a shout out to all of the children in attendance “who don’t want to be here but whose parents love us!”. He later, in a moment of good humor, talked about being from Florida but told the crowd “Don’t give us any shit! It used to be you guys that we’d give shit to and now the tide has turned! I want to congratulate you for still listening to this kind of music.” He went onto to say how they had recorded Hello Rockview at, like, 23 years old and were amazed that it’s still garnering this kind of attention all these years later. After performing the last song from the album, they launched into a few other older songs, with the crowd more than ready for a bit more music, and shot toilet paper into the crowd! From start to finish this was an incredible upbeat, fun, and high energy show that kept people dancing until the end!
The Pink Spiders
Voodoo Glow Skulls
Less Than Jake
