I'm fairly new to Save Ferris fandom. I obviously knew of them in the 90's, but they always seemed too pop for my taste back then. Over the past few years, I rediscovered them, and it turned out I was wrong. They're fantastic. Even though I saw them again for the first time in twenty-six years last summer, once they announced a show at Taffeta Music Hall in Lowell, I instantly wanted to go see them again.
This may have been my third time seeing Save Ferris, but I kind of feel like it was my first. Deftones fans pretty much made it impossible to enjoy them at the Warped Tour in 1998 (and considering I'm pretty sure Monique Powell was the only woman performing that day it feels especially egregious), and last year's show outside in Portsmouth, NH felt a little restrained in hindsight. Saturday night in Lowell was a much heavier and more punk performance with Powell being able to be herself more, including some fairly unhinged (in the best possible way) stage banter.
It's easy to forget just how many great songs Save Ferris have, but it was banger after banger after banger. I consider myself to be a fairly casual fan, and I was surprised by how many songs I knew. 1997's It Means Everything could be a greatest hits album at this point with classics like "Superspy," "Goodbye," and "The World is New." They have so many great songs the band called a last minute audible to replace "Spam" with "I Know," their contribution to the 10 Things I Hate About You soundtrack. They closed with their cover of "Come on Eileen" to close out the show, but also included an Operation Ivy cover and Dead Kennedy's "Too Drunk to Fuck." (Powell joked that Jello Biafra would be rolling in his grave (even though he's still alive) to hear a ska band covering Dead Kennedys, but he'd probably prefer that to hearing the current Dead Kennedys covering it.)
Powell is also one of the classic frontpeople in music today. Right during the second song she let the crowd know what she expects from a crowd participation perspective. She told the crowd to put their hands up and clap along, and then proceeded to call out people who weren't participating until they did. Considering how much charisma she has, and the level of performer she is, I'm shocked everyone wasn't immediately following everything she said.
Brunt of It are a band I wasn't familiar with before Saturday night, but they quickly won me over. They're a "Rhodachusetts" band that have also been around for thirty years and just released a new album (their first since 2012) earlier this year. They play a harder version of ska-punk than Save Ferris, more along the lines of skacore. They were a lot of fun, with killer songs like "Right Light" and "T.H.C." winning the crowd over quickly.
Double Star opened the show Saturday night. The Boston based ska band plays a more pop and dance oriented version of ska, and are always a fun time. Songs like "New Orleans" got the crowd readily warmed up and started the dancing early. When people are there to see a legacy band that harkens back to their high school and college years, being the opening band can be a rough spot since most people just want to hear the songs they know. Double Star got even those people interested and won over virtually everyone there.
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