header photo by Instagram user @utahpow
This year marks the 20th anniversary of The Aquabats influential second album The Fury of The Aquabats. The band celebrated the occasion by playing the album in full during two separate sets this past Saturday at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. The band was joined by what the band states is the record’s original horn section (!!!) and, notably, ex-Aquabat Travis Barker sat in for a few songs in the middle of the second set of the night.
If you didn’t know, Travis Barker (aka The Baron Von Tito) was The Aquabats’ drummer when the record was recorded in 1997. As legend has it, Barker jumped ship from The Aquabats to join Blink-182 during a particularly fateful Warped Tour in 1998. Since then, Blink has become possibly the most well-known pop-punk band to write multiple songs about fucking your mom and then have one of those songwriters become the 2017 UFO Researcher of The Year (speaking of which, what’s everyone’s favorite Tom Delonge impression? Here’s mine.) Outside of that, Travis is also pretty well known for being a member of the Transplants/Box Car Racer/that one Run The Jewels track/having tattoos.
The footage we’ve seen makes it look like it was a pretty high energy show, and it is admittedly pretty jarring seeing Barker in his trusty Aquabats uniform after knowing where his career took him following his departure from the band. We’re also assuming he only got three songs in because he had to get back to building all those pools.
Check out clips of the songs below, and check out The Aquabats’ Instagram for even more footage from Saturday.
As we’ve previously reported, The band just re-released a remastered version of the 1997 album on vinyl, as a double LP with several unreleased tracks. You can pick that bad boy up right here.
“Attacked by Snakes”
“Idiot Box”
“Powdered Milk Man”
We won’t expect the Aquabats in town anytime soon, let alone with their 1997 horn section or Travis Barker, but we’ll let you know when they schedule something. Their live shows are still top notch.