Not only was this our first visit to the Magic Bag in Ferndale, to our surprise, it was a first for The Slackers as well.
First, we have to hand it to the venue and its staff. It is a small, intimate venue, much like The Blind Pig, but it's clean, looks sharp and well-maintained, and the staff do a good job collecting empties throughout the night. No sticky floors, here. Even the bathrooms were nice- clean, fully stocked, all the appliances worked and stall doors all closed. The crowd was polite, too, hardly a cellphone in sight save for a quick picture taken here and there. One thing that really caught our attention was the Magic Bag's approach to sound. Their sound engineer has a tablet that he carries with him as he walks around to make adjustments based on how things sound in the crowd, instead of just from the sound booth. It's great! We could ACTUALLY HEAR Vic's Roland VK-8! Not a lot of venues know what to do with keyboardists, usually leaving them almost entirely inaudible. We're looking at you especially, Masonic Temple and Cathedral. Anyway, it's probably one of the best sounding venues we've visited. No muddiness. Good balance. Whoever did sound that night has a really good ear.
The Operators, formed in November of 2018 (according to their social media accounts), opened the show, coming to us from just across the neighborhood in Indiana. They're really tight and throw a few curveballs. Their bass player likes to dance. They've shed the power pop sounds that dominated the disappointing '90s and early '00s ska scene, and replaced it with a touch of reverb and dub. Midwest ska is heading in a good direction.
We've seen The Slackers many times over the last 24 years, and they consistently deliver. There's no fancy lightshow. They don't have props or banners. No costumes. Instead, they play a game of Mad-Libs improv that changes from tour to tour, incorporating current events and inside jokes with clever segues into their songs. It's seamless, funny, and the music is cheerful without being saccharine. There's a spring in their step, and an old world swagger. They improvise solos and keep you guessing with how they deliver the melodies from time to time. Yet they never miss.
Trombonist Glen Pine's early solo peaked with a series of sharp elephant blasts spaced just right. He moved back into the song with such smoothness that the audience didn't seem to notice he was done, leaving Vic and Dave exchanging glances and shrugging with him, not sure why there wasn't more applause for such a cool turn of phrase as what he'd given. His later solos got better responses, but sometimes a crowd is just slow to catch up before the moment passes. Make no mistake, Glen hit the spot.
We don't know where bassist Marcus Geard was, but the Aggrolites' Jeff Roffredo covered for him, sans, "upright bass." Maybe one day, The Aggrolites and The Slackers will come here together. Can the usual local venues hold the crowd they'd draw together, though?
Possibly the primary reason these guys can play around so much during the show is their drummer, Ara Babajian, who puts the steady in rocksteady. He and Agent Jay (guitarist Jayson Nugent) hold it down, forming a rhythm section with a sneaky way of tossing fills and frills where they best serve the songs, never sacrificing flow for technical showmanship- not that they don't have the chops- they just know where to place them, and know the art of restraint. Ara is one of the most underappreciated drummers still alive and playing, but not among Slackers fans. We know he's the secret sauce. But what's his secret sauce? It could be leftöver crack, but we may never know.
Mid-set, they played The Fool with Dave Hillyard singing, a fan favorite that drew a lot of interest after being featured on the Hellcat Records Give 'Em the Boot Vol. II compilation in 1999, while Dave was still playing in Dave Hillyard and the Rocksteady 7. The Slackers paid tribute to the late Greg Lee, the original singer on the track who was better known for his work with the band, Hepcat. Lee died recently, on 19 March of this year at the too-young age of 53. It was evident that Dave was still having a hard time with losing his friend. Even so, he put his best foot forward, messy suit and all, a fitting way to honor any musician's memory.
Glen took the time to wish a Happy Anniversary to his (and the band's) longtime friends Dave King and Bridget Regan, two lucky musicians from Flogging Molly, who were there celebrating. Vic cracked jokes about eclipse conspiracies, and that scruffy, couch surfing, onion-breathed vagabond might have put one over on us had Disco Dave and Glen not come to the rescue and carefully reminded everyone that Victor Ruggiero is not a reliable news source.
Chief among the benefits of seeing The Slackers live is their ability to turn around anybody's bad mood. Like every time we've seen them, by the end of the night, even the most self-conscious, reserved, sober people are swaying and singing along. This isn't due to begging or barking from the band, but a spontaneous response to the easygoing, friendly atmosphere they bring with them. It feels like a big group of friends hanging out together in their practice space. We're still smiling.
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