![]() ![]() All these people with tattoos and piercings, the freakshow thing. The fence got torn down, security was overwhelmed.Įric Wilson: It was in a park, with a traveling circus. That was one of the most insane, crazy rock 'n' roll shows I've ever seen in my life. Rick Bonde: I was with them the night before up in Chico. Most of our crowd for the Sublime show was under 18, and definitely under 21. My punk crowd was just starting to finally turn 21. Tom Gaffey (Manager, Phoenix Theater): We were just starting to see more ska and less punk. But they'd really started to blow up right around then, with "Date Rape" on KROQ. Jason Boggs (Filibuster): They'd come to Sacramento and open up for us and play for 30-40 people at little dive bars around town, and they'd crash on our floors. I went down to the club that night, and they were like, “Nah, they're not coming.” I was worried there had been an O.D. They were supposed to play there the week before, and I was gonna jump in the van with 'em and head up the coast. Lil' Mike: I was gonna meet 'em at the Glass House in Pomona. They were going to go to Europe, Brad had a brand-new wife, a new baby. From my memory, he'd been clean for almost a year. Rick Bonde (Booking agent, the Tahoe Agency): In the time I worked with them, they made it to every gig, we really tightened up the scene, Brad had gotten clean. We started packing in 2,000 people just from word of mouth, before we even had any deal with a record company. For two or three years before that, we had gotten a really strong cult following, just from playing up and down the coast. Stand by Your VanĮric Wilson (Bassist, Sublime): We had just finished the album. So to mark the anniversary of Sublime's last show in Petaluma, I've decided to pull together those memories, stories, and loose threads-from regular showgoers, people behind the scenes, and performers on stage. (He once sicced his dog on a skateboarder and expected me to back him up in a beatdown, an incident I wrote about here, 10 years ago.) But hearing everyone's memories since, I've always wondered how the rest of their final show went down. My band played the Warped Tour with Sublime the year before, and I'd gotten my fill of them already, to say nothing of Nowell's impulsive behavior. I was there that night, but I left after four songs. The rest of Sublime's millions of fans always want to know: what was it like? But only 900 or so people witnessed Nowell's final performance. An audio bootleg exists legal issues over still-unreleased video footage have continued for years and snippets of people's memories can still be overheard at parties in and around Petaluma. Sublime would go on to sell over 17 million records, and for obvious reasons, that final show in Petaluma has attained mythic status. But no one knew at the time, either, that singer Bradley Nowell would be found dead of a heroin overdose the next morning at a motel in San Francisco. On May 24, 1996, Sublime played their last show at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma.
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