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Live at The Glass House
April 19th, 2026 Review by Kevin Gomez
Johnny Quest thinks Less Than Jake are sellouts. Well, if he meant selling out The Glass House in Pomona, then he was correct. The Gainesville, Florida band stopped by to play a show (one of only a handful of West Coast dates for this year) in between their weekend sets at Coachella.
Omnigone took the stage as spoken word played over the PA. Out of nowhere the band launched into “Regress,” a ska-punk featuring a screaming chorus. With their sound, it’s not surprising that lead singer Adam Davis was previously the guitarist for Link 80, featuring many of the same sounds and themes as the former band.
Davis introduced the band to the audience by saying, “We’re from the East Bay. It cost $230 worth of gasoline to get here.”
More spoken word played over the PA from “The Dutchman” signaling the heavy “Debt Past Due.” Drummer Brent Friedman switched seamlessly from metal, double-bass drumming of “Violence” to slowed down ska beat of “Grief.”
Half Past Two bassist Eric Whitt filled in on guitar for Omnigone’s set and led the stabbing riff of “Modern Medicine,” which saw Davis jump down to the barricade to finish the song.
I really enjoyed the upbeat “Her Story,” featuring a nice solo from Whitt. Davis called for “an old-school circle pit” for “Destroy Hymn” that the crowd was happy to provide. They closed with “Obituary” as Davis sang the wise words, “Don’t let you obituary describe you as ordinary; let no one tell you how to live your life.”
Orange County’s ska sweethearts Half Past Two took the stage and opened with “Talk is Killing Me.” The band is always a lot of fun, and they’ve rightfully built up a solid fan base that comes out to support them whenever they play.
“Curse The Universe” started with a righteous drum intro from Savannah Tweedt, with a great trombone solo from Luis Gracia-Alonso. Singer Tara Hahn threw on some badass white shades for “Never Saw Me,” which ended in an absolute headbanging finale.
Hahn explained to the crowd that her first ska show was at Chain Reaction when she was 12. “I saw a band, they were still going by the Pharmaceutical Bandits (who would later just go by RX Bandits and switch to prog rock).” She explained that it changed her whole world view. “Ska is a huge community; it’s a scene, and we need our community more than ever, especially right now.” They went on to play the song inspired by that story, “Heather,” about the girl who “changed my life immediately.”
Half Past Two brought out Davis from Omnigone, who immediately jumped into the crowd. With his coaxing Hahn then climbed onto his shoulders as Davis led them through the crowd and they sang the duet “Turn Back the Hands.” They played the fantastic “Shine” and then closed with my favorite song of the night, “Dominoes,” while Hahn belted out, “I’m paper torn in half, broken by the whiplash” followed by a dual horn solo from Gracia-Alonso and Patrick Holder.
Less Than Jake took the stage to a huge ovation as singer Chris DeMakes began the opening guitar riff to “Automatic,” which opened an immediate skanking pit and dual smoke machines set up on the drum riser. DeMakes mentioned, “We haven’t played here in a hot minute.” The crowd helped him sing back the “whoa”s for “History of a Boring Town” as the crowd jumped along for the chorus.
DeMakes told the crowd that the band had just played their first Coachella this past weekend. He mentioned seeing Katy Perry and Tom DeLonge backstage. He joked about trying to get the latter’s attention, “Hey Tom! We toured together back in ‘97!” I was fortunate enough to catch that tour as my third concert ever.
The magnificent Buddy Schaub kicked off the iconic trombone intro for “Nervous in the Alley.” DeMakes announced they were playing three songs off “Hello Rockview,” which just celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2023.
If the crowd seemed a bit timid before, they erupted into their full potential for bassist Roger Lima’s vocals on “Help Save the Youth of America from Exploding,” and especially when the band kicked into “All My Best Friends Are Metalheads.”
DeMakes brought up his aunt and uncle from the crowd before the band played the fan favorite, “Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts.” DeMakes announced that 4/7 of Reel Big Fish was in the crowd tonight as well as Eddie Casillas from Voodoo Glow Skulls. Before playing “1989,” Lima remarked, “Let’s make some noise for Justin Bieber’s laptop,” a reference to the pop singer’s performance at Coachella Saturday night.
For the Lima-sung, “Science of Selling Yourself Short,” Johnny “Christmas” Christianson of Reel Big Fish came out to play trumpet. Lima kicked off the sweet bass intro for “Plastic Cup Politics,” the final song of their set, featuring fantastic horns from Schaub and saxophonist “JR” Wasilewski.
For the encore DeMakes came out solo with his guitar and began the “The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out,” before the rest of the band joined him on stage and exploded into the “Screws Fall Out.” DeMakes sang the verses and Lima gave great vocals on the chorus for “Look What Happened,” an anthem about trying to make it out of your dead-end town.
DeMakes introduced the last song of the night by saying, “If you ever make it to Florida, be sure to check out Gainesville Rock City!” The song starts with the sweet horns of Schaub and Wasilewski before DeMakes jokingly said, “These guys only let me have one solo per night, and this is it,” then proceeded to rip a sweet guitar intro. After the song’s closing, Lima bid farewell with a “Catch you later, Bill & Ted!”
However you might feel about Coachella, it’s nice to know a band like Less Than Jake is there representing all the ska-punk kids.
SHOW PHOTO GALLERY
by Todd Markel Rock Images
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