Bands: The Pietasters, Catch 22, The Pilfers, Spring Heeled Jack
Genre: SKA!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10-31-99
Venue: The Trocadero (Philly, PA)
Review: Awesome. Well, let's see, how do I begin. The Troc is a pretty small venue (which is a good thing.) I'm guessing only about 400-500 people in there. So, we ended up right up front along the gate. I was with my girlfriend, so we stayed there for most of the concert, rather than going back into the pit and whatnot. Anyway, Catch 22 was first and they fucking rocked. They played a couple of songs from their new EP (which I'm listening to right now, it's pretty good). And a bunch from Keasbey Nights. As a matter of fact, the lead singer came down into the crowd, so we ended up singing Keasbey Nights with them, which was pretty damned cool if you ask me. The Pilfers played next. I'm not so into their music, but they were still cool. The lead singer played half the show IN the crowd. He actually came over the gate and played most of the set from the crowd, which was fucking awesome. They were pretty good. Spring Heeled Jack, no one seems to like much, but I didn't find them too bad. They were just your everyday 3rd wave ska, and I thought they were pretty good. A lot of their songs were pretty catchy. This is when the beer came in. These dudes must've drank about 40 beers while they were up there, every breath they had, they were chugging away. Overall, I liked SPH better than The Pilfers. And, next came The Pietasters, who played an hour long set. They were 10 times better than I expected. They played a bunch of songs from all four cds, which was good. I like the new cd, but not nearly as much as the live one, so I was extremely happy that they played Girl Take It Easy (my favorite song), Tell You Why, Drinkin and Drivin, Biblical Sense, and a few more. They really pumped up the crowd, and the lead singer came down and sang Drinkin and Drivin and Maggie Mae with the crowd. They came back out for an encore, and played Freak Show. Overall, the concert was great, and I'm certainly not going to miss Catch 22 or The Pietasters when they come back again.
