The world is in a dark place right now. Especially in the U.S. And while there’s no easy fix for it, I found one of the best ways to lift one’s spirits is attending a good old fashioned ska show. And there was no better one to start 2026 off with than the second annual Ska Smackdown at Garden Grove’s Garden Amphitheater.
Opening the show was the O.C.’s own The Goodwin Club. The band returned in 2024 after a decade away with an uplifting new EP, and took the stage dressed as The Golden Girls. Why? Because why not. Blasting confetti poppers into the air, the band played feel-good numbers like “See All Color”, oldies like “Everything” and “Little Girl”, and showed what Taylor Swift would sound like as a ska artist with their cover of “Shake It Out”. They closed with the outcast anthem “Join the Club”, which was the perfect singalong to get the audience’s vocal cords warmed up for a festive evening ahead.
With so many bands on the bill, the venue opened up their smaller indoor stage, The Locker Room, where I went next to catch Hooray for Our Side. I only recently became familiar with the group and their mod-ish ska approach. The room was packed and HOT when I got in, so not the most comfortable space to be in, but I stayed long enough to hear catchy tunes like “Devil in the Details” and the group’s take on “Margaritaville”. The band shared that they had their first new music in six years coming out (this Friday in fact), and played the new track, before going into an audience request of a classic.
I was back at the main stage quickly for one of the main reasons I came to the show: The Iron Roses. As a fan of BoySetsFire in college, I followed Natasha Gray into their excellent solo career (Working Title being my Top Album of 2020), and watched as their sound evolved from devastatingly powerful folk punk to the politically riotous ska-punk they does now in this group. Joined by the powerful co-vocalist Becky Fontaine and a top-notch band, all of their released music to date has felt vital, and I had been asking them for years online when they would finally hit the west coast. This night, they finally made it.
Opening songs “Old Guard” and “Soldier of Fortune” were fast-hitting melodic punk tunes with ska breaks and the kind of resonant vocals that have made Bad Religion and Rise Against heavyweights in the scene. The band are unabashedly political, speaking out against ICE, Trump, Nazis, fascism, bigotry, transphobia, and speaking up for every good cause worth fighting for. But as “Raising Hell, Raising Hope” showed, the band isn’t drowning in despair. Their songs are rallying cries, or the case of their single “Class War Cheer Squad” (one of my Top Songs of 2025), pep rallying cheers. Halfway into the set, Fontaine came down in the audience, and had all the willing women and queer people in the audience join her, holding hands in a circle to release a primal scream as a release for all they have been through. It was a wonderful moment, and followed by Fontaine’s excellent song “Burn” from their new EP. The band then continued their musical rebellion with “Rebel Soul Sound” and “Fight Back”, before ending with an impassioned speech about the power of music and performance of “Screaming for a Change”. This is a band that deserves to be huge, and I’ll continue to sing their praises.
I’m not sure what it is about the O.C., but the area just breeds great female-fronted ska-influenced bands. Since No Doubt, the scene has birthed the previously mentioned Goodwin Club, fantastic group Bite Me Bambi, and back in 2006, Half Past Two. Though they’ve been around now twenty years, strangely it’s only been the last five years or so that I’ve become familiar with them. Shame on me. While I still didn’t know their catalogue that well, I recognized classics like “Scratched CD” and “Lie to You”, which had the circle pits in motion. The band played a soon-to-be-released new song that had “Nightmare” in the title that was a little heavier, before strolling back into ska-punk numbers like “Talk is Killing Me”. A moment that was unbelievably sweet was when the band’s singer brought out her young daughter to sing with her on “Dominoes” (reminder: Ska is for all ages!). The audience cheered them both on, and continued as the band closed things out with “Shine”, and a vicious hardcore track that took me by surprise.
Evening came, and the venue was packed. I chose to take a seat over getting squished in the pit area. And being there, seeing the audience, I felt hope. The show had ten year olds to 70 year olds. All races, all genders, all orientations. And they were all dancing together, circling in the pit together, holding each other up as they crowd-surfed, and helping each other up if someone fell. There were high-fives and hugs. This was the ideal America, here in the independent, outdoor venue in Garden Grove, CA. This kind of unity and love can exist, and for all the hate ska music gets, it still brings together some of the most diverse and happy groups of people out there.
And all of those folks were very happy to see New York’s The Toasters (the longest-running U.S. ska band). Formed in 1981, the band are lumped in with the third wave of ska, but their sound is far closer to the British second wave, which they paid tribute to in their opener “2-Tone Army”. Frontman Robert “Bucket” Hingley apologized upfront for having to sit through the performance, as he was suffering from a back injury, but that didn’t stop fans from dancing or moving for him. Originally from the U.K., Hingley gave brief insights into his songs, remembering hearing rock and soul classics on Britain’s famous “Pirate Radio”, and paying tribute to the motorcycle that his father took to a Bill Haley & the Comets show where he met Hingley’s mother.
The last time I was at the Garden Amp was to see ska legends Fishbone, so when I spotted the incredible Angelo Moore earlier that evening, I made sure to pay my respects. While I’m sure he was there as a fan as well, The Toasters brought out that King of Los Angeles to join them on “Weekend In L.A.”. For any fan of the genre, this was a special moment.
Ska has always been socially conscious and politically minded, and Hingley made a plea to the audience to vote out the current corrupt criminals currently in our government when the next election comes around. He acknowledged the hard times we’ve all been going through, but left the audience with a great ska reminder: “Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down”.
The first time I heard Mustard Plug was through their cover of “The Freshman” in college (which I didn’t realize was a cover at the time). I loved their take on that song, but didn’t seek out more of their music at the time. It wasn’t until I heard their 2023 comeback album Where Did All My Friends Go? (one of my Top Albums of 2023, along with the Iron Roses‘ debut) that I started diving into MP’s catalog and realizing I had been missing out.
The band owned the stage as they launched into “Someday, Right Now” and “Aye Aye Aye”, as vocalists Dave Kirchgessner and Colin Clive switched off on songs. Soon, their famed Mustard Man mascot came out to skank on stage with the band. In keeping with the theme of the night, the band sent love to the audience while calling out the “vampires” in the current administration. This was an obvious lead-in to the band’s track “Vampires”. From that ska number, the group then broke out one of their punk-leaning songs “Go”.
It shouldn’t need mentioning, but in case anyone is wondering, all of the bands were on-game. These were all veterans; seasoned musical units where every member knew their job and did it well. I’m not a musician – if anyone missed a note, I didn’t notice. I was listening to the songs, dancing in my seat, watching fans dance on stage before falling into the waiting hands of the crowd to carry them off. And those fans were hyped throughout Mustard Plug‘s set.
“Why Does It Have to Be So Hard?” felt all too relatable, and the band’s cover of Fugazi‘s “Waiting Room” gave the audience a break from circling and an opportunity for stomping. “Mendoza” and “Brain on Ska” were played with fiery energy, Colin Clive was given a reprieve from guitarist duties to stalk the stage during “Mr. Smiley” while Kirchgessner brandished a plastic butcher knife during the sadistic ska tale.
The highlight of the show was of course their closer “Beer (Song)”. But this wasn’t just because the song was a perfect, 90’s ska punk sing along filled with anthemic “whoaaahs”. It was the beautiful camaraderie, as costumed members of the band Chudson (whom I didn’t get to see but who MP called “The Future of Ska”), came on stage with members from all of the other bands to sing, play, dance and create a simply joyous ending to the show. It was an epic close to a concert that lifted my spirits and made 2026 feel a little lighter.
So next time a ska show comes to your town, I recommend going. There’s no better smackdown than a Ska Smackdown.
The Indy Review 