It's official - Ska Punk is good for your mental health! The JB Conspiracy & Call Me Malcolm @ The Key Club, Leeds, 21/07/2022
In the run up to my visit to the UK I was frantically scouring the internet to find out what gigs I could go to during the free time I had away from seeing my family & friends. The amount of gigs going on isn't quite yet at pre pandemic levels, but it is significantly nearer to normal compared to last summer. This one popped up on my radar as a potential, and a speculative message to my gig buddy, Simon The Gardener yielded a positive response. It felt like the right thing to do, given the more limited opportunities these days, and always following the simple rule, a gig (even if it ends up being shit) is better than no gig.
Thankfully Simon took on the role of the pre gig research, as apparently the 2007 version of the band is classic THIRD WAVE SKA, which we were hoping to hear, but their 2013 & 2021 albums were their own 'INTO THE UNKNOWN' & 'PANIC AT THE DISCO' hybrid albums, where it seems that the brass sections were occasionally allowed back into the fold, but under strict instructions not to get too carried away. That may or may not be the case, but I am a gig reviewer, not a recorded music reviewer. What did hold my interest though was the experimental angle - there have been tons of third wave ska bands since the 1990s, and as REEL BIG FISH sang in 1996, 'Everything I wanna do, has already been done' in reference to starting a band, in their song 'Join The Club', it's nice when bands try to push the boundaries of a genre and offer something fresh. I am also a huge fan of third wave ska anyway, so whatever we were going to get that night, I was going to be happy.
We missed the support band DAVES (apologies Daves) but we don't get chance to hang out very often, so we needed some time to catch up before the music started. We arrived to see the whole set of CALL ME MALCOLM, whose name alone gives them automatic association with third wave ska. They were really enjoyable, and got people moving, particularly with some novel crowd participation strategies, which I'd never seen before. The first was getting everyone to take a knee (which I guess is a tribute and acknowledgement to the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement), before getting them to start jumping as the song kicked in. The second came after a nice positive message about MENTAL HEALTH, in which they organised a 'WALL OF HUGS', which basically starts as a 'Wall of Death' but when you run into the middle, you just have to hug the person opposite, and then subsequently others. It was a joy to witness, and there was nice positive vibes throughout their set, which musically was good standard third wave ska. How many times more will that phrase get used in this article?
I think we got a mix of songs from all eras of the JB CONSPIRACY. They were brilliant, and got the whole room dancing - myself included, and two lads who had traveled all the way down from Carlisle on the train (respect!) These guys radiated positive vibrations and were giving it 100% energy throughout the set. Top marks to them!
We came away with a good feeling after that gig, and it made me fall in love again with ska music. As a three person gig going group (Honest Tom made a last minute surprise appearance, much to our delight), the last time were altogether at a show was THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES (who have sadly recently split up) during the Summer of 2019, so it seemed fitting that were reunited at the side of the pit, at another ska punk show. It's great to see that the third wave ska fun house is still rolling through towns, and providing joy to peoples lives, and respect to SLAM DUNK music for still promoting this kind of music in Leeds.
