Final Concert of 2024: Kill Lincoln's No Normal Release Show

As I told someone the day after attending the concert, there’s a reason that humans eventually came upon the format for a church service that we currently have. There is something powerful about a room full of people all singing the same song, in one room, with one purpose. You can get a similar feeling at an arena (whether for sports or a concert), but there’s extra special connection when you’re shoulder to shoulder and jumping around together. (Not to mention the inherent trust in your fellow concert-goers when crowd surfing) This particular November has been a little hard for me. I can’t quite pinpoint the source of the general malaise, but I spent a good chunk of the month in a real funk. I was just starting to recover when I went to the concert and it just super-charged me. I think it really helps that ska, in general, is a positive force in the world. Many ska bands tend to support important causes, including participating in collaborative albums/concerts like Ska Against Racism. As I mentioned in my review of Kill Lincoln’s No Normal, the band grew on me and I enjoyed last year’s concert for their This is New Tone documentary so I definitely wanted to attend their release show.

The show was set to start at 7:00, but Bad Operation took the stage at 7:30. I was happy for the delay because the garage closest to the 9:30 Club could only be paid for with an app that I didn’t have on my phone, so I was a little late to the show. I remembered Bad Operation from last year’s concert as well as the documenentary. They’re from New Orleans and many of their songs have more of a reggae sound. They also play sound clips between each song to give the band a chance to recover.

The last time I went to a Bad Time Records show, I was recovering from a foot injury so I couldn’t do much skanking. That wasn’t the case this time, so as soon as everyone else started skanking (including the circle) I jumped right in.

After that it was time for the Max Levine Ensemble. I had no idea who they were, so I was actually expecting them to have been the opening band.

Later on, when Kill Lincoln was on stage, they said they had wanted to play on stage with The Max Levine Ensemble for years. Apparently they’re a big deal in certain circles. It goes back to what I’ve blogged about before - the world is all about niches now. It’s not like back when everyone was listening to the same artists on the radio. I don’t know if others would agree, but to me they sounded kind of like the band from Scott Pilgrim: Sex Bomb-omb.

After them, Catbite took the stage. I was on firmer ground here because their set mostly consisted of songs from Nice One, which I own. Of the songs not on that album, I’d heard them all during last year’s concert. So I was able able to sing and dance along.

I absolutely love how electric their songs are in person. I would definitely see Catbite any time they’re in town.

Then it was finally time for Kill Lincoln the take the stage.

I’ve been to quite a few concerts where the band was on tour for their newest album. Usually they play a few songs from the new album and the new songs have a preamble that’s something like, “This is a new one. Sing along if you know it”. This concert was the first time I can remember where the band just started from the top of the new album and played all the way through. It was really fun to experience a live version of their brand new album. And, because this was a local band and most people were there to celebrate the new album, almost everyone knew all the words.

That said, it was pretty funny when they got to the end of the album and said something along the lines of, “Now we can play the songs we actually know.” It was definitely unncessary self-deprecation as they didn’t make any major mistakes with their new songs. I sang and danced along to the songs I knew from Can’t Complain. They also played some much older songs I didn’t know. One of them, “Get Fucked Four Eyes”, they said was more than 16 years old - one of the first songs they wrote when they were thinking of starting up a band.

One of the most fun aspects of any Kill Lincoln show is the Ume Protection Crew. Last time Ume got up on a 12 foot ladder and played the trombone while a furious circle skanked around him. This time Ume went up to the second level of the club. He straddled the barrier while playing the trombone. And, once his solo was over, he dove into the arms of his Proection Crew. It was so much fun to watch. In fact….

Here’s a short video with some of my favorite moments at the concert. Unfortunately, since I prefer to enjoy the concert rather than try and film the whole thing, I stopped filming just before Uma jumped into the crowd, but you can hear Mike telling them to get ready as the clip ends.

When the concert was over, Mike of Kill Lincoln said that they’d see us again in a few months, so I guess they’re planning another tour. I think that may just end up being my first concert of 2025.

the header image is a photo of the car that rolled in next to me in the parking garage as I was trying to figure out the app

• Concert
• Kill-Lincoln
• Catbite
• Bad-Operation
• Max-Levine-Ensemble