By Charles Nunmaker, Contributing Writer
Everybody who attended the show by Full Service, Scotty Don’t, and Badfish last Thursday knew exactly what they were in for when they walked into The Varsity: one of the most solid, energetic rock/reggae shows ever. Walking through the entrance, many couldn’t help but notice the Badfish t-shirt with “I Don’t Get Angry When My Mom Smokes Pot” emblazoned across the front of it. That t-shirt, in a way, kicked off the whole idea of what the show was all about mainly because its a line out of the lyrics from “What I Got,” which was Sublime’s biggest single peaking at #1 on the US Modern Rock Charts. It wasn’t long until people started to move into the theater and start their 40 Oz. to Freedom.
Full Service was the first band to take the stage and they kicked off the whole night. Full Service is a quartet from Austin, Texas, whose members include: Bonesaw, Hoagman, Twinky-P, and Smellman. The band quickly established themselves on the stage, and it became apparent that even though they have weird taste in names, they know how to rock with great bursts of energy and personality. Overall, their set was extremely surprising due to the fact that they were able to play as many different musical genres as was possible, and that they were able to switch between those different genre jams with amazing versatility. Within all the different types of genres they played, the audience seemed to be active with every different change in speed and direction and seemed to react positively to the music. After Full Service had taken its role in the audience to watch the show, Badfish’s side project, Scotty Don’t, came onto the stage and played an amazing set. Fresh from releasing their first album, titled Songs from the Back Porch in December 2008, Scotty Don’t is comprised of members Pat Downes as singer and guitarist, drummer Scott Begin, bassist Joel Hanks, and keyboardist and secondary guitarist Ben Schomp. Altogether, these four musicians brought together a great musical performance while their songs integrated some different musical genres that included reggae, rock, punk, ska, and even some country-blues themes. The music of Scotty Don’t does seem to be influenced by Sublime and maybe some other different bands; but, their music is unique in the way that it is written and the way that it is performed while integrating the different musical genres used to create a diverse album that is truly original. Although much of the crowd had not been very familiar with their songs, the audience continued to grow in size and density through out their set until the Varsity Theatre was pretty packed; but there was still enough room for people to start dancing to the music. In response to the growth and response of the audience, Scotty Don’t just became more energetic in their performance, especially keyboardist Ben Schomp who was doing some soulful keyboard jamming and guitar playing. From the Badfish table, Scotty Don’t was selling their new album at the sweet price of “pay what you want to pay for the album.” If you happen to check out Scotty Don’t’s songs on their website (scottydont.com) or on iTunes, make sure you listen to the songs: “Back Porch”, “Everything’s Alright”, “Refuge”, and “And With It Rain.” After Scotty Don’t left the stage and took a short break, the same four band members of Scotty Don’t came back out onto the stage as Badfish: A Tribute to Sublime. For a brief moment there was some confusion among some of the audience members that did not understand why Scotty Don’t was going back onto the stage; however, when Ben Schomp hit the first note on his synthesizer that started the song, “Garden Grove,” the entire audience immediately went crazy and started to shout out the lyrics to the song in complete unison. Above the audience’s chorus, Pat Downes, the lead vocalist, was always seen belting out Sublime’s poetry while continuing to play lead guitar and keep the audience members energetic. Pat Downes and bassist Joel Hanks would also start jamming during the solo sections of a song, and it would turn into in to a band wide session eventually including Scott Begin on drums and Ben Schomp back onto the keyboards or on guitar. During these jam sessions, the audience was just waiting for a Sublime song to explode out; and, Badfish had the jam sessions practiced and timed right so they were able to just slide from the jamming session, back into a Sublime song they were playing, or even to a new Sublime song. When they did that, everybody went crazy and just started to dance some more to the new song. Badfish took a big jamming section too with the song “Date Rape,” where Pat Downes was taking a guitar solo; when all of a sudden, he started to play AC/DC’s “TNT.” The audience just yelled and clapped at first, but then everyone actually started to sing the “Oy! Oy!” part to the song. Pat Downes kept it going for a little bit until he just came back to the microphone and said “Wait that’s not date rape,” and then they all started playing again and finished the song. That song was just really cool to witness because it gave the audience insight into what the personality of the band is really like. Near the end of the show, Badfish just started to come out with the big-hit Sublime songs. The classics started with “Santeria,” which became an amazing experience because everybody was signing along. Badfish then did “54-46 That’s My Number,” and if you have ever heard that song before, there are certain sound effects to the song that people were yelling out over the crowds. Badfish mixed the ending of “54-46 That’s My Number” into the song “Ball and Chain” which everyone sang out loud too. The last two songs that Badfish played were “Smoke Two Joints” and “What I Got.” Those last two songs sent everyone into a dancing frenzy and there was not a single audience member who wasn’t singing along. For “What I Got,” Pat Downes introduced the song saying, “Everyone had better know the lyrics to this song. If you don’t, then you should just lock yourself back in a closet and examine why you’re such a dork.” Badfish played “What I Got” extremely well, and they had Pat Downes even take some different guitar solos throughout the song. Badfish made sure that they ended it with an assortment of crazy music too, which made the song overall perfect to be the closer. Overall, the night was not worth missing. It was full of great bands and the amazing personalities that came with them. The music was loud but sweet, and it just left everyone wanting to hear more. When the audience members finally had to leave, the only thing they could think about was when they were coming back.
