Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto at The City National Grove of Anaheim

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Written by Brittany Woolsey

Thursday, 14 July 2011 00:10

The City National Grove of Anaheim was trembling on Tuesday night as hundreds of ska fans danced and skanked to music by co-headliners Streetlight Manifesto and Reel Big Fish.

As Streetlight Manifesto approached the stage, the energy from the crowd was intense. As the seven-piece ska/punk band from New Jersey performed hits like “Watch It Crash,” fans constantly crowd surfed and pushed their way toward the front. Tomas Kalnoky (vocals) tossed water to his thirsty fans, who then sprayed it amongst themselves.

With long instrumental solos in many of the songs, fans hummed along to the various sounds that the horns produced. Trombone and saxophone solos were heavy in “Somewhere In the Between.”

Streetlight Manifesto performed many songs off their five albums, including “A Moment of Silence,” complete with appropriate pauses during the song.

“I actually don't have anything to say,” Kalnoky joked to the crowd during one of the pauses.

Many of Streetlight Manifesto’s song seem to have an uplifting tone to them, usually with themes of anti-suicide.

The group also performed a rendition of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights,” at a much faster pace. Sing-alongs were heavy during this performance.

Streetlight Manifesto announced that they were almost done recording their latest album, and that it would be out soon.

With the quirkiness that Reel Big Fish brought to the stage, it became clear that their songs would be more humorous than Streetlight Manifesto’s.

Kicking off with “Trendy,” the Huntington Beach ska outfit proved to be jokesters.

“Thank you, we’ve been the Reel Big Fish! Goodnight!” singer Aaron Barrett joked to the crowd just after the first song.

Dance-inspiring hits like “Everything Sucks” and “Good Thing” were performed. To pack as many hits as they could into their set, Reel Big Fish combined songs like “Kids Don’t Like It” and “In the Pit”; and “Good Thing” and “Your Guts.”

Despite the high amount of energy that the crowd showed for Streetlight Manifesto, it seemed to be even greater for Reel Big Fish. As all of the security guards carried crowd surfers in the middle of the crowd, others found ease in jumping onto the stage with the band then back in the crowd.

“This is for all the ladies,” Barrett said while introducing “She Has a Girlfriend Now.” The song originally features vocals from Save Ferris vocalist Monique Powell, but instead Matt Appleton (saxophone) performed the female counterpart — almost sounding too creepily like a woman — with Barrett.

Despite an already-long set, Reel Big Fish took a requested song from the crowd and began playing a cover of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.”

“That’s my favorite Blink-182 song!” Barrett joked.

As Barrett commented on Derek Gibbs’ (bass guitar) white shirt, the audience chanted for him to “take it off!”

“If I took it off, you wouldn’t even notice,” Gibbs replied.

During “Suburban Rhythm,” Barrett asked the crowd to perform several types of dances, including circle pits — seven total — square dancing and feet banging.

Near the end of their set, Reel Big Fish joked that they had to leave and came back several times. “They said we have time for one more song… if we make it quick!” Barrett teased.

Reel Big Fish ended their set with three popular songs including “Sell Out,” “Beer” and a cover of A-ha’s “Take On Me.”

Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto will perform at Club Nokia on Thursday, July 21.