Let's make one thing perfectly clear: The members of Reel Big Fish are definitely not role models. In fact, they're as far from being model citizens as possible.
For example, the first time members of the Southern California ska-punk group hung out together outside normal band activities, they were paraded, while handcuffed, down the middle of Huntington Beach's Main Street by some of that city's finest."It was kind of cool because everyone that drove past us called the cops (bleep!)," recalled trumpet player Tavis Werts in a recent interview.
Werts and his bandmates won't admit exactly what they did to get themselves into hot water - except for admitting that they were being "troublemakers." They also say, very proudly, that they have been chased off stages by angry security guards more than once.
Reel Big Fish co-headlines a three-band ska-punk concert with Goldfinger and the Skeletones on Tuesday, Jan. 14, at Club DV8, 115 S. West Temple.
As for the band's unusual name, vocalist Aaron Barrett says it wasn't based on a highly fictionalized boat attack off the coast of Catalina Island, as other members have said. Instead, he said it comes from the 1949 edition of Rock and Roll Band Names, which noted that the phrase "real big fish" has been repeated in several classic films, among them "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
"It's from that famous line at the end of `Casablanca' - you know, `The problems of seven small people don't add up to a hill of beans in this real big fish,' " Barrett said.
About the only time the group gets serious, possibly, is when asked about its origins. Originally a three-piece, the flegdling Fish performed covers of every musical style possible before finally settling on ska - albeit ska with a toothy, cheesy grin attached.
Typical of the comedic ska-punk from "Turn the Radio Off!," the group's major-label debut are "Everything Sucks" and "Trendy," which doesn't make fun of trendy people. Instead, the song makes fun of people who make fun of trendy people.
"The album's about being in a band that doesn't go anywhere, and the girls who (bleep!) you over on the way," Barrett said.
Tickets for the all-ages concert, which starts at 8 p.m., are $10 in advance from Graywhale CD Exchange in Salt Lake City, Modified Music, Raunch Records and X-Mart, as well as Crandall Audio in Orem.