Wednesday night the ska-punk crime-fighting superheroes The Aquabats brought their Bats, Kats & Rats Tour with The Koffin Kats and Mike V and the Rats to the Pageant in St. Louis.

I can’t remember the first time I heard The Aquabats, it might have been on a ska program on the now defunct radio station KDHX, but I do remember the song was ‘Super Rad!‘. Over the years it seemed that something always came up and I was unable to catch the band when they were in town. Wednesday night I rectified that and was happy to have finally seen them live.

An Aquabats concert is not just a concert but an experience. Between fans coming dressed up as cadets and other costumes, the bands interaction with the fans, and the pure chaos of what is happening on stage. The band kicked things off with ‘The Shark Fighter!’ by throwing four large inflatable sharks into the crowd. During the song ‘Pizza Day! two large inflatable slices of pizza were thrown into the crowd. After the song was over the MC Bat Commander brought a young fan named Averi on stage and she became a member of The Aquabats. The MC Bat Commander asked the Tribe (what he calls the fans) to make sure that they catch Averi as he tossed her into the crowd and landed on one of the slices of pizza and surfed throughout the crowd. Most the night a good majority of the fans were dancing and having a good time. During ‘No Rewind!‘ MC Bat Commander singled out the ‘luxury boxes’ like the Monsanto box, the Dupont box, and the FedEx box, pointing to random areas to the side and back of the venue and made everyone dance. After Super Rad! the MC Bat Commander introduced members of the band and each one performed a solo or played a snippet of a song. Jimmy the Robot started to play ‘Brass Monkey‘ by the Beastie Boys but was stopped by the MC Bat Commander due to the content of the song. The night ended with the chaotic Pool Party! that saw several beach balls tossed into the crowd along with the band being joind by both opening bands Koffin Kats, Mike V and the Rats, as well as several other colorful characters along with Big Bird and Grimace. A few other highlights of the night was when the MC Bat Commander was skateboarding around while singing ‘My Skateboard!‘, the fight between the band and the Ska Witch and her creation the Batkatrat, and a fake commercial for S.C.A.B.S.! from their The Aquabats! Super Show!. All in all if the band is ever in town they put on a great show that you can take the whole family to.

Koffin Kats

Mike V and the Rats