It’s a shame that their SummerStage performance at Central Park was cancelled because Lord knows The Specials know they can skank. The last time we reported seeing them on the tube was at a later time slot, but this time the English ska pioneers stormed the Ed Sullivan Theater to thrill the Late Show with David Letterman audience with a rousing version of “Nite Klub”. While it would’ve been nice to see Jerry Dammers on the keys, 51-year-old Terry Hall does just fine singing “I won’t dance/in a club like this/all the girls are slags/and the beer tastes just like piss!”
The Special doesn’t seem to suffer from the normal late night television jitters that plague so many other acts, and there’s also an awesome instrumental break where bassist Horace Panter and guitarist Lynval Golding rock so hard that it would be hard to imagine the crowd not uprocking in their seats. The band, which released their first album – Specials – in 1979, was on the show pimping a DVD chronicling last year’s 30th anniversary tour. If you didn’t get a chance to see them, then good luck. Every one of the remaining dates on the tour are completely sold out – plus, they’re in Europe. Looks like you’re going to have to settle for this tasty morsel of audio visual goodness below courtesy of our friends at Audioperv.