Brand-Spanking-New PHOTOSET & REVIEW:
STACKED LIKE PANCAKES (V.I.Pancake Tour) at Rams Head Live! (Baltimore, MD), November 22nd, 2017
On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, most people are either traveling like mad across the country to see their loved ones, or rushing around to make sure their homes are ready for company on the big day.
This year, I spent my Thanksgiving Eve with a different kind of family: the Baltimore chapter of the #PancakeNation.
After opening for third-wave ska mainstays and Warped Tour buddies, Save Ferris, in six Californian cities, the seven brass-rockers of Stacked Like Pancakes headlined a month-long nationwide “V.I.Pancake Tour.” The final date of that syrup-slathered stretch took place inside the finest rock venue in the band’s home city, Rams Head Live!, and I was determined to catch it.
After seeing them play The Fillmore Silver Spring in January, and on the Warped Tour in July at Merriweather Post Pavilion, I knew I’d be gutted if I missed the chance to see SLP play a full-length set in Charm City!
The evening kicked off with four energetic, genre-bending performances from Joint Operation, PLEVYAK, The Never Ending Fall, and The Hollow Party, priming the crowd perfectly for the main event. As I waited at the Stage Right side of the photo pit for SLP, I took a moment to get a good look at the audience.
While I was happy that I could spot many people of all ages donning SLP t-shirts, I was even happier to see the weird-yet-creative accessories — among others, a sombrero and a plush shark hat — that the feistier fans showcased.
The lights went low, and suddenly, a strange tune filled the speakers over the P.A. It didn’t take long, however, to realize that it was just the meme-tastic mashup of the “Bacon Pancakes” bit from the cartoon, “Adventure Time,” and the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys modern classic, “Empire State of Mind.”
At the time, if I hadn’t been so focused (read: palm-sweatingly anxious) about not messing up my first time in a headliner’s photo pit, I would have obnoxiously groaned. But there was no time to reward the band mostly comprised of fellow Towson University alumni with a sarcastic reaction. Bright white light flooded the stage, revealing that the pancake men had arrived!
The band jumped right into the catchy pop-punk tune “Suburban Superhero,” setting the tone for the high-energy set that was to follow. Lead singer Kellen McKay and lead guitarist Mike Busch wasted no time in getting up-close-and-personal with the fans. Both of them bounced off the stage and onto the back of the rail at different moments during the first three songs (which included the mid-tempo groove of “Sway” and the ska-leaning bop of “Pimp for a Day”). Kellen even borrowed the aforementioned crowd sombrero for a few seconds!
The five remaining members (bassist Will Lopez, drummer Kevin Goren, trumpeter Alec Leventis, trombonist Andy Dawson, and bass trombonist Zach Foote) were arguably just as mobile. I had quite the time trying to keep track of each of one of them while trying to avoid mowing down my fellow photographers in the pit!
The breakfast-monikered band couldn’t have been more thrilled to be back home playing their favorite venue, even though Kellen stated between songs early in their set that he felt the large club was still “too big” for them to headline now. While the stairwells to the upper levels of the venue were roped off, the energy and love from the crowd made the room feel like a sell-out (RBF pun intended).
That feeling only swelled as SLP launched into two back-to-back covers of classic Panic! at the Disco tunes, playing “But It’s Better if You Do” before leading into “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.” The horn section were the stars of the dual cover, as the fresh arrangement by Alec, Andy, and Zach wove a new layer of drama to the “scene”-era songs.
After Kellen and Andy took some time to proclaim their love for Brendon Urie, the night continued with more genre-spanning hits from 2015’s This Is Us. The chill, daydreaming number, “Sharks in the Sky,” allowed Kellen to flex his lyric-writing abilities in both English and French — and made the night extra-special for the fan in the shark hat! “Planetary” transported the room to galactic heights with powerfully fast riffs, while a deep dive into the SLP back catalog with the ska-licious skankfest, “A Song for the Broken,” from their 2011 debut, We’re Not Insane, brought the audience’s feet back to the ground.
The gig also marked the retirement of a cover that only Twitter could love, Smash Mouth’s “All Star,” which was preceded by a surprise soundbite of Shrek saying “DON-KEYH!” and a mile-wide grin from Kevin — who secretly cued up the audio clip without Kellen’s knowledge.
The death of that ogre-adjacent cover was followed by a welcome take on Blink-182’s “Dammit” — which, as the band clarified to the crowd, was a cover they were “not retiring” anytime soon. The recently-reworked rendition of their own track, “Laughing at Me,” took out the exaggerated tempo changes that lead into each of the verses on the album. Subtle changes like those streamlined the Twenty One Pilots-inspired song, and allowed its anxiety-themed lyrics to stand out against the staccato riffs in the background.
With a sudden confetti-like tossing of a Costco-sized-supply of various Warheads candies into the crowd, Kellen announced that the band only had time for “four— no, wait, two more songs.” That flub-up was naturally met with a chant from the crowd of “FOUR MORE SONGS! FOUR MORE SONGS!” (Oopsies!)
Even though Mr. McKay accidentally gave away the encore, the remaining portion of the set capped off the whirlwind night just right. The main set ended with two fast-paced rock songs via “It’s Too Late” and their new Dorito-in-Chief protest anthem, “45.”
The beginning of the encore, however, took a slower, quieter turn, as Kellen reemerged from the shadows with a PRS SE Angelus and played “Money Sucks” in all of its acoustic, sing-along glory. The audience didn’t miss a single line, making that moment my favorite in the entire set.
But, of course, a Stacked Like Pancakes gig can’t end on a quiet note! The full lineup returned to join Kellen for one last song: the band’s most legendary fan favorite, “SFDD.” (How could you end a brass-rock-pop-punk-etc. show without getting to jump around and yell “SHIT, FUCK, DAMMIT, DAMMIT!” at the top of your lungs amongst friends? It just wouldn’t feel right!)
As the house lights turned back on and the crowd sifted out, I hung around for a bit and and ended up chatting with both Andy and Kellen to thank them for the photo pass. I also introduced them both to my brother, Billy, who had just interviewed them a week prior over the phone for a piece published by the Baltimore Watchdog! I left Rams Head feeling like Christmas came early, with too many photographic “presents” to count that were now stored in my SD cards.
Thanks once again to Kellen, Andy, Alec, Zach, Will, Mike, and Kevin (and Becky at Big Picture Media!) for letting me snap your faces and instruments from the pit! (And also thank you to the staff member at Rams Head Live! who unlocked the coat check closet for those of us “stragglers” who nearly left without our jackets!!!)
If you want to see all 17 of my photos from the last stop of the V.I.Pancake Tour, visit my Flickr or my Facebook!
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