CbJ

Reviewed by Jason Mick

http://detroitchic.com/content/view/85/30/

The show kicked off at about 9:30 pm with CBJ. Formerly known as Checker Board Jive, the band shortened its name recently to CBJ. The rename provides a rather humorous split between newer and older fans as new fans are left to guess at exactly what the acronym stands for, and some audience members did indeed guess and came up with some pretty humorous alternative possibilities for the band's true name.

One thing that made CBJ a really enjoyable band was the fact that their music focused largely on having fun and comraderie. After attending several hardcore or more punk oriented shows, it was rather refreshing to watch some more light-hearted music. While CBJ might sing a bit about rebellion, they seemed like they were enjoying themselves, a departure from the more "pissed off" brand of punk you sometimes see.

The band was composed of a solid brass section, with Mark Vanbaak on tenor saxophone, Adam Gill on trumpet, and Mitchell Lavender on trombone. Along with the brass was a solid contingent consisting of vocalist/guitarist Tom Skill, drummer Mike Land, and bass guitarist Ken Arini. One strong point of the band was that each member was very proficient at his roles, and meshed well with the band as a whole. Together the band offered up a coherent and mature act which blended ska with punk stylings. Also, fun was that Skill would sometimes democratically share vocal responsibilities with Lavender or other band members.

Opening up their set, the band broke into their electrifying tune "Unities Revolt", which featured an anthemic call to arms "fight, fight, fight the power". They also played another highlight, the more ska-heavy (as one might predict from the title) "It's Thursday, It's Skaday". This song highlighted the band's awesome brass at points.

The band ripped through more of its own material, including the songs "Change" and "DTS". They also At last they finished up after completing a 45 minute set. Despite the fact that they played a rather long set for a local show, it really went by quickly and left you wanting more, thanks to the band's catchy and strong lyricism and their solid instrumentation.

Whether you are an amateur ska fan, like myself, or a long time skanker, I think you'd definitely enjoy CBJ, if their Saturday set was any indidication. - DetroitChic.com

Concert Review: Ska for Darfur, NOVEMBER 19, 2008
MichiganSka.com

Reviewed by Ben Miotke @gmail.com
http://michiganska.tumblr.com/

CbJ! Now, I’ve been trying to put pictures that show the band in full and give you a nice view of each
band’s live experience but this one is a special dedication to the Specials song “Little Bitch”, which,
apparently, CbJ refuses to take learn the lyrics to. So I was brought into a fun game, yell for “Little Bitch”
at every opportunity you get during CbJ’s set. Well, before the set even started, myself and my “teammates”
got yelled at by Mike, their drummer. We wrote it in big letters on their set list, we yelled more, I
told a girl to go to hell after she questioned me, we yelled, they played, some girl punched me in the
stomach so I punched her back for being a bitch, they played, it was fun. I simply aaaddooorreeddd
their cute little uniforms, simply precious, darlings…but really, they were great, VERY good local skapunk.
I can’t really think of some aw to point out with respect to the band except that their fans are
assholes who keep yelling stuff about bitches.

I think during CbJ’s set the damned nger thing nally started to subside. You know, when the audience
is appreciating the musical stylings of one musician in a band so they crowd around that person
and ail their ngers in worship. It gets old, kids, really, after the 10th time you do it in one show (which
was probably towards the end of Treehouse Rivals set), you need to stop. - MichiganSka.com