Chris March
08/29/03, 07:22 PM
Long Shot Hero/The Prizefight
@ The Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA
August 28th, 2003
Ska music has never really been my thing. The whole "toot toot, honk honk" thing just couldn't grab my ears like the energy of thrashing guitars and screaming voices. In all fairness though, I think I was just way too stubborn to lend a decent chance to the horns until this past summer. I found myself actually digging The Rx Bandits and Less Than Jake which a few years ago I would have carelessly brushed off as easily as a Mary J. Blige CD. So when, Chris, the singer of Long Shot Hero, asked me to come and see his band play with The Prize Fight, I actually felt pretty anxious to do so.
I brought my friend Matt, who has always been Mr. Metal, along with and when I told him it was "Ska Night" at the Croc Rock, his face became like a rusted sheet of metal. (Like my play on words?) We drove and I just ignored his whiny ass, praying to God he would somehow have a good time at the show. I had 2 songs by Long Shot Hero (Go and All We Wanna Be) that I had burned onto a CD from their demo and popped them into my bumpin' system for Matt to sample. The poor boy cringed in my passenger seat after 4 seconds of Go. I told him to pay attention to the potential and not the quality of the recording, and more importantly, judge their talent based on their style, don't compare it to Burnt By The Sun or Atreyu. Oddly enough, my words made sense to him somewhat, and he actually seemed a little anxious for the night ahead of us.
Anyway, I think that is plenty of background material, excuse me while I work my way into the actual review of Long Shot Hero playing at The Crocodile Rock on August 28th, 2003.
Let me begin with the actual band. Five guys and two girls round out their camp. Brian and Jesse hold down the rhythm section on drums and bass respectively. The other Brian, Joel, and Kate (no one calls her Kate, so call her Shady) honk away in the horn section with a trombone and 2 trumpets making for some loud but solid sounding tooting. The humble looking Kaity supplies some accurate guitar work into the mix while Chris sets his voice on the top of the musical pyramid known only as Long Shot Hero.
They launched into their set with Go and they played it extremely tight. All the music and all the vocals sounded exactly in the same place you would find them in the recorded version of the song. So they did really well with musical execution, and they stuck to that norm all night long. But musically and performance-wise I wasn't entirely impressed heading into the second song. Ten seconds into the second song, however, I was a genuinely changed man. I can't explain it, I just like took a step back, rubbed my eyes, twitched my ears and was like "whoa, this song is getting my head bopping and my feet tapping." I glanced at Matt, and Mr. Metal himself was feeling it. He was like "Dude, I had no idea they'd be this good." My only available reaction was a smile. Something had wormed it's way into our heads and just infected our ears. I'm not sure if it was the loud whale of their horns cutting through Kaity's steady, dare I say "punkish", guitar chords or just the way all of it had a beat that just wants to make you jump up and down to. Matt and I stood against the stage bobbing our heads as they plowed through more songs that tangoed with our changed ears.
I was at first thinking they don't jump around enough, but before I knew it they were all jumping in unison, and Chris was rolling around on the floor while singing. So as for their visual performance, they don't jump around and swing their instruments all around that much, but they clearly have a blast on stage and share lots of laughs with one another. Everyone in the band minus the bass player sing back vocals which gives most of their songs a very anthemy feel. All the songs I heard far surpassed the material on their demo. Essentially that demo of theirs does little, if any, justice. So I suggest you forget what you heard on their demo (that is if you heard it anyway) and just wait a month for the release of their EP which I can assure you is recorded with much better quality and the songs themselves are just much better, because they all seem pretty excited about it's release.
As for the ladies out there, we may have another regular Brandon Boyd case here (Incubus front man). By the end of the set, Chris was stripped down to his pierced nipples and a pair of jeans. Yeah, his shoes had come off too. And giving me a shout-out twice in a single show means one of three things...1.)he thinks I'm extremely hot. 2.)he was trying to score brownie points with AP or 3.)he's a really cool guy. In any case, I found my night with Long Shot Hero to be a great experience. Matt thanked me for taking him along and he said he was immensely surprised with how good of a time he had. Matt even bought a shirt of each band that had merch set up. (Prize Fight, The Grand Finals, and Long Shot Hero) How bout that?
The brunt of this review is clearly about Long Shot Hero, cause they are the fine folks who did invite me to their show. But I will throw in a little something something on the Prize Fight too. With no intended disrespect to Long Shot Hero and hopefully none taken, Prize Fight stole the show for me. I'm very partial to rock, what can I say? The horns on Prize Fights set were actually not that prominent, but the guitars and the energy were more obvious than a large hairy mole on your girlfriend's forehead. Here is how I would describe it. Have you ever imagined what Taking Back Sunday would be like with a horn section? Connect the dots and you have The Prize Fight. I mean, I never got that impression at all from their EP, but their live show, man...nuts. Now that I think about it though, their music is actually kinda TBSish with the oddity of horns thrown into the recipe. And The singer, Johnny, just had this aura about him that constantly reminded me of Adam Lazzara with blonde hair. His hair, the way he sang, the way he moved like a shock of energy on stage, it was all there. If you have the opportunity to catch these guys live, even if you don't like them, check em out, cause their live show distinctly changed the way I look at them.
I think my favorite part of the night was when one of the openers, Smalltown Superhero, (another good ska type band worth checking out, they incorporate a good deal of rock into the horns to, I thought it sounded pretty sweet) cut into a Disturbed song and did that "OOO AH AH AH AH" monkey noise. They pulled it off well too. The singer did like 39 backflips after their set too. These bros had some good stage energy.
So anyway, I found this night to be a surprise. I had a blast and only expected a mediocre night. I never realized how fun ska-influenced music can be and Long Shot Hero and The Prize Fight showed me it surely can be. You can bet I will begin to listen to even some more ska type stuff, even though it will be sparingly compared to the rock stuff. And what I took from this show is that with bands this young playing some really tight ska influenced type music, ska is not only far from dead, it just may never fucking die. So instead of fighting it, I submitted defeat to the ska machine and realized that anyone, even a dork into metal, can find solace in the whole "toot toot honk honk" thing.
I just want to thank Long Shot Hero for the night, it was a blast.
@ The Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA
August 28th, 2003
Ska music has never really been my thing. The whole "toot toot, honk honk" thing just couldn't grab my ears like the energy of thrashing guitars and screaming voices. In all fairness though, I think I was just way too stubborn to lend a decent chance to the horns until this past summer. I found myself actually digging The Rx Bandits and Less Than Jake which a few years ago I would have carelessly brushed off as easily as a Mary J. Blige CD. So when, Chris, the singer of Long Shot Hero, asked me to come and see his band play with The Prize Fight, I actually felt pretty anxious to do so.
I brought my friend Matt, who has always been Mr. Metal, along with and when I told him it was "Ska Night" at the Croc Rock, his face became like a rusted sheet of metal. (Like my play on words?) We drove and I just ignored his whiny ass, praying to God he would somehow have a good time at the show. I had 2 songs by Long Shot Hero (Go and All We Wanna Be) that I had burned onto a CD from their demo and popped them into my bumpin' system for Matt to sample. The poor boy cringed in my passenger seat after 4 seconds of Go. I told him to pay attention to the potential and not the quality of the recording, and more importantly, judge their talent based on their style, don't compare it to Burnt By The Sun or Atreyu. Oddly enough, my words made sense to him somewhat, and he actually seemed a little anxious for the night ahead of us.
Anyway, I think that is plenty of background material, excuse me while I work my way into the actual review of Long Shot Hero playing at The Crocodile Rock on August 28th, 2003.
Let me begin with the actual band. Five guys and two girls round out their camp. Brian and Jesse hold down the rhythm section on drums and bass respectively. The other Brian, Joel, and Kate (no one calls her Kate, so call her Shady) honk away in the horn section with a trombone and 2 trumpets making for some loud but solid sounding tooting. The humble looking Kaity supplies some accurate guitar work into the mix while Chris sets his voice on the top of the musical pyramid known only as Long Shot Hero.
They launched into their set with Go and they played it extremely tight. All the music and all the vocals sounded exactly in the same place you would find them in the recorded version of the song. So they did really well with musical execution, and they stuck to that norm all night long. But musically and performance-wise I wasn't entirely impressed heading into the second song. Ten seconds into the second song, however, I was a genuinely changed man. I can't explain it, I just like took a step back, rubbed my eyes, twitched my ears and was like "whoa, this song is getting my head bopping and my feet tapping." I glanced at Matt, and Mr. Metal himself was feeling it. He was like "Dude, I had no idea they'd be this good." My only available reaction was a smile. Something had wormed it's way into our heads and just infected our ears. I'm not sure if it was the loud whale of their horns cutting through Kaity's steady, dare I say "punkish", guitar chords or just the way all of it had a beat that just wants to make you jump up and down to. Matt and I stood against the stage bobbing our heads as they plowed through more songs that tangoed with our changed ears.
I was at first thinking they don't jump around enough, but before I knew it they were all jumping in unison, and Chris was rolling around on the floor while singing. So as for their visual performance, they don't jump around and swing their instruments all around that much, but they clearly have a blast on stage and share lots of laughs with one another. Everyone in the band minus the bass player sing back vocals which gives most of their songs a very anthemy feel. All the songs I heard far surpassed the material on their demo. Essentially that demo of theirs does little, if any, justice. So I suggest you forget what you heard on their demo (that is if you heard it anyway) and just wait a month for the release of their EP which I can assure you is recorded with much better quality and the songs themselves are just much better, because they all seem pretty excited about it's release.
As for the ladies out there, we may have another regular Brandon Boyd case here (Incubus front man). By the end of the set, Chris was stripped down to his pierced nipples and a pair of jeans. Yeah, his shoes had come off too. And giving me a shout-out twice in a single show means one of three things...1.)he thinks I'm extremely hot. 2.)he was trying to score brownie points with AP or 3.)he's a really cool guy. In any case, I found my night with Long Shot Hero to be a great experience. Matt thanked me for taking him along and he said he was immensely surprised with how good of a time he had. Matt even bought a shirt of each band that had merch set up. (Prize Fight, The Grand Finals, and Long Shot Hero) How bout that?
The brunt of this review is clearly about Long Shot Hero, cause they are the fine folks who did invite me to their show. But I will throw in a little something something on the Prize Fight too. With no intended disrespect to Long Shot Hero and hopefully none taken, Prize Fight stole the show for me. I'm very partial to rock, what can I say? The horns on Prize Fights set were actually not that prominent, but the guitars and the energy were more obvious than a large hairy mole on your girlfriend's forehead. Here is how I would describe it. Have you ever imagined what Taking Back Sunday would be like with a horn section? Connect the dots and you have The Prize Fight. I mean, I never got that impression at all from their EP, but their live show, man...nuts. Now that I think about it though, their music is actually kinda TBSish with the oddity of horns thrown into the recipe. And The singer, Johnny, just had this aura about him that constantly reminded me of Adam Lazzara with blonde hair. His hair, the way he sang, the way he moved like a shock of energy on stage, it was all there. If you have the opportunity to catch these guys live, even if you don't like them, check em out, cause their live show distinctly changed the way I look at them.
I think my favorite part of the night was when one of the openers, Smalltown Superhero, (another good ska type band worth checking out, they incorporate a good deal of rock into the horns to, I thought it sounded pretty sweet) cut into a Disturbed song and did that "OOO AH AH AH AH" monkey noise. They pulled it off well too. The singer did like 39 backflips after their set too. These bros had some good stage energy.
So anyway, I found this night to be a surprise. I had a blast and only expected a mediocre night. I never realized how fun ska-influenced music can be and Long Shot Hero and The Prize Fight showed me it surely can be. You can bet I will begin to listen to even some more ska type stuff, even though it will be sparingly compared to the rock stuff. And what I took from this show is that with bands this young playing some really tight ska influenced type music, ska is not only far from dead, it just may never fucking die. So instead of fighting it, I submitted defeat to the ska machine and realized that anyone, even a dork into metal, can find solace in the whole "toot toot honk honk" thing.
I just want to thank Long Shot Hero for the night, it was a blast.