Opening band, The Skints, were simply one of the best opening bands I’ve ever witnessed. From their entrance onto stage (Narco’s theme song…yaaaaa Narco’s fans!) and enthusiastic reggae charm to their amazing ability to incorporate various amounts of instruments, the show didn’t cease to amaze me. Coming from London, England this was their first ever show in Canada; and we didn’t shy away from showing them how crazy and into music we can actually get even when we don’t know the lyrics. I’m sure they will return again shortly, and when they do, I HIGHLY recommend you attend.
The crowd starts to thicken as everyone is preparing for who they came to see. Front man Rome Ramirez takes stage along with bassist Eric Wilson starting up the nights show with Date Rape followed by Wrong Way (which is my all time favourite Sublime song). As people scream in each others ears and turn to their friends singing along, Rome steps a little closer to the crowd on a small speaker platform in front of the stage. People reach for him and start to crowd surf all around the venue, kicking others in the head, while the security in front stop them from coming closer as they are singing along to the songs playing. Sublime play a couple other crowd favourites such as 40 oz. To Freedom, Wherever You Go, Pawn Shop and Badfish. He takes note of how crazy the crowd has been for his last couple of songs and infects us all with his contagious smile saying “it’s about to get even crazier out there”, following up with Panic, Take it or Leave it and Scarlet Begonias. Rome pleads with the photographer to take a selfie of the amazing crowd that we were with our hands in the air.
They take a quick brake off stage, only to return about 2 minutes later with the rest of their set including Sirens, What I Got and the end all be all song Santeria. During these last songs the crowd was just ALL over the place. Being in the front row I expected some backlash and pushing, but not people trying to save themselves from the mosh by reeling themselves in with my ponytail! It happened more than once which made me realize it wasn’t a mistake, for which I then death glared the two behind me. Needless to say it didn’t happen again after that.
As Santeria came to an end, they thanked the crowd and left stage. The lights come on and the song that first comes onto the PA to make everyone start dispersing seemed to have the opposite effect. Girls by Beastie Boys plays and makes all on the floor go into a folk dancing frenzy, to which I had to join because who doesn’t love the Beastie Boys.
Sublime with Rome put on one hell of a show to say the least. When you leave a show feeling more hyper than going in, you know they did a good job. Cheers boys! I’ll see ya at the next show.
Review – Brittany Salmaso
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