The month of October is routinely associated with one very familiar fancy dress event that is now a social celebration to go out, see friends, get blind drunk and leave people questioning why there was a passed out storm trooper upside down behind the television.
This year however, the start of the month will be the prime opportunity to get prepped and prepared to party long and hard into the night without any hesitations of embarrassing yourself in front of a large crowd (because everyone will be sinking in the same glorious boat).
In association with Fireball Whiskey, the Fuelling The Fire Tour is ready to light the kindling and burn its eight UK appearance venues down to the ground with the largest party-hard line up of the year, starting out at Bristol’s O2 Academy on the 3rd of October.
Taking the helm of this tour is none other than the Floridian party animals Less Than Jake, accompanied by groove masters The Skints and the siesta superiors known as Mariachi El Bronx. They will also be joined by Japanese/American ska band Kemuri and psychedelic hell-raisers The Bennies, who will play four dates each (Kemuri for the first four and The Bennies rounding off the tour with the last four).
The interesting solution to the opening act vacancy was quickly resolved with a competition that encouraged bands to enter for their chance to join the mighty roster. Winners of said competition for their constituency have since been announced and are as follows:
Forming back in the early 90’s, Less Than Jake have released a mighty arsenal of albums since their formation over two decades ago and have contributed so much to the Ska Punk genre, it could justly replace their middle names considering the form of music flows so thickly through their veins.
Quite literally replacing skateboards for desk jobs (but retaining the alcohol intake and wild nature), the bands fan-base may have suffered the test of time but their personalities have been subconsciously grafted by the band to keep the under-age drinking teen inside alive (as well as gathering new and spirited blood over the passing years).
The legendary jokers respect this form of commitment and have had a heart warming tendency over the years to interact with their fans as much as possible through online communication and post show intermingling, while finding new and amusing ways to make each of their performances unique and as equally comical as the last.
This dedicated embrace to good times should however, not be misinterpreted into thinking the long-time musicians do not put a corresponding amount of commitment into their musical methods, making sure each song played to a group of five to five thousand is as close to the studio recording as possible.
Their last studio album was 2013’s See The Light marking their eighth in existence as well as the release of their live LP Live From Astoria, in April 2016 via Rude Records and Saint November Records, recorded fifteen years ago during a three-day run performing in the iconic London venue in April 2001.
“Strike a match and hope it lasts” is one significant lyric that speaks a thousand words considering their match is still burning very brightly. So it is no surprise that when this match makes contact with the Fireball, the superb inferno is guaranteed to leave you with something to hot to handle, so do NOT miss this tour.
Unfortunately Manchester and Bristol tickets are now sold out, get tickets for the rest of the Fuelling The Fire tour here.
Words by Nathan Roach
