The Pepper and Less Than Jake co-headliner tour sponsored by St. Pauli stopped at Playstation Theater in New York City on February 17. Before the show, I was given the opportunity to follow Roger Lima, Chris DeMakes, and J.R. of Less Than Jake around the city as they did acoustic performances and Q&A at major magazine publication offices. The first stop was Paste Magazine where Less Than Jake performed three songs and did an interview with Paste staff member. Photos and performance are below.
The next stop of the day was Rolling Stone magazine, which featured a different set of songs and a Q&A with fans through Facebook Live. Photos and performance below.
The last stop was Billboard Magazine and the performance featured a request of “Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sell Outs” along with all of Billboard Magazine’s employees in attendance. Photos and performance below.
After the Billboard session, we made our way to the venue for sound check. It is always neat to watch a band during sound check, and it is also weird to see a room completely empty while a band performs. Less Than Jake went through a few numbers before going over the night’s setlist. For a band that’s been doing this for 25 years, Less Than Jake surely know how they want to sound for the night. With camera in hand, I grabbed a few shots of Less Than Jake during sound check.
When the doors opened, the first band to take the stage was The Attack. Hailing from Florida, The Attack ripped through their set of fist pumping punk anthems. With many bands taking on a punk rock sound, The Attack are definitely carrying the torch properly.
Following The Attack was a new band called The Bunny Gang. Featuring Flogging Molly’s Nathen Maxwell on vocals, The Bunny Gang played their brand of reggae music which had the crowd moving nonstop. For a new band, The Bunny Gang didn’t have any problem gaining new fans.
Less Than Jake played second to last and with a great mix of songs spanning their career. However, they didn’t include any songs off GNV FLA, but included “P.S. Shock The World” from In With The Out Crowd. Their show was everything to expect from a Less Than Jake show. From confetti to balloons to a whole family dancing on stage, Less Than Jake consistantly put on a worthwhile show that everyone needs to experience once in their life.
Pepper closed the night playing their dub/reggae sound featuring the Less Than Jake horn section a song. With a great light show, along with the loudest crowd reaction of the night, Pepper helped the audience forget that it was freezing cold outside and helped them imagine that summer has come early. This St. Pauli presents tour included a great, diverse sound of bands that you can only hope will happen again in the future.
