The Aquabats Headline the St. George Art Festival

Review for OC Music News by Alaina Pierce

Thousands swarmed the streets of St. George, Utah last Friday night, as The Aquabats charged onto the mainstage in their signature blue rashguards and iconic masks. Each year, the annual St. George Art Festival transforms its quaint little downtown into rows of white tents hosting over 160 artists, food trucks, and performers, with bands playing on three stages. Typically, this festival receives 30,000 art-loving visitors, however the buzz about The Aquabats headlining traveled to surrounding states, which pushed festival organizers to anticipate an uptick of nearly 50,000 attendees. While impossible to get a headcount, the band’s merch sold out within minutes and fans sporting their superhero look could be seen for blocks. What made The Aquabats the perfect headliner for the festival is their cross-generational appeal. With over 30 years of making music, international tours (most recently in England), 7 studio albums, and a live-action tv show under their belt, their music bridges generational gaps—as I witnessed in the all-age mosh pit.

A frenzy of life-sized inflatable sharks infested the sea of fans when the band kicked off their 90 min. concert with “Shark Fighter” followed by “Cat With Two Heads”. MC Bat Commander may have retired from doing his classic on-stage backflips but his vocal gymnastics are still in peak condition! The MC Bat Commander (Christian Jacobs) delivered an electric performance and non-stop witty entertainment. During the chorus of “Martian Girl”, he conducted the entire audience in a call-and-response of “Wo-wo-wo” with participatory choreographed hand motions. Another surge of excitement ensued at the sight of enormous inflatable pizzas being launched into the audience along with actual pizza slices when the band began playing “Pizza Day”. Some danced, some sang along, some ate the pizza thrown at them, and some elbowed their way onto the giant pizza slice floaties to surf the crowd. At one point, a 7 year old named Maizie was invited on stage to sing with The Commander, then he lovingly sent her crowd surfing on one of the slices to have the thrill of her (very short) life.

It was pretty special seeing the return of early band members Cat Boy (Boyd Terry, trumpet) and Chainsaw (Corey Pollock, guitar) reunited with long standing members like Crash (Chad Larsen, bass). Their set was jam packed with surprises, killer solos by Eaglebones (Ian Fowles, guitar), and solid hits like “Red Sweater”, “My Skateboard”, “Play Doh”, “Whatever Forever”, “Dr. Space Mummy”, and “Burger Rain”. Of course, huge inflatable Burgers “rained” into the mix of crowd surfing toys. During fan favorite “Fashion Zombie”, a larger-than-life Frankenstein made a special appearance, as well as the Professor, who was later the catalyst for a theatrical fight sequence between The Aquabats against the wrestlers, cyclops and other villains. I am happy to report no one was seriously injured, and The Aquabats won because they’re super rad. Speaking of which, they closed their set playing “Super Rad” with such palpable energy, it intoxicated the entire festival. Everyone was up on their feet dancing and singing. Demands for “One more song!” immediately followed. That was quickly swallowed up by loud repetitive chants for “Pool Party!”.  The band indulged the audience’s wishes and gave them a finale they won’t soon forget. An absurd amount of pool toys were unleashed onto the crowd. All the characters from the show came out to celebrate, and fans were invited on stage to sing and dance. 

After the concert, I asked Christian Jacobs the circumstances that led to the band playing at the festival. Christian had been struggling to find a local venue in Washington County, suitable for his band to play. His friend, Kelly Campbell, presented the matter to St. George City, who then suggested the Festival. Playing the Art’s Festival made sense to Christian because “we (The Aquabats) are art on wheels”. He then added that the concert may have had a little more chaos than St. George is used to, but “a little bit of controlled chaos can be fun”. Moms, dads, kids, even grandparents were moving their feet. Everyone had a fun time.