The first summer that ska-punk outfit Less Than Jake played on the Vans Warped Tour was 1996. Now, 15 years later, the group is one of the most senior acts on the 2011 edition of the festival, which comes to Merriweather Post Pavilion on Tuesday. “I think it’s a lot more organized,” said Less Than Jake’s drummer and lyricist Vinnie Fiorello. “I think the experience for a viewer is a lot better than it was in the early days. I think the experience for bands is much better.
“Warped Tour for me has always been spotlighting bands that are popular in the underground, as well as some mainstream that came from the underground,” Fiorello continued. “Warped Tour has always been focusing on what’s popular inside youth culture. I think it sticks to that spirit.”
| Onstage |
| Vans Warped Tour |
| » Where: Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia |
| » When: Tuesday, 11 a.m. doors |
| » Info: $36; merriweathermusic.com and vanswarpedtour.com for more info. More than 60 bands announced, including Less Than Jake, Relient K, The Devil Wears Prada, A Day to Remember, Pepper, Middle Class Rut, and Street Dogs. |
In advance of this year’s Warped Tour, Less Than Jake (which includes Chris Demakes, Roger Manganelli, Buddy Schaub and Peter “JR Wasilewski) recently released a new EP titled “Greetings From Less Than Jake.” The vibe on the five tracks recall a classic Less Than Jake sound.
“I think that the EP songs are, I’m not going to say nostalgic, but they feel similar to some of our older material because I think the spirit’s there,” Fiorello said. “We didn’t overthink the songs. We didn’t put any pressure on ourselves. We didn’t have any external pressure at all.
“I think the urgency was there in our music,” Fiorello added. “But the excessive pressure that had been put on the band in prior releases, I think, isn’t there any more. That’s a cool feeling, and I think that’s why the songs came out the way they did.”
Less Thank Jake’s last full-length effort was “GNV FLA,” released in June of 2008. Fiorello sees the band releasing more EPs than LPs in the future.
“People digest music in small doses,” he said. “I’m cool with that. I’m cool with giving out small doses of music as long as they’re great doses of music.”
Less Thank Jake first formed in 1992. With next year marking two decades, Fiorello said the band is considering some shows and reissues. The drummer explained that the members of LTJ are like family, part of the reason for the group’s continued success.
“I can’t really attribute it to anything, except for the fact that we’ve gotten over the hump that most bands never get over the hump to,” Fiorello. “We’ve had our arguments. We’ve jumped over the obstacles, and now it’s slightly more flat ground than it was before. It’s much easier to deal with the flat ground than it is the hills and valleys that we had when we were a younger band.”
