Sublime With Rome bids farewell to OC with Fortunate Youth & Bikini Trill

On Saturday, July 27th, Sublime With Rome headlined a sold-out show at Costa Mesa’s Pacific Amphitheatre as part of the ensemble’s official farewell tour. 

They were supported this night by fellow reggae friends, Bikini Trill and Fortunate Youth.

It was a warm evening at the Orange County Fairgrounds and you could feel the anticipation amping up as the packed crowd got settled. Bikini Trill was first to hit the stage with a really fun set, playing favorites like “No Sleep to Cali” and many others. I always enjoy getting the opportunity to see them live!

Next up was one of my personal favorites, Fortunate Youth. If you’ve ever seen FY live and close to their SoCal homes, you know it’s always a family show! It was great seeing so many people enjoying their set, dancing and smoking it up, while the band members performed with their kids onstage! A couple times during the set, the man with the big joints, We Should Smoke, came out to hype the crowd — which is when the show really goes up in smoke. It’s true… Fortunate Youth smoked us all out as they went through the fan-favorites. 

Following this stony, yet talented display was a tribute to the band that started it all for Southern California. Sublime With Rome hit the ground running and played a great set to cap the night. Rome made a point of thanking all the fans for the support over the tumultuous year they’ve been having, as this is SWR’s final run now that original band members have united with late frontman Bradley Nowell’s son Jakob to perform under the “Sublime” name moving forward.

Regardless of the situation, SWR still put on one hell of a show.

They played all the crowd favorites, like “Smoke Two Joints”, “Doin’ Time”, and “April 29, 1992”, as well as many of Rome’s originals. Lest we forget those!! It was a really fascinating hearing 10,000 fans singing every word; it was a really amazing experience and an overall great night. It might be the end of an era for Rome Ramirez but, personally, I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Photography by Sean McCracken