THE INTERRUPTERS
THE FESTIVAL REPUBLIC STAGE
READING FESTIVAL
With less than twenty-four hours notice, California’s freshest and bestest Ska Punk band, The Interrupters, announced via social media that they would be playing a pair of (not so) secret sets at both the Reading and Leeds festivals.
After a few DMs with Interrupters guitarist and leading man Kevin Bivona, the guest list was sorted, and I was heading back to a Festival I hadn’t attended for twelve years. My previous Reading experience was a pretty miserable one. On a whim, I bought two-day tickets to see Axl’s Roses. The music press was full of stories about Rose’s abysmal timekeeping, how Reading had a strict curfew, and what would happen. Well, what everyone thought would happen, happened, Axl threw a wobbly and came on an hour late and proceeded, with the help of his hired hands, to murder the band’s name and reputation. I read the next day the plug had been pulled, but in truth, after six songs, I bailed, unable to watch or stomach what was unfolding in front of my disillusioned eyes. No such drama yesterday as The Interrupters restored my Reading Festival faith. The festival is a far cry from when I first attended in 1987 to see bands such as Terraplane, Lee Arron, Status Quo, Zodiac Mindwarp, The Strangles, Georgia Satellites, Alice Cooper and The Mission. In fact, I didn’t see one leather jacket, party seven (ask your Dad) or anyone hurling 2-litre bottles of warm piss at the stage. What I did see was a very young GCSE/A-Level crowd flashing the flesh and jumping about to DJ Biscit and Little Simz (who was terrific) while toking on vap ciggies and photographing themselves while pouting at every opportunity. No one seemed to be dressed for a festival. Girls mainly wore bikinis while the boys conformed to a uniform of being shirtless, buff and having a man bag around their shoulders. I did see vast numbers of retro football shirts and at least twenty thousand bucket hats, though. After mooching about The Guest Bar, where it seemed all the adults hung out, and after gulping a couple of £6.50 pints of Carlsberg, we headed over to the Festival Republic Stage just as Emo rockers As It Is were finishing their impressive set.
After a short wait, THE INTERRUPTERS were welcomed on stage by The Specials ‘Ghost Town’ and launched into the bulletproof opener ‘Take Back The Power’. The band’s forty-minute set was a full-on, balls-out Ska Punk masterclass. Aimee Interrupter pushed her vocal cords to their very limit while the Bivona brothers never missed a beat. A chest-thumping ‘Turntable’, ‘Title Holder’ and a skanking ‘Judge Not’ whizz past as the tent rapidly fills with smiling and bouncing bodies. With a new album, ‘In The Wild’, to promote, the band played a couple of new cuts and both ‘Raised By Wolves’ and ‘In The Mirror’ are already live fan faves. With time running short, a blistering ‘Gave You Everything’ is devoured by the now pogoing throng while ‘She Got Arrested’ remains, knees up, arms out belter before the vibrant ‘Easy On You’ still brings a lump to my middle-aged throat. The final cut and 6 music played ‘She’s Kerosene’ completes another near-perfect Interrupters milestone. The lyrics are heartfelt, the tunes infectious, and the delivery exemplary; ladies and gentlemen, The Interrupters have arrived, and they ain’t leaving without your life battered heart, unrequited love and shared hope for a happier skank-filled future.
THE INTERRUPTERS finish their whistle-stop UK tour with a headline show at Brixton Academy in London on September 3rd. For a complete list of shows, ticket information and merchandise, head over to https://wearetheinterrupters.com/