Streetlight Manifesto skanked it at the Ogden

There is nothing quite like a good ol’ fashioned ska show—the dancing, the energy, the straight up wildness—and no one does ska quite like Streetlight Manifesto.

People slowly filed in while the openers played, packing in closer and closer to the stage and paying little attention. But when the house lights finally dimmed and Tomas Kalnoky and the other six members of Streetlight skipped out from the curtains, things got electrifying.

The seven-piece band—consisting of two saxophone players, a trumpet player, a trombonist, bassist, drummer, and Kalnoky on guitar and vocals—has been around since 2002, a product of the fantastic third wave ska band Catch 22.

Streetlight came out swinging with the title track of its 2003 debut, Everything Went Numb. The song started like an ocean of sound and the crowd responded, immediately screaming along with Kalnoky’s gruff voice, and bum rushing forward wildly.

The first couple songs of the show—which ranged from yet-to-be-released tracks off the pushed back The Hands That Thieve, to classics from the first two albums—all flowed together seamlessly, each with a definitive Streetlight sound: an urgent tempo, swelling horns, pounding rhythm, and loads of gang vocals. Every band member was equipped with a microphone and all sang whenever humanly possible.

During short breaks between songs Kalnoky bantered casually with his band mates, almost as though they were just a couple of friends fucking around in their garage, laughing it up and all smiles. This relaxed feeling spread throughout the theater. The crowd, both young and clearly older, moshed and attempted to skank, and everything felt friendly.

The set consisted of nearly everything a fan could hope for, including the rare live gem “A Moment Of Silence,” which crashed perfectly into “A Moment Of Violence.”

To close things out the band sped through “Somewhere In The Between,” from its 2007 release of the same name. When the final cord tore through the hall the stage lights dimmed and the band exited stage right without so much as a goodbye.

It only took a few seconds for the room to erupt with cries for an encore.Well before anyone even had a chance to catch their breath Kalnoky slipped back before his microphone and dove into “Point/Counterpoint.” The rest of the band soon followed suit and the crowd dove right back into the fray. As the song ran headlong into the bridge it slipped effortlessly into the Catch 22 favorite, “Keasby Nights,” and things went nuts. Crowd surfers rode and fell toward the stage and the room offered up the last of its energy.

With a final joke Streetlight slipped into “The Big Sleep” to close out the night and put a halt to the nonstop inertia of the evening perfectly. As the lights went up, the gasping crowd, tired yet eager for more, seemed to linger, hoping that maybe if they stayed so would the ska.