Near the end of Cap’n Jazz’s riotous Riot Fest performance, frontman Tim Kinsella snuck a glance at the massive video board above the stage to glimpse a supersized black-and-white version of himself. Covered in sweat, his shirt half ripped off, he was holding a tambourine aloft in one hand and a microphone in the other while crowd surfing. “I need to find a real job,” he cracked. Then he offered a dismissive rebuttal: “Pfft.“
All five members were energetic, but it was hard not to keep your eyes fixed on Tim Kinsella for the extent of both shows. At Friday’s performance at the Bottom Lounge, he managed to summon some inner spastic demon. He manically stomped and stumbled around the stage while belting out the ever-discursive lyrics of “Planet Shhh”: “Halo my little hoola hoop hug/ Squeeze to warm and ribs stab my heart.” He screeched out non sequiturs such as “I’m dying to tell you I’m dying” from “Yes, I Am Talking To You” while twisting a mike stand into his own shirt or flailing around on the floor. Blink and you’d miss Kinsella leaning back to blare a French horn, or slingshotting into the audience to sing while surfing on a sea of hands, or flinging his tambourine into the audience only to ask it be returned: “I need that tambourine back. It cost me $25.”
