Sublime with Rome

kidsysco (64)in #music • 8 years ago (edited)

Sublime with Rome came to town, and I attended the show with a group of friends. Before we look at photos and listen to music, I would like to talk about Sublime, Reggae, hard drugs, and what it all means to me.

Young Bradley Nowell

This image of young Nowell shows a healthy looking musician enjoying life, and it would only be a few more years until that life was brought to an abrupt ending through experimenting with heroine.

Nowell was the heart and soul of Sublime as he played guitar in both rhythm and lead, while singing at the same time. Nowell's talent and creativity was critical to the band's success. So without any doubt, the band broke up shortly after his death, just weeks before the release of the only Sublime album to reach the US mainstream.

This is a tragic but important part of the story.

Reggae

Not many people like reggae. People often say they like reggae, but do they ever buy any reggae? Not really, this sublime show was rather small, with what looked to be only about 400 people in attendance. I love smaller shows like this but there really should have been a bigger crowd for a band with this level of talent. Could it be that reggae just isn't very popular in the US?

People often think that reggae is too funky, and I must admit, it is pretty funky stuff. In musical terms, one of the key defining characteristics of reggae is how the chords are played on the up beat. Most American rock, jazz, and blues involves chords played on the down beat. This is why reggae is thought of as "funky".

Tap Your Foot To The Beat

Up beats and down beats can be better explained by tapping your foot to some music. It's fun, please try it yourself by spinning up a little of your favorite music.

If you tap your foot to any typical American music, you will hear the guitar chords or the piano chords played when your foot is moving down. The dancing that goes along with this often involves head movement, where the head nods downward. Notice this gal rocking out to the right, her head is generally facing down, along with the down beat. The most extreme cases of this would be head banging in heavy metal. Head banging always happens on the down beat and the head's momentum moves downward when the drums and guitars hit.

The Reggae Up-Beat

In tapping your foot to reggae, the accent is played on the up beat, when your foot is moving up, not down like in typical American music. It creates a very different sound and feel, that also shows in dancing.

Since the accents hit on the up beat, the head tends to nod upwards, gently, as if greeting someone. I borrowed a few creative commons licensed images from a WikiHow article on how to dance to reggae to help show how reggae works.

In these images, notice how the head is depicted facing up. The chin is also depicted higher in the air because that musical accent is hitting as the beat moves up.

Sublime and Reggae Fusion

The real genius behind Bradley Nowell's work was how he merged the sounds of American punk rock, with reggae. He was able to blend the two styles together so that in most of his songs, there are accents played on the up beat and on the down beat. Nowell's music would merge back and forth taking from the very best of both world's in a complicated fashion that is hard to get right. We have just discussed how different reggae is from punk rock, and making the two work well together is a really serious challenge.

So naturally, after Nowell's death, the band had to break up. Finding anyone that could take on such a funky style would probably seem impossible, for Nowell was a very unique guy.

Enter Rome Ramirez

I am of half Mexican descent so it really blows me away to see Rome Ramirez, a full blooded Mexican, now leading Sublime. What a unique melting pot we live in, where a Mexican leads up a punk-rock-reggae band!

Beyond his heritage, Rome has absolutely mastered the style that Nowell created. In fact, I would even say that Rome is better than Nowell at the Sublime sound.

Heroine tends to take the top priority in it's user's life, but with Rome... I can just tell, music is his number one priority. Nowell was great and will always be a very special person, but Rome writes better music, he plays better guitar, and he sings better than Nowell did.

Rome is my favorite all-around musician in the world today and it was a real treat to see him live.

The Set

They mostly played classic songs from the 90's, songs originally written and performed by Nowell. Which was fun; however, I really wanted to hear more current music from their more recent albums with Rome leading the way. I am sure they are trying to appeal to the crowd but I didn't need that. These past 2 albums by Rome have been a huge part of my life for a long time now.

Rome and Sublime, if you can hear me. You do not need to live in the past with me. I would like to hear more music from the Rome era of Sublime like PCH, Lover's Rock, Wherever You Go, and You'd Better Listen. So while I had a great time last night and heard many of the classics... I did not get to hear my absolute favorite Sublime songs of all time.

Here are some photos taken by my wife from last night. There is no way I could take any photos, I was up front with my buddy Corey screaming at Rome until I lost my voice.

Let's Listen to Sublime with Rome

This first song is probably my favorite Sublime song ever. Here Rome performs an acoustic version all on his own, just for us. Listen to this guy SHRED that guitar in the beginning and my goodness, Rome can sing something special. It is this sort of performance that makes Rome my favorite all-around musician in the world.

Wherever You Go, is a song we really wanted to hear last night. One of my faves.

The song Santeria is a classic hit by Sublime with Nowell back in the 90's. We got to hear it last night, and here is a version re-done by Rome. It is hard to match Nowell's energy in this song but keep in mind, this is a cover tune.

What I Got was a HUGE hit in the 90's. If you were there, you will probably remember this song originally by Nowell. Here it is covered by Rome.

Go Buy Some Reggae

We have covered a lot today but most of all, I hope you will go out and buy some reggae. It is VERY HARD to make a reggae band work and they really deserve our support.