Another packed out tent
There was a time when it seemed Less Than Jake would be playing Leeds and Reading every year, whether they had new material out or not. This Lock Up Stage performance topped any other I’ve seen, simply because the place was packed and the atmosphere was as good as any across the rest of the weekend.
When you’ve a career as long as Less Than Jake’s (the band formed in 1992) and a fan base as loyal as their’s, every song in a festival set like this will seem like a massive crowd pleaser. Early on it was ‘All My Friends Are Metalheads’ and ‘The Last Time’ which gave plenty of opportunity for the masses to exercise their vocal chords. Later on ‘The Science of Selling Yourself Short’ stood out as one of the tracks of the weekend.
Not that they had their work cut out but Less Than Jake are masters at working a crowd, at one point they encourage naked relay running in the circle pit for them to film for an up-coming video.
Unsurprisingly the crowd thinned a bit towards the end as many moved over to the Main Stage for Rage Against the Machine, but by then they’d have seen enough to remind them that Less Than Jake are a must for a festival punk rock stage. They return to the UK in November for a two week tour and it won’t be long before they’re back at Leeds and Reading, maybe next time headlining the Lock Up Stage?