**Disclaimer: I have loved a little band called Sublime since first hearing Stand by Your Van in 1999 — three years after Bradley Nowell’s death. I never thought in my wildest live show dreams that the band would find another singer, get back together and take to the road; therefore, I will try to keep my fanaticism under control, but I can't make any promises.

When I was first told by a fellow Sublime junkie that bass player Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh were working with a new singer in an effort to recreate their 1990s punk-reggae rock outfit, I felt threatened and immediately responded, in the snobbiest of tones, “No way, it’s not Sublime without Bradley.”

Like any person obsessed with a band, I felt an instinctive urge to protect the music that had been playing through much of my existence. However, after about five minutes of surfing YouTube videos that featured new singer Rome Ramirez, I decided to break down my fanatically purist wall. “Bradley was all about the music,” I thought to myself, “Rome does have a legit voice and he seems humble about it at least.” So, over the next several months, I became accustomed to the idea of new singer as the guys announced they'd be calling the new lineup Sublime with Rome (after a brief tiff with Nowell’s family regarding who had rights to the name), and would be performing a series of dates this spring.

After last Sunday night’s sold-out stop in New York City, my whole perspective has changed, and I've come to the realization that I was wrong about the band not being Sublime without Brad.

This might sound like a total cliché, but when I closed my eyes at the show, it was like Brad's spirit was there. As the music filled the air, I could feel him in the lyrics and in the basslines, in the rhythms and guitar riffs, he was in the audience’s energy, and I could even hear him in Ramirez’s voice. That funky fresh Sublime vibe is Brad, and Sublime with Rome dutifully and with the utmost amount of reverence and rocking out, channeled Brad’s spirit for all the fans, and I assume, themselves as well.

This article appears in May 5-11, 2010.