Sublime w/ Rome Roseland Ballroom NYC 5/02/10

That place was jumping! If I have ever seen a bunch of people that into it, it hasn't been for a while..Jay Porks back with another Jay Porks Experience- tonight coming to you from Roseland Ballroom, were  

the twenty sixth edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series takes us to see Sublime w/ Rome..The plan was that Pam had the tickets and we were meeting our friend Ray there with a friend of his.. but the nights events got better, as I bumped into my friend Chris with Nolan and they were also headed out to the show..Now, six of us combined.. I think you can call us a posse... Roseland here we come!

Got there a tad after 7 o clock got Pam and the corner and got on the line for wristbands so we can get wasted when we get in, and we tried.. I was two beers in before 8 o clock and that's a rush for me.. but then again, there's no cool roof top deck to hang out on and take it slow... this place was getting packed out way too early, how are we going to get all the way up front to rock out.. Nolan know this place like the back of his hand, so around the time Dirty heads came on were were right near the 'Rose Bar', which is sort of behind the stage, sitting on the side of the stage that I'll explain throughout these next few paragraphs...

7:50 is when Del Mar went off stage.. Pretty cool, they played from about 7:20ish they were very excited to be here.. they're on tour with Sublime and Dirty Heads for this whole little touring swing- so they've been staring at people(like us) going crazy, getting wasted creating pits at 7:30 waiting for an awesome night to begin.. no one seemed, how can I put this-nobody seemed pessimistic about tonight's event. I don't know how much that had to do with this being the second of a back to back gig at Roseland or just the sheer excitement of getting to see a great band, one third reincarnated, that none of us ever thought we would ever see..

Dirty Heads rocked out beginning 8:25 .. they got some soul.. I was enjoying this when we got by the aforementioned Rose Bar section which is on the left side of the stage.- the tunes were literally keeping me moving almost the whole time, and I've got no rhythm whatsoever. .. Let's use the word groovy here. Anyone who was there would probably agree.. This was a smooth moving set ..at 8:41 a fan was removed from the crowd for reasons unknown.. then at 8:44 they played a fucking funky ass version of the Stones "Paint it Black"... Now I'm starting to see how frigging cool this is about to be.. I'm enjoying myself during an opening act.. Nice.... Towards the middle of their set I spotted someone wearing a Badfish tee shirt- role reversal? Anyway, they went off about 9:06...now we await Sublime to which I'm projecting a 9:30 hit to the stage..

The crowd during the Dirty Heads got into complete pandemonium; losing themselves with reckless, yet friendly fun abandonment - moshes are over rated, but I can dig watching a little crowd surfing especially when you see someone hit the deck really hard.. I mean I see these cute little innocent looking chicks frail as a feather being tossed around in a crowd surf by shirtless drunk sweaty moshing dudes.. then when anus rises above the head, you know she's going down.. and she did, along with the chick who was in the pink.. I liked the set up right by my side of the stage where when the crowd surfers make it to the barricades in the front, the event staff kindly placed them down and directed them towards a space where they were shuffling them back to the crowd-not sending them to prison or throwing them out... it was really awesome to see thing not so corporate like you come to see from these venues nowadays..

9:30 on the dot here come the headliners-the band we all came to see tonight.. SUBLIME(w/Rome) From song one all of us (crowd and band) are feeling it-the vibes in the room all being passed around like the two joints the song mentions.. By that time we were halfway through joint number one between the us.. The spot we're at is priceless; left side of the stage along the wall standing on the bench thing they had- not front left but full left- as you can probably tell by the pictures and video..perfect spot to be.. Rome, of course is no Bradley, but he has a chance to be like William DuVall is to Alice In Chains- socially accepted amongst circles of listeners(real fans) of the music.. I would love to show it off in my video, but everyone in the building was singing along and that's exactly what it sounds like on the video I have.. But I'm telling you it's real-and you can ask anyone who was there.. Also there was this wall this kind of blocking Rome from being seen in my view when he steps all the way up to the mic.. this allowed for our small group to forget that it wasn't Nowell out there playing... They played “Wrong Way” a little earlier than I expected which got me in the mood to glance down and notice all the pretty girls passing me by, a younger crowd than expected.. I saw people there who were born in the 90's.. Wow.. I noticed I got that “Date Rape” recorded.. Imagine it for a second, because if you notice I'm in a spot where Rome is almost out of the picture at times, sitting at a Sublime show for a second-I know the purists will give me shit for it.. but they were doing it-all of it.. there was not one aspect beside the absence of Nowell that was making me think that this wasn't the real McCoy.. I they were tight too, damn were they tight.. most of the songs sounded almost like they do on record, and these guys if you think about never really have played these songs live so the way it sounded like they never took a break at all was what really impressed me.. Impressive is a word prevalent when describing this.. I mean, I was totally floored when they tried to go off with “Doin Time” at like 10:40... after which a sea of lighters emerged throughout the audience .. I think I have a good picture of it, with Chris adding his lighter to the mix.. I was dealing with matches so I was not much use to this operation.. They came back out fairly quickly and graced us with four (or five, or three.. too many great vibes in the air to not be in a somewhat mildly altered state) more amazing tunes.. Before they went into “What I Got”, they introduced this big dude (name is either Steve or Cheese) to play the acoustic parts the song requires.. man was that something else.. I think that was the point where on the inside I turned from pseudo journalist to prissy little fan boy.. I closed my eyes right there for a second and cherished that moment for just that, a moment, and that's the time where I was sold on this.. too bad it was almost over... and of course we all know what ended the night.. one of the greatest songs ever in life (seriously) “Santeria”.... wow.. as if everyone wasn't already singing along to the lyrics but by now everybody is screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs in unison.. I love a rocking crowd, and a rocking crowd can't happen without an amazing show-and tonight there is no doubt that this was one of the best shows I've ever attended, one of the best shows ANY of us have attended...

On the way home at the Ferry terminal there were a lot of people who were at the show as I over heard more than 4 separate conversations about how hands down phenomenal the last four hours were.. then when I got on the bus ride to my house, there was a kid on the phone in the back of the bus explaining to whoever was on the other line about the amazing time he had.. He was as giddy as Pam or Ray or Me.. here's a quote from this stranger on the S74 bus : "Much more fun than I ever thought I could have.. and I don't mean at a show, I mean like in life.." On that note Porks fans, I hope you took the time to point out all of my spelling errors so I can correct them... that's another way you can earn yourself a tee shirt... thanks for putting up with my non sense for a few minutes..

NEXT UP: GRAMERCY THEATRE TO SEE 'LOCAL H' MAY 18TH... TIL THEN-late...