THE SLACKERS + KGB @ Le Studio

By Abby Elizabeth Schachter - The Reaktor - 09/27/2008

My friends and I are fans of The Slackers; they’re a fun group to watch live. This alternative ska punk band rarely disappoints and I was looking forward to the performance. The only problem was that the date of the show- the 27th of September, fell on a friends birthday and she wanted to party. What made matters worse was A) she does not like Ska music and B) practically all of our friends were heading to the concert. I had decided to review the show and everyone had already bought their tickets so we basically forced her to come along and bribed her with lots of free beer. It worked.

We got there a bit late, thanks to a lack of parking spaces and arrived midway through the opening bands’ set. They were really good, I mean REALLY good. It was surprising that an opening band, KGB, had the stage presence of a headliner. The lead singer’s voice had to be one of the best male vocals I’ve heard in a long time, it was super smooth and reminded me of a young Bob Marley. They played a nice mix of jazz, soul, punk and ska. Birthday girl, who had been complaining, stopped, listened, sipped her beer and said “hey, they are pretty good!”

By the time The Slackers made their appearance, the crowd was drunk and cheering madly, screaming out random requests. The Slackers have a pretty diverse fan base; all kinds of people were there…I mean all kinds. Though I still don’t understand why I am always the one stuck near the creepy dancing couple…Either way the show started off great, they played a lot of their older stuff and those guys really know how to play their instruments. The bassist had the greatest New York accent, and when he spoke it sounded like he belonged in the film Goodfellas, but when he sang he was the epitome of old school crooner. The band catered to the audience. Asking us what we would like hear and then told the crowd to hand in slips of paper with their requests. So while everyone started scrambling for a pen and paper, the band went into an awesome (mostly instrumental) Pink Floyd cover and jammed for a good ten minutes straight. It was dancing music, and practically everyone was smiling.

Needless to say, it was a fun enjoyable show; my friends and I had a blast. As, for birthday girl, she is now a fan of The Slackers and she made that decision while completely sober! Basically if you like jazz, ska and upbeat tempos with smooth vocals and mellow notes then check out The Slackers, they come to Montreal at least once a year and I have yet to be disappointed.

Tune into The Reaktor with Abby every Friday from 2PM-4PM