Zebrahead @ Birmingham Academy 2, 23rd March 2010
No doubt about it, Zebrahead are here to have a good time tonight as they bring a slice of Californian sunshine and their own blend of pop-hip-hop-rap-punk-rock to a very wet and miserable Birmingham.
First up on the bill are Orange hailing from L.A. playing some pretty sub-standard pop-punk, with such an over saturated genre it’s hard to stand out from the crowd and these guys struggle to come up with goods. Its their first time in the UK so it’s going to be hard to be playing to crowds who have little clue as to who you are but they do put the effort in and succeed in getting younger members of the crowd joining in. Throwing in a cover of ‘a perfectly improvised song’ The Beatles ‘Help Me’ was probably their most inspired moment.
MC Lars, self-proclaimed originator of ‘post-punk laptop rap’ a man who managed to split the Academy crowd in two with the younger kids loving it and the more reserved at the back thinking ‘what the hell? Two guys rapping over pre-programmed tracks, not exactly my idea of musical talent, but with some witty lyrics that were unluckily lost due to poor sound MC Lars and DJ got the crowd moving. Telling the entire crowd to get ‘Crunk’ during ‘Generic Crunk Rap’ was laughable. However it was when joined on stage by various members of Zebrahead for ‘Hot Topic is not Punk Rock’ that you could see the flashes of brilliance as the songs had that extra dimension which had been lacking before. On record MC Lars comes across as a reasonably intelligent man and when you can make out all the lyrics you can see the attraction but live tonight struggling to make out the words it all seemed a bit empty.
Zebrahead bound onto the stage to rapturous applause and for a band that is slap bang in the middle of their UK tour there were no signs of fatigue. With energy levels at a high they made it quite clear they were here to party suggesting numerous time that all the crowd join them at Subside for the after show party and drinking an entire bottle of Jack during the show.
It seems inevitable that if your in a Punk-Rock band that some time in your career you will do a covers album and Zebrahead are no exception, in fact there latest album ‘Panty Raid’ is a very tongue in cheek covers album. Introduced as ‘this is a song about a girl that is ****ing cheap, just like the girl that wrote this song’ they head straight into a storming rendition of ‘Oops I did it again’.
There are numerous bands that do the whole step back and sit down thing, the best one had to be The Streets at Reading Festival a pretty impressive feat, The Blackout tried and failed at Rock Am Ring, Zebrahead put in a pretty good effort tonight commanding the whole crowd to its knees. It’s only a few round the edges who spoil the illusion but it still looks pretty damn good and gives the crowd a well earned break from the mania. It’s on the count of 3 that they’re back on their feet and demanded to ‘Jump, jump, jump…’ by Ali Tabatabaee, Zebrahead’s rapping frontman.
With some killer guitar work by Greg Bergdorf; seemingly unaffected by the sheer volume of Jack Daniels he’s drunk. It’s a shame that Zebrahead, after 10 plus years are still playing relatively small venues. They have that little bit extra that some of the bigger punk-rock bands lack; with a depth to their music that doesn’t always come across live but when it is allowed to shine like when Greg is ripping up the fret board its these moments of sheer brilliance that make Zebrahead a little bit special. They don’t take themselves seriously though getting the entire crowd to throw up their minges (don’t ask!’) they still have the mindset of teenagers.
‘Just the tip’ and ‘Playmate of the year’ have the crowd moving and the encore of ‘Anthem’ a killer tune which gets the frenzied crowd at their loudest. It’s probably not the tightest set Zebrahead have ever played with Matty Lewis’ vocals straining by the end but it’s still a solid show with a great dynamic between the two vocalists. Sometimes all you want is to have some fun and when you watch the band in front of putting their all into having a good time you can’t help but do the same.
Review – Hannah Sebestjanowicz