On Tuesday, Oct. 18, the walls of Mohawk Place rattled to the upbeat guitar strokes and punchy brass notes bellowing from The Steakouts. In a night dedicated to the most loyal lovers of ska music, the young Rochester-Buffalo band opened for ska legends The Slackers, alongside Deal's Gone Bad and B-Side Basterds.
This Saturday, Buffalo's cozy concert joint will host the ska-tastic sounds booming from the energetic six-man band of The Steakouts all over again as it opens for one of its biggest influences: Mustard Plug.
The Steakouts, composed of two UB students and four other ska-loving musicians, is an up-and-coming ska punk group sprouting from a withering genre.
The style of ska originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, following the cultural trends of rocksteady and reggae. The genre is identified through its walking bass line with the rhythm on the upbeat.
The genre took off in the late 1970s in England when the second-wave of ska produced a two-tone sound with more aggressive, punk rock chords. Instruments often found in a ska band include guitar, bass guitar, piano, drums, and brass. While the third-wave of ska gained popularty in the mid-1990s and into the millennium, the genre in recent years has fallen short of what it used to be.
"We were all big fans when it was really popular and [Reel Big Fish's] ‘Sell Out' was on the radio," said Tyler Rzemek, The Steakouts' drummer and a sophomore psychology major. "We talk about it all the time [how] the scene collapsed in on itself because people started hating on each other…the major theme in it is supposed to be this unity and the bands themselves are creating disunity."
The Stakeouts consider themselves to be a part of the third-wave sound of ska bands. Ska punk integrates the two-tone trend of the second-wave with a more potent punk flavor.
"A lot of [what's happening] now is people trying to focus on what Streetlight [Manifesto] is doing and creating that whole unique experience and encompassing almost an orchestral sound to ska music," said Will Nolan, the unofficial-official band manager and a senior in the school of management. "But [The Steakouts] have really taken a step back and said, ‘No, we have this punk sound we want to bring back with it' and it just meshes so well together."
The band formed in December 2009 when Mike Jacobs, lead vocalist and guitarist and a junior history major, talked to his friend and trumpet player, Pat Coniff, about starting up a music project. Jacobs was just beginning to dabble in the culture of ska during his freshman year at UB and thought Coniff would be interested in the collaboration.
"Pat probably started seeing his brother's [ska] band when he was 8 years old and has loved [the genre] ever since," Jacobs said.
It wasn't long until the two harvested other musicians to join the new group. Jacobs invited bassist and longtime friend George Hart, while Coniff brought in a saxophone-playing marching band friend, Dan Feeney, hailing from Mansfield, Pa. Jake Wark joined on tenor saxophone, and Rzemek became the band's drummer in October 2010 on a slightly different note.
"I walked out of Pistachio's in the Student Union and I saw a big flyer with a steak and a microphone and I was like, ‘What the hell is that?'" Rzemek said. "So I went up to it and it said, ‘ska drummer needed' and I took all of the little [tabs] off and I emailed Mike."
At the time, Rzemek, a drummer for 7 years, was trying to kick start a ska project with a friend but the collaboration was a flop.
Today, he and the rest of his bandmates have a list of booked shows and an EP to place below their skanking belts.
The Steakouts have performed in venues throughout Rochester, Buffalo, Genneseo, and Syracuse. This past summer, the band hit up eight cities in nine days on its Biggest Misteak Tour to promote its EP, The Big Misteak.
Rejuvenated and ready to rock, The Steakouts returned to the Queen City to fuel the ska punk scene with talent and support to help the local genre thrive.
"It's pretty cool…there's all sorts of unity between the little local ska bands now because everyone has to keep each other afloat," Rzemek said. "I've had the thought before like, man, wouldn't it be cool if we brought [ska] back? That would be so cool."
Ska is a distinct genre with an identifiable upbeat dance move to match. Skanking is a form of dance with kicking legs and a twisting upper torso that's often performed during a ska show. With the band's new songs emitting a slower, swing-style with horn solos and covers such as Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," The Steakouts know how to get a crowd skanking its hearts out.
"They had the floor just moving [on Oct. 18] at Mohawk Place and that was, I found out, a sold out show," Nolan said. "It was crazy."
Jacobs writes all of the lyrics and guitar parts, while everyone else collaborates on the music. Influences such as Frank Turner have a big impact on his song writing and bands like Less Than Jake, Mustard Plug, and Bouncing Souls have influenced them musically.
While the members of The Steakouts recognize that the ska scene is not as popular as it once was, they are proud to be what they are.
"When things are kind of low, I think we love it," Jacobs said. "We're being different than most bands that we play with and most bands out there. I enjoy being the only ska band on a set."
The Steakouts will grace the stage of Mohawk Place this Saturday, Nov. 12 alongside The Blank Outs, Flatfoot 56, and Mustard Plug to give Buffalo music lovers a giant dose of ska.
Email: arts@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Mhdariby / Wikimedia Commons
