Entertainment : Music

Badfish tributes Sublime at Blue Gator

By Lisa Wakeland, Staff Writer
   
October 8, 2006 | 12:33 p.m.

Badfish, a Sublime tribute band, brought a Southern Californian sound to Athens when they played at the Blue Gator on Monday, Oct. 10.

Fans packed the Blue Gator ready to hear some of their favorite Sublime songs, chanting "Bad-fish, Bad-fish," after dreadlocked Ohio University senior Josh Huvdo finished his folksy-reggae set. Badfish took the stage around 11:20 p.m. to the excited screams of the audience. Opening with "Garbage Grove," they transitioned into crowd favorites like "Don't Push," Wrong Way," "5446/Ball and Chain," and "Smoke Two Joints" that sent fans into a mini-mosh pit frenzy complete with crowd surfers.

Badfish did a fantastic job of capturing the laid-back vibe of sunny SoCal on a chilly October night. Dave, the lead singer, seemed to channel Bradley Nowell, the late lead singer of Sublime, in virtually every song, sounding almost identical to Nowell on "April 29th, 1992."

Their set was heavily peppered with songs from the Sublime album 40 oz. to Freedom including "DJs," "Date Rape," Waiting for my Ruca," Rivers of Babylon" and "Right Back" but Badfish did not forget about the albums Secondhand Smoke, Robbin' the Hood or Sublime. They played most of Sublime's songs with near perfection and put a unique twist on the song from which they take their name.

The audience sang along to almost every song, sometimes so loud they nearly drowned out the vocalist. Badfish performed with large amounts of energy that appeared to transfer to the crowd as the audience moved along to the beat of every song, whether it was "Boss DJ" or "Saw Red." The intimacy of the Blue Gator allowed interaction between the band and the audience. Sometimes the crowd would join in singing, particularly on "April 29th, 1992." During "Santeria," the audience sounded like a back-up choir. They also took over the vocals on "What I Got," singing a cappella during the last chorus: "Love is, is what I got."

Badfish closed the night with "Date Rape" and "Caress Me Down," the latter "going out to all the ladies." Even when Badfish had finished their scheduled set, the crowd wanted more, and repeatedly chanted "one more song." They got not one, but two more songs when Badfish came out for an encore and played "Scarlet Begonias" and "What I Got." Before leaving the stage, Dave told the audience to "keep Sublime alive," which is exactly what Badfish is doing.