Skart, guitar, and Dom, vocals drums Supervillains
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Supervillians
with Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad and Punktuation.
June 17, 2009, The Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Review by Kevin Nelson
Photos by Katie Condon
The fact that at 22 I found myself the oldest person in line outside of The Culture Room had me a little tense. I’ll admit I went from eager excitement to "Damn, I can’t wait for this to be over" real fast. School was out, I reminded myself, and luckily for me they served whiskey at the venue. I was soon loose enough to sway my shoulders with my brand new 16-to-18-year-old comrades.
The first act of the show was the group Punktuation, a young and vibrant ska band who turned the crowd more than once into a circle pit. The band had a full sound that hit my ears with a melodic, yet chaotic induced cry for the wild ones in the crowd to begin skanking to each synchronized horn blow.
Matthew O'Brian, guitar, vocals for
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
The next band to hit the stage was the Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad. They came out and began to mesmerize me with their constantly developing rhythms. Upon listening to their music before and after the show, I realized it’s hard to tell the studio recordings from the live show. This is both a good thing and bad thing. The upside to this is a delivery of crisp riddims that resemble CD quality sound. The downfall to this is they seemed confined to the rhythm of each song, never really letting their instruments free to explore much outside of the dubbed bounce. When a solo would arise, it was refreshing to hear a break from the drawn-out rhythms. But all in all, they provided a calm show that could put any troubled soul at ease.
Andy, guitar, Punktuations
Then, the main show, The Supervillians, reigning from Orlando, strutted on the stage to the backdrop of "Notorious Thugs" by Biggie Smalls. This was the act that jumpstarted the crowd from a dub induced trance into a full blown party. The Supervillians supplied a style not too unlike that of Sublime, yet they never fell victim to emulating any style other than their own. When the group performed their song "Resin," everybody’s bowl, joint or blunt was lit and smoke stacks began to hit the ceiling. Later, Dom, the lead singer and drummer, requested that the crowd break out into a circle pit, and the crowd was more than happy to comply.
The Supervillians moved the crowd with ease. And with the energy of Skart, the bassist, and trumpeter and saxophonist Cardo and Smally, their presence on stage was undeniably massive. The Supervillains packed a punch that will knock out audiences all over the country as they take to the road this summer.
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Skart, vocals and guitar for Supervillains
Left Andy guitar, right, Punktuations
Smally, sax, Supervillains
Nick, vocals, punktuations
Rachel Orke, melodica,
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad