For those who think alternative rock band Sublime’s signature sound, is far gone, the cover band known as Badfish is here to bring it back.
Badfish, A Tribute to Sublime will be playing at Varsity Theatre at 9 p.m. on Wednesday. This tour is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Sublime’s self-titled album, which released in 1996, and features many of the former band’s hit songs such as “Santeria” and “What I Got.”
The band got its start in 2001 at Ocean Mist Beach Bar, a small venue located on a Rhode Island beach. At the time, the band consisted of three Rhode Island college students. Joel Hanks, bass player for Badfish, said he wanted to start a band that played Sublime’s music in 1998 and now finally had the chance.
After its first show, the group knew it had a talent to cover Sublime’s music in a way no one else could with its experience and passion. Badfish began playing at other venues where there was a demand.
“There was an appetite for the music of Sublime that wasn’t being supplied,” vocalist and guitarist Pat Downes said.
The band has even perfromed shows with some of the members of Sublime. The original drummer of Sublime, Bud Gaugh, performed with the band in June 2015 at a show in Anaheim, California.
“We know how the songs work, we know how the people respond to them, we have a killer track record … we’ve basically put our lives into this,” Downes said.
This is not Badfish’s first performance at Varsity Theatre, Downes said, and they are excited to come back.
“There are always the solid venues you wanna play, and the Varsity is definitely one of them,” Downes said.
Besides the fact that Varsity Theatre is a venue that the band enjoys playing, it’s also in a great location for the band’s current tour, which loops around the East coast.
Downes said the band will play each song from “Sublime” in the order of the track listing from start to finish. The self-titled album features 17 tracks that total more than 50 minutes. However, Downes noted that after the album is finished Badfish will play a few hits from other Sublime albums.
“We’ve developed a very good reputation for putting on a really great show as a bunch of kick-ass musicians and a singer that does a really awesome job,” Hanks said.