BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The latest version of a band that was a godfather of ska-punk and had two multi-platinum albums in the 1990s has finally revealed the date and location of a Bethlehem show it announced last month.
Sublime With Rome, the version of the ska band Sublime that reformed with new lead Rome Ramirez in 2009 will perform 8 p.m. Aug. 22 at Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem, the band and venue announced Tuesday.Sublime With Rome announcement
Sublime With Rome, the version of the ska band Sublime that reformed with new lead Rome Ramirez in 2009 — 13 years after frontman Bradley Nowell’s death — will perform 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 22, at Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem, the band and venue announced Tuesday.
Tickets, the prices of which were not announced, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, March 8, at the event center box office or on its website.
The show will be in the middle of a 29-date farewell tour that is scheduled to start Aug. 11 in Catoosa, Oklahoma, and conclude Sept. 14 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Sublime With Rome in February released an abbreviated list of cities it would play on its last tour — right before Musikfest was scheduled to announce headliners for this summer's festival — leading some to believe Sublime With Rome would play Musikfest.
Sublime With Rome's lineup also includes drummer Joe Tomino. Original Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh left Sublime With Rome in 2011 and original bassist Eric Wilson last year.
Ramirez announced in December that he would leave Sublime With Rome at the end of 2024.
Musikfest history with Sublime
Musikfest has a history with Sublime With Rome.
In 2010, Sublime, which had the hit “What I Got” from its 1996 self-titled album and was part of the California punk revival that spawned blink-182 and other bands, played to 6,318 (a mere 182 tickets short of a sellout) in the pouring rain at the final show at Musikfest’s old RiverPlace main stage.
It then returned to headline the festival again in 2012.
ArtsQuest also has presented Badfish: A Tribute to Sublime — a popular Sublime tribute act — at the Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks in 2021 and 2023.
The original Sublime released its debut disc, “40 oz. to Freedom,” in 1992, and it sold double platinum. The band's 1994 sophomore album “Robbin’ the Hood” went gold.
But it was 1996’s self-titled disc, released just after Nowell’s death, that made the biggest impact.
It sold five-times platinum and produced the singles “What I Got,” which hit No. 1 on the modern rock chart, and “Santeria” and “Wrong Way,” both of which went to No. 3.
Sublime had a platinum-live album, “Second-hand Smoke,” in 1997 and had three compilation albums go gold from 1998 to 2002.
Sublime With Rome released its first album, “Yours Truly,” in 2011. It hit No. 3 on Billboard’s Rock albums chart. The group followed up with 2015's "Sirens," with also hit No. 3 on that chart.
Its latest disc was 2019's "Blessings," which peaked at No. 6 on the Indie albums chart.
Sublime With Rome also played at Easton's State Theatre in 2019.
