If you're over 30, nothing will make you feel older than a skacore band. They're so loud, geez, and why do they think they have to play everything at 300 bpm? Everyone knows it takes more skill to play a rocksteady beat at medium tempo than at top speed. Well, what do you expect from kids these days...they all think everything's gotta be louder, faster, more frantic. In our day, we had skacore bands that played real music -- you know, bands like
the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and
the Dance Hall Crashers, bands that knew something about melody. Well, all geriatric grumpiness aside, Catch 22 is one of the fastest and loudest of the fast-loud school of modern ska, and when you take them out of the studio and set them loose on-stage, they only get louder and faster, which means that this generous CD-plus-DVD package is going to appeal mainly to the Ritalin generation. There's not much point in discussing individual songs, since there really aren't any -- just pauses between the 20 almost identical horn-driven rave-ups. The formula works pretty well, though; if you listen carefully you'll discover surprisingly complex horn charts and the occasional genuinely impressive vocal harmony. Oldsters won't be able to take more than four or five tunes at a stretch, but the little Rude Girls probably understand. ~ Rick Anderson