Opening Bands: Slackjaw, A.K.P.
Date: ?
Venue: Toad’s Place, New Haven, CT

NOTE : Brian Smith’s opinions are NOT those of SPOJ, the webmasters’, or anyone else’s. They come from his own personal experiences and feelings and if he says something that offends some people… Well he’s really sorry and he cries endlessly about the cruel opinions he utters sometimes…..With that out of the way…

Off to Toad’s Place once more, but this time a friend managed to copy the 1 discount ticket we had and make fake one’s so we got in far cheaper. Nice, as Toad’s isn’t always so cheap for the working man… (women too…) So the bill tonight was not that bad, Slackjaw is always nice to see as they put on a good set. The CT scene for Punk/Ska is NOT good (in my opinion), there are really only a few bands which I will say I like, and Slackjaw is definitely one of them. Sadly the night was the last for their bassist, hew was a really cool guy too. (He did butcher Rancid’s ‘Roots Radicals’ but that’s ok…)

And they played a medley of their old stuff, some songs I haven’t heard in more than a year or so.. Pretty cool. Next up was A.K.P. Oh my god you can’t describe the pain I felt listening to this band. Put all the awful bands I’ve ever heard together, and they would still make a better noise then this band did. A.K.P. stands for All Kinds of Problems.

(Wouldn’t that read AKOP??) Whatnot, they were horrible. From the poster they had outside of Toad’s, and their website as well… “In the April 2001 issue of Playboy Magazine Matt Pinfied named ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS as one of his favorite, up and coming bands. This led to the band performing at the Playboy Music Awards party at the Hard-Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The crowd of Playmates, and industry heavyweights were blown away. AND WHY NOT? They play stand out songs.” Wow! Matt Pinfield likes em!!!!!! (I CARE!! Really, I do…) Poor Matt, he must have been drugged, drunk, or dying (3 d’s) when he saw them. 3 Lead stupid idiots from NJ as lead singers… 3 lead singers… Confusing. Which one of them was the worst??? I don’t even
know… Notable points of their set… #1. The lyric “Never, never say never, whatever.” is forever stuck in my head as it was repeated endlessly…. over and over again during one song.

#2. The silence at the end of each song with NO applause, at which point one random female voice comes out at the top of her lungs screaming “FUCK!!!!!”
#3. Me, deciding I cannot take anymore, taking the next silent opportunity to yell “LIMP BIZKIT GO HOME!!!”, garnering me more applause from the crowd than A.K.P. got through their ENTIRE set!…..I hate whoever booked them. So yeah, on to Fishbone, who was the band I went to see….

Well A.K.P. got off at around 10.. It took Fishbone almost an hour to get from their bus RIGHT outside, to the stage inside… Angelo Moore was hopping around inside so I dunno what the rest of the band was up to… During this interim the music played over the PA made NO sense whatsoever. Ranging from Japanese/Chinese music with annoying female lead vox, to hoe-down hick music, to Dead Kennedy’s ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’…. Hmmm ok, makes little sense to me. My headache got worse…. So Fishbone finally comes on, and they are a 5 piece… (Thought they were bigger..) Well their other lead, Walter Kibby II, played a mini-trumpet as well.. Not what I expected. Notes about their set.

#1. They played Skankin to the Beat. GREAT SONG.
#2. Toad’s place has a stupid chain link fence set up inside, making a barrier between the drunks, and the non-drunks.
#2a. Angelo Moore leaped out into the crowd to surf over to the barrier, and sing from it.
#2b. Angelo Moore leaped out into the crowd AGAIN to surf to the barrier, climb and hang and sing to BOTH sides of the crowd.
He then proceeded to fall on top of me and others and coat me in sweat. Damn I reeked……
#3. Fishbone had many a slow song that seemed to drag on forever and I did not like…
#4. Peter didn’t like their set that much and we left early. (Early being 12:10… Some of us have to work in the morning…)