Badfish, The Ultimate Sublime Tribute Band, Returns to Portland, Maine, on 4/20

Wait, Badfish is coming to the State Theatre here in Portland on 4/20? For a second year in a row? That's pretty blazed.

The band Sublime broke through to the mainstream following the death of their lead singer, Bradley Nowell, in May of 1996. They had already released a couple of albums, but it wasn't until their self-titled record dropped a few months later with the tunes like "What I Got" and "Santeria" that blew them up.

I had just started working at a record store in New Hampshire in fall of '96, and I remember it felt like every other CD (or cassette tape!) I was scanning was Sublime's self-titled. So now we had this "new" band that everyone loved, with a recently deceased singer.

It took a few years, but in 2001, Badfish (named after a classic Sublime tune) comes on to the scene, not just as a Sublime tribute band, but doing it with passion, performing the songs just as Bradley would, and gaining a huge fan base along the way.

In 2009, the remaining members of Sublime would form Sublime With Rome, with Rome Ramirez on vocals. They have been active since, releasing new music and hitting the road playing stuff from those records but heavily leaning towards the Sublime classics. Last month (December 2023), Rome announced he would be leaving the band to focus on solo material at the end of 2024.

Sad news for sure, but at least we still have Badfish; they don't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. We're pumped to have them back on 4/20 for a second year in a row. Come on now, that's pretty perfect.

WCYY Presents Badfish at the State Theatre in Portland, Maine on Saturday, 4/20.