IT’S WHAT THEY’VE GOT Sublime tribute band Badfish to rock Upstate Concert Hall
CLIFTONPARK, N.Y. » Badfish will be back in town this week with a Sublime tribute show to start off the year in a ska-punk mood.
The Rhode Island-based Sublime tribute band regularly visit the Capital Region, and will return to Upstate Concert Hall on Thursday for a performance with The Absentees and Bchiaps. The event will start at 8 p.m. on Thursday at the Clifton Park venue, located at 1208 Route 146. Doors will open at 7 p.m.
Before this local appearance, Badfish drummer and co-founder Scott Begin shared some on-stage perspective about carrying on the legacy of Sublime into a new era.
Q
Badfish has played in the area plenty of times, including every year around the holidays, any good memories of those shows?
A
Yeah, I think we always do the holiday show there. We’ve done twice, maybe even done three times a year where we’re out that way. I think twice is probably the average that we’ve done for the past 10 Badfish, a tribute to Sublime, pose for a photo with a crowd in Buffalo.
years now, even when it was called Northern Lights back in the day. It’s always a good time up there, always a good show, usually a pretty steady crowd. It’s a fun kind of room to play. People go nuts and we crank up loud. We like getting up there.
Q
Is that typical that you play a venue so regularly like that, or do we get some special attention in upstate New York?
A
Being from the Northeast, there’s a lot of venues in the Northeast that we will do that. Some of the bigger rooms, bigger theaters we might keep to once a year. When you get out to the Midwest and West Coast shows that we play, those will be more like once a year type of shows. But Upstate is a pretty good room, for sure. We’re able be there a couple times a year and still get consistent turnouts.
Q
It seems like you’re out on the road a lot, is it typical that you’re touring for the majority of the year?
A
Yeah, we kind of split it up. We just got off of like a month-long break and that’s probably the longest break we’ve ever had as a band of playing no shows. Other than that we stay pretty busy. It might just be a weekend show in New York or New Jersey. It might be heading out the the Midwest or down the East Coast that keeps us away for two or three weeks or if we’re heading out west sometimes those keep us away from home a little bit longer just because of how far away it is. It’s very rare we take a break of a month.
Q
So, do you feel rejuvenated after your monthlong break or are you itching to get back on stage?
A
You would think I’d feel rejuvenated but it was probably the opposite because I had so much stuff going on at home. I have a family, and sometimes being at home can be more demanding than being on the road. But, it was nice to take a break from it, and to really feel like I’m ready
to get back out there and play. I’m feeling the itch. I want to be up on stage. I want to be playing the drums. It’s nice to step away for a couple weeks and start to feel that, for sure.
Q
You started this band in 2001. After more than 15 years, what keeps you going?
A
It’s still, no matter what - if we’re having a bad day or if we’re stuck in a snowstorm trying to travel to a gig or we’re complaining about something - it doesn’t take long to take a step back and say ‘Oh, well, I’m doing what I love for a living. I’m a musician. I’m able to make a living playing the drums. I really can’t complain.’ It’s that realization. The knowledge of knowing that I’m doing what I’m really passionate about, and I’m able to do that and support my family. That keeps me going.
Q
And then also being able to carry on the music of Sublime and keep that legacy going, too, right?
A
Absolutely. Playing on stage and playing the drums would definitely not be as gratifying if we were playing to 10 people in the crowd. I mean, there’s hundreds of people that come out and that’s because Sublime’s music is incredible, and we hope that we’ve done a good job of bringing out the live performance side of Sublime’s music to people.
I
f their music wasn’t as good as it is, and there wasn’t still such a com- pletely stoked and rabid fanbase that come to see us play, then it’s not really as fun. Then playing the music is a little but more like going through the motions. But when you’ve goin people in the crowd going nuts, singing the words back to you - I think that’s really the essence of it for sure.
Q
Would you say the majority of your fans are people who were around and got to see Sublime back in the day, or is it a newer generation?
A
I think it’s largely a newer generation. Throughout the years, because I’ve been because doing this for 16 years now, we’ve definitely seen the evolution of kids our age ( You know, we were still in college when we started the band, and now we’re reaching our 40s so that shows you it’s been a while). The people in the crowd are our age, college-aged people, kids. There will always be a scene, which again is another huge credit to Sublime’s music and their legacy, that the music just got passed down. So, as we age, we still see high school kids coming to our shows. We still see a pretty good group of young people. It’s a little bit more varied now. It’s not just college kids like it once was. Now you get people that are older than us that probably saw Sublime when Sublime was around on one end of things, and then you get a group of people who were not even born when Sublime released their self-titled album, for instance. There’s the real young, then there’s the considerably older. It’s pretty huge to think about how it’s spread. Sublime’ music gets passed down from older brother to younger brother, older sister to younger sister or parent to child in the same way that classic rock music does, or like a Grateful Dead style music does. It’s just sort of this cult following that winds its way through the generations. It’s great that Sublime has that same power to endure through the years. It’s not like a flash in the pan.
Q
Going into the new year, what’s the band’s plans for 2018?
A
Our plan is to just keep this going, deliver the goods of Sublime’s music as best we can.
Tickets to Thursday’s show are $18 in advance or $22 the day of the event. Four-packs are also available for a discounted price. Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketweb.com, by calling the club box office at 518-371- 0012 or at and 51Vape in Colonie.