Photos and Review by Jeff Palmucci
Reel Big Fish Photos HERE
Suburban Legends Photos HERE
Reel Big Fish returned to Boston last Wednesday to play the Royale in Boston. Last time these guys came around, I shot them at the House of Blues with Less Than Jake. The show was so friggin’ awesome that I made sure to catch them again this time too.
The Royale is a great place to see a show, smaller than the House of Blues and more intimate. At the same time, they have an awesome photo pit, so I was able to get some great shots. The crowd was very gracious, not minding at all that the photogs got to stand in front and shoot the band.
Openers Suburban Legends were another rowdy fun ska band. Hadn’t seen them before, but they put on a great show. The crowd was pretty animated with lots of crowd surfing, including this guy, who I saw come over the top more than once.
Lead Vince Walker worked the crowd pretty well with a running gag about your “power finger”. Basically, it was an excuse for everyone to flip each other off. “SHOW ME YOUR POWER FINGER” and the band and the crowd start giving each other the bird. The gag even continued through the Reel Big Fish set.
One fun thing: At one point, Vince took a dive into the crowd, jumping from the stage and clearing the 4 foot gap or so to the front row. Pretty ballsy (stupid?). I figure that there was a good chance the crowd couldn’t catch him, but they managed.
He closed the set by hawking the Band’s CD. “If you hate Nickelback, you will LOVE this.”
Reel Big Fish were up next and came out to a Less Than Jake backdrop, laughing about the supposed goof up with recycled sets. Like all Reel Big Fish shows, the band joked around a lot. These guys look they have a lot of fun onstage. They certainly don’t mind getting their drink on during the set. By that point, I had quite a few myself too. So, looking at my notes from the show, I can’t for the life of me remember what I meant when I wrote down “body odor war”. It sounds good. Someone remind me about it in the comments.
They had a fun segment where they announced that they were going to play a song from the 90s, of course the crowd went wild. They went on to play a medley of non-Reel Big Fish 90s hits, stopping after a few bars and saying “wait, that’s not our song.” They finally wound up playing “Sell Out” to much cheering from the crowd.
During the encore, they played “Everyone Else is an Asshole”, commenting at the end “not you guys though, you are alright.” It was a great way to end the night. Everyone at the show was alright. Can’t vouch for those of you that didn’t show up.
Reel Big Fish and Suburban Legends at the Royale – Boston, MA
