Virginia Beach - For the past five or six years, every July, I end up at a Reel Big Fish show.  Don’t know how, don’t know why…don’t really care.  Some of us are just blessed with phenomenal luck.  So this year when I got the go ahead to cover Warped Tour, in July, who should be playing the main stage?  Yep.  You guessed it, Reel Big Fish.

While one of my biggest complaints about War ped Tour is the 30-minute set limitation, if there ever was a band that can pack it all in to such a short span of time, it’s these guys.  Their set started right in with a crowd pleaser (but aren’t all their songs?) “Everything Sucks.”  The crowd went wild right off the bat.  You could hear everyone screaming every lyric at the top of their lungs.  There is nothing as dedicated as a Reel Big Fish fan.  As the song came to a close, Aaron Barrett, in his usual playful manner, shouted out, “We’re Reel Big Fish! Thank you and good n ight!” and started to walk off stage. 

 Of course, this was not the case at all.  Immediately the band broke into “Thank You for Not Moshing” with Scott Klopfenste in taking on the elaborate vocals done on t he album by Coolie Ranx of Pilfers fame.  And of course, the moshing ensued.  The crowd moved as a single organism, rising and falling like a tide of sweaty humanity.

They followed that dose of awesome sauce up with a spirited number, “Another F. U. Song” off of Monkeys for Nothing (And the Chimps for Free).  There is something awe inspiring about the on stage antics of Reel Big Fish.  Everyone gets into it.  From John Christianson on the trumpet skanking in place to Scott Klopfenstein on the other trumpet and vocals belting out “Fuck you!” at the top of his lungs and giving a one finger salute to the crowd, the energy was just infectious. 

The set continued, highlighted by such numbers as “Snoop Dog Baby” and a surprisingly straight forward cover of “Enter Sandman.”  As all good things do, though, the set had to come to an end.  Ever the crowd pleasers, the last two songs were “Beer” followed by “Take on Me.”  There is nothing like their live performances of those last two numbers.  Every person in the crowd could be heard over the amplifiers with the “Whoa’s” from the outro of “Beer.”

Needless to say my next task was my favorite…on to the interview!

33: So I just heard about you guys - you're a new band...first time on the tour?
Dan Regan: [laughs]
Aaron Barrett: First time.  We're out there full of hope and positive energy.
DR: Special feelings.
AB: Feel ready to conquer the world.
DR: We got our tape sampler...
AB: We got tour support, ya know?  We're young...

33: Ended up on the tour because you're big in Japan?
DR: Yeah, exactly.
AB: We got our tight pants, and we're ready to conquer the world.
DR: I'm actually wearing a fat suit right now for the normal people.

33: Ah! Make 'em feel better.  Weight problems in America.  Everyone thanks you very much.  Is it true that everybody's doing the fish?
AB: Yes.

33: And how many times have you had that question?
AB: I don't think we've ever actually had that question one time.

33: Score!
DR: It's true that everyone is doing the fish inside their hearts.  But we have to ask it, so they'll let it out.
AB: Funny thing is we don't actually know what the fish is.  We never made up a dance to go with the song.
DR: Some people do this.  I am putting me head on top of my head as if it were a shark fin.
AB: That was actually from an old, old, really old Fish song.  Our first ska song called “Ska Hula” with our old lead singer.  That was the chorus.  It start with one of these weird Hawaiian parts, and then that was the chorus, “Everybody's doin' the fish.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

33: Didn't that song ["Trendy" NOT "Ska Hula"] actually get used for a baseball team?
DR: Marlins.

33: Marlins, yeah...
DR: And they won the World Series that year.

33: Ever see any money from that?
DR: We got to go to a free game.

33: “A” free game.  Not many but “a”.
AB: And a Dolphins game.  We sang the national anthem.
DR: One of the most embarrassing moments of our lives.
AB: Not embarrassing just, uh, stressful.

33: How many years have you guys be doing the Warped Tour now?
AB: This is our fifth time, our first one was in '97?  Then '98 in Australia, the one time we went there.  Uh, 2002, 2008...
DR: 2008!
AB: And then...
DR: Food's gotten better.
AB: Yes.  It was meatball sandwich day.
DR: We like anything in a ball.
AB: We like things that are balls that we can eat.
DR: Our motto is: Balls in our mouth.

33: I remember seeing you guys on Warped Tour a few years ago, and you started your set and then some kid had some kind of major accident in front of the stage.  You went on acoustic for awhile while he was being dragged out on a stretcher...
DR: Yeah, we ended up putting him in the smoker, and he was jerkied, and we ate him to get going for sets every night.
AB: It's just the nice thing to do when someone falls and gets hurt.

33: Apart from that, what's the craziest experience you've had on Warped Tour yet?
DR: Right now man, this hallway is trippy...
AB: You mean the craziest thing this time?

33: Anytime.  Bring the history...
AB: Well, I think the craziest thing that ever happened was the Australian Warped Tour, because we didn't have our buses and fancy things.  All the bands would get on two Greyhound-type buses and drive for like twelve hours and then pull up to the big field where we were going to play the next day, then hand out the tents to everyone.  “Set 'em up!”  Everyone would set up their own tent and there we were in the little village of tents.

33: Big rockstar when you're setting up your own tent...
AB: Big spiders the size of your hands, beetles the size of your thumb, crawling all over you in the morning.
DR: At least they weren't the ones that were poisonous.
AB: I'll never forget that one.  Kinda funny.  Good time.
DR: Bats. 

33: On this Warped Tour are there any particular bands that you're trying to check out?
AB: I was happy to see Sum 41 again.  We haven't seen them play since we toured with them probably in, what was that?  2002?
DR: Yeah.
AB: That had to be in Europe...

33: How about Tip The Van?  It seems like every time I've seen you guys around here it's been with somebody new, but Tip The Van and Streetlight Manifesto I've seen you with a couple times now.
DR: Yeah, we're going to go see Tip The Van on the Kevin Says Stage.  They are fantastic.
AB: They just joined the tour yesterday.
DR: Streetlight Manifesto is going to jump on the tour for a couple dates, too.
AB: Four days and that's it.
DR: It'll be like a reunion.

33: You guys have always had a knack for picking great cover songs.
DR: We try.

33: And you succeed.  One thing from Fame, Fortune, and Fornication I had to ask you about...when I saw you at the NorVa here, and you're on stage and you're like, “Alright we're gonna do a song from a band called 'Edna's Goldfish'...” And I love Edna's Goldfish.  Saw them on Ska Against Racism back in '97.  And I'm thinking it's gonna be “Sunrise to Sunset” or something else I've heard a hundred times.  It's never going to be the one song I want it to be: “Veronica Sawyer”.
DR: [chuckles]
AB: It's their best song!

33: It is their best song!  So how did you come to do it?
AB: Well, they toured with us in like '96?  '97?  We went to Maine together.  But, I always liked that song, and I still have the album, and just recently we were touring in Europe and they have these punk rock dance clubs and every night they play “Veronica Sawyer.”  That song's so good!  And then we saw Brian Diaz on the last Warped Tour in 2008, and I was like we should cover an Edna's Goldfish song and he was like, “Do it!”  And we did it.

33: And it rocked.
AB: That's a great story.
DR: With the blessing of the Diaz.

33: So I gotta ask, it's been a little bit...new album coming out anytime soon?
AB: A new album of old songs just came out two days ago.  It's called A Best of Us for the Rest of Us - 22 songs and 14 acoustic songs.
DR: It's a "best of" but it's re-recorded...with the current line up and a far cleaner...
AB: You can order it online at bestbuy.com.  It's $7.99.  So your get 36 songs for $7.99.
DR: Can't beat that.  We're practically giving them away!
AB: A new album of new songs probably be next year.
DR: When we got off our record label in 2005, 2006, we kind of had a checklist of all of our fantasy things we've wanted to do in the band, like with donkeys and things - no, musically.  So it was like, record a covers album...
AB: Live album, B-sides...
DR: So we finally got through that checklist.
AB: We've finally done the whole checklist now.  Now it's new album.
DR: We pretty much like the sound we're getting in our recording studio...
AB: Almost.  Just about perfected it.

33: Any new side projects coming up?
AB: I don't have any, do you have any?
DR: No.  Black Casper is a lazy bitch.

(Notes from the Wolfe:  There are many past and present side projects from RBF, from the Scholars to the Forces of Evil.  Black Casper is a techno project of Dan's.)

33: Will the Forces of Evil ever reunite?
AB: Absolutely not.  I wrote all those songs as Reel Big Fish songs.  We were doing pre-production for Cheer Up!  I didn't want to bring them in to the producer and have him ruin them.

33: One last thing: Where did you get your impeccable fashion sense?  The awesome Hawaiian shirts, the hair that just defies gravity...
AB: I got this haircut from Morrissey.  The Hawaiian shirts - my sister got me my first one from the Salvation Army or something.  I started wearing it on stage a long time ago.  I like being bright and colorful on stage.

33: You do a wondermous job of it, too.

Reel Big Fish, what can I say?  They always deliver and in person they are nothing short of constantly entertaining.  Their humor is just as infectious as their music.  I can't say enough great things about them. 

'Nuff said.

Reel-Big-Fish.com

Best of Us at BestBuy.com

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe

The Wolfe was born to a small litter in the mountains of West Virginia and transplanted to suburban Virginia Beach in the iconic year of 1984.  Left to the public school system, he soon became immersed in the varied subcultures of suburbia. Quickly he became a connoisseur of the rich substrata of disaffected youth in post-Reagan America.  Having to leave corporate tool-hood behind, the Wolfe prowls the silent alleyways in search of the next great spark of local music - the incendiary device that will reignite creativity in a music world gone wrong (apparently in the throes of Bieber Fever).

And other fun facts ...

Age: 33
Place of Birth: Parkersburg, West Virginia
Gender: Raoul Duke
Religion: Gonzo
Likes: Good music.  Drinking.  Smoking.
Dislikes: Ignorance.  People who take themselves too seriously.  People who say "I just wanted to touch bases with you."  It's "base" asshole, not a baseball reference.

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