Less than Jake’s Welcome To Rockview Tour stopped in at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia, PA, on Friday, July 14. The tour commemorates the 25th anniversary of their classic album Hello Rockview performed in front of a sold-out audience.
Spring Heeled Jack opened the show with an upbeat eight-song set. The horned sextet featured guitarists Ron Ragona and Mike Pellegrino trading off vocals throughout their performance with Mike seemingly featured as the frontman of the band.
Personally, I was very excited about Voodoo Glow Skulls, the main supporting act of the night. This would be my first time seeing them perform with vocalist Efrem Martinez-Schulz fronting the band. He did not disappoint! He appeared draped in a vibrant Mesoamerican-style huipil top and a horned Mexican wrestling mask as he hopped across the stage bringing every bit of energy from the band’s decades of recording to a live audience.
The set included classic tracks like “Shoot The Moon,” “El Coo Cooi,” and their cover of “Charlie Brown.” There was no mistaking that he is a worthy successor to lead the band. The band’s green-faced mascot would emerge throughout the set, initially brandishing a red and white flag with the motto “Who do voodoo we do!” emblazoned around an illustration of the mascot’s face.
The tour promised a live playthrough of Less Than Jake’s Hello Rockview tracklist, and that’s exactly what was delivered. The stage was fashioned like a diorama of Rockview imagery, from a comic-styled illustrative backdrop of an indoor household scene full of colors and a Hello Rockview vinyl leaning against a tabletop record player to three-dimensional cutouts representative of mid-century suburbia.
The regular set started with “Last One Out Of Liberty City” and finished with “Al’s War” bringing the album to life track by track. Stage antics included a skull-faced hype man waving a large yellow Less Than Jake flag, toilet paper guns, and, of course, plenty of skanking! After feigning the conclusion of the show, the band reemerged for six additional songs with Spring Heeled Jack’s Chris Rhodes accompanying Buddy Schaub for a dual trombone attack alongside JR Wasileski’s saxophone, including “The Science Of Selling Yourself Short,” their first single “Automatic,” and Borders And Boundaries’ “Gainesville Rock City.”
Less Than Jake
Voodoo Glow Skulls
Spring Heeled Jack
