Geeky SKAturday: "Keasbey Nights" live by Catch 22, plus the Keasbey Knight for Agents of SKA

A very pleasant Geeky SKAturday to all of you reading this!  Today's entry will be a little different; rather than focusing on a new release for 2025, I want to share a recent live recording of an old song that I've just uploaded to YouTube.  Skip to the video if you just want the good stuff (although I'll admit that the audio quality, from my phone, isn't the best).  If you're up for reading some background...

First, I will also admit that in the early days of my fascination with ska, I didn't give much attention to the band Catch 22.  As my interest in the genre grew, I largely sought out more traditional bands, and they just never ended up very squarely on my radar.

Image from their Facebook page

It was only after starting grad school (a little later in life than is typical) that I began talking with the youngsters around me about ska and realizing that the band Streetlight Manifesto (formed by some members of Catch 22) is a HUGE player in the ska scene for the generation younger than me.  It took some time, but I finally started giving Streetlight...and eventually Catch 22...enough attention to recognize why they have been such influential forces in ska's Third Wave.

Now...I won't even begin to get into the dynamics between Streetlight Manifesto and Catch 22, both of which are still performing...mostly because I wouldn't be able to write with any knowledge of the subject.  If there was ever any negativity between them, it doesn't seem to be a part of their current narratives, especially considering that multi-instrumentalist (and music teacher/band director) Jamie Egan, after being part of the Catch 22 contingent that formed Streetlight, has since returned to the ranks of the original band (and now shares the stage with his son Connor, which is pretty cool).  The question of the bands' dynamics definitely comes to mind, though, when you consider that guitarist/vocalist Tomas Kalnoky left Catch 22 after one studio album, Keasbey Nights (all songs written by him), then would go on to re-record it with Streetlight Manifesto.

Which brings us to this recording.  I've been lucky over the past couple of years to catch...er, Catch 22 live a couple times.  (I guess I haven't mentioned yet that they're a New Jersey band, so that prospect is a lot easier now that I live up here.)  This recording is from a show they played with the Slackers and Crazy & the Brains on April 11 of this year, at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ.  (You can go here for a video showing a little overview of the evening, including documentation of my skinny ass moving almost in time with the beat.)

Here they are with the title track from Keasbey Nights...

And...because the recording quality there wasn't exactly great, let me also share the band's original studio recording of the song...

I really believe this is one of the classics of modern ska.

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As I fall into way too easily, I've already rambled way more than I intended about today's music, and I still want to talk about how this fits into the RPG adventures of the Agents of SKA, who travel the streams of time to defend the multiverse from evil.  Without hinting at more detail than I'm able to articulate at the moment, I'd like for this song to serve as the basis for one of the setting's character classes: the Keasbey Knight (with thanks going out to whoever it is who has this as a username that I saw online, inspiring its use in the game).  I see the Keasbey Knight as a half caster and the champion of an ideal, much like a Paladin or Ranger.  But...the champion of what?  Well...that'll be based on the lyrics.  So let me share those here (courtesy of LyricFind via Google):

It was the summer of '95 (so what?!),

In the backyard, shaving the old plies.

Feeling so strong, something went wrong.

Straight into my finger, what a stinger, it was so long.

I still remember that day, like the day that I said that I swear,

"I'll never hurt myself again",

But it seems that I'm deemed to be wrong, to be wrong, to be wrong.

So I've got to keep holding on

They always played a slow song.

When they come for me, I'll be sitting at my desk,

With a gun in my hand, wearing a bulletproof vest

Singing "my, my, my, how the time does fly,

When you know you're going to die by the end of the night."

I still remember when we were young and fragile then.

No one gave a shit about us because times were tougher then.

Feeling so good, cruising the hood; straight into the real world,

Rich kids never understood. But I don't care.

I can fade away to anywhere.

Don't stop because you might get dropped

And if you do who's going to pick you up.

Well I won't, they always played a slow song.

So...yeah!  The class is based on that!  Although...well, maybe it goes without saying that there doesn't seem to be universal agreement on exactly what the song is all about.  However...I think we can run with it!  I mean...I'm a Gen Xer, a part of the grunge generation, so I've certainly listened to (and sung) my share of impenetrable lyrics.  There's something different about this experience, though.  Whereas I'm very familiar with the reaction of, "Well, Kurt, I have no idea what you mean there...but you're right, the world is fucked up!"...this song just seems more nostalgic and...dare I say, hopeful...??  (Eh...maybe not that last one...but still...)

Keasbey is a community here in Jersey, by the way.  And I think there's a certain feeling to this song...of the friendships of youth, the necessity of perseverance even in relatively normal circumstances of growing up, and of coming to terms with promises both fulfilled and unfulfilled.

But...I could be full of shit.  Hopefully it'll be a fun class to play, anyway!