Band

Singer and guitarist Pat Downes plays another band's music for a living. Downes is the front man for the Sublime tribute group Badfish. Several nights a week, Downes and his two bandmates re-create live shows by the incredibly popular '90s ska/punk group. Sublime disbanded shortly after lead singer Brad Nowell died in 1996. But demand for Sublime's music has only grown since then. Badfish formed seven years ago. Now, the trio routinely sells out large clubs - like the 1,900-capacity Rams Head Live, where the group will perform tomorrow.

The fact that all four are still alive is nothing short of miraculous. The original members of Motley Crue - lead singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx, lead guitarist Mick Mars and drummer Tommy Lee - spent much of the Reagan era wasted on drugs and alcohol and partying with groupies around the world. The wild times were funneled into the music, producing some of the most enduring hits in heavy metal: "Live Wire," "Dr. Feelgood," "Girls, Girls, Girls" and one of the genre's best ballads, "Home Sweet Home."

For a large portion of Grace Potter's life, singing wasn't her top priority. Potter tried acting, painting and interior design before forming roots rock band the Nocturnals in college in upstate New York. Now, after about five years together, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are touring nationally and preparing to release their major-label debut. Tomorrow, they'll stop in the city for a show at the 8x10. Potter said growing up, she took her voice for granted. "Because of how naturally it came, it was almost like it was too easy of a decision," she said.

The consensus seems to be that it's a risky move but a brilliant one nonetheless. Radiohead, the multiplatinum British rock band, bucks conventional "record" industry wisdom today by releasing its new album, In Rainbows, exclusively on the group's Web site. But the really audacious part is that Radiohead, which is not under contract with a record company, is allowing fans to pay whatever they want for the music: 1 cent, $1, $10, whatever. Since the critically acclaimed quintet made the announcement a week ago, music circles have been buzzing about the unprecedented move.

Not many musicians can claim to have shared the stage with their idols. But at the age of 27, blues guitarist Sean Costello has done exactly that. Costello, who began playing guitar at age 9 and touring at 14, has opened for and performed with the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Bo Diddley. He has enjoyed a wealth of critical acclaim for his 2005 self-titled album. Although Costello enjoys a constant tour schedule, he will enter the studio again in the winter to record a new album. You can catch one of his performances Sunday at the annual Alonzo's Memorial Picnic in Rosedale.

Their luck was messed up for so long that the guys of Blue October decided to call their latest album Foiled. "Every time we took a step, something pushed us two steps back," says Justin Furstenfeld, the modern-rock band's spiky-haired focal point and lead singer. "We might as well just say it: We're foiled." After a decade of personal and artistic ups and downs, after being signed, dropped, then re-signed to Universal Records, Blue October has finally arrived, so to speak. Unexpectedly, Foiled has become the Houston quintet's biggest album.

With a new album named Alpha in stores last month, alt-metal band Sevendust comes to Rams Head Live Sunday. The band's self-titled debut album, released in 1997, earned it national attention and went gold. Its next two albums, Home and Animosity, followed suit, establishing Sevendust as a solid, successful band. Rams Head Live is at 20 Market Place in Power Plant Live. Tickets are $20 in advance and $23 the day of the show. Call 410-244-1131 or go to ramsheadlive.com.

Wellbutrin rock. Manic. Euphoric. Hippie-dippy. Unwieldy Dallas ensemble. Beatific cult. Novelty act. The Hare Krishnas of the rock world. The Polyphonic Spree, the 22-member, self-described "choral symphonic rock group" from Texas, has been called a lot of things. Just don't ask group leader Tim DeLaughter if the band members really are "shiny happy people," as more than one writer has put it. "That remark really insults my intelligence and [the writers']. ... People come out and see our show and say, `Oh, these shiny happy people,' and it's just so shallow," he says of the band, which performs Saturday night at Rams Head Live.

Salute the military and enjoy a day of star-spangled activities at the third annual Patriotic Festival in Virginia Beach today. Throughout the day, visitors can see military displays, enjoy kids' activities and hear live music. Power-pop band the Saving Graces and the eclectic band Butter play on the stage at 31st Street and Oceanfront 2 p.m.-5 p.m. The evening concerts kick off at 7 p.m. at Fifth Street and Oceanfront with new country singer Jason Michael Carroll. Headliner Gretchen Wilson belts out her hit country songs beginning at 8:30 p.m. on the Fifth Street stage.

For a certain breed of Van Halen fan, it's like finally getting to scratch a pesky itch. More than 20 years have passed since David Lee Roth was unceremoniously dumped from his band in favor of vocalist Sammy Hagar, carving a schism between Van Halen aficionados and creating years of frustration for fans of the original singer. And more than a decade has passed since Van Halen first teased at a reunion with Roth, initiating what would become a continuing procession of rumors, botched plans and public feuding.

When Mount Hebron High School's longtime band director left abruptly in December, it felt to many students like the day the music died. But nowadays, strains of a traditional Sousa march and two sunny pop anthems fill the air outside the Ellicott City school as marching band members rehearse their first official halftime show with a new director and a new outlook. The Vikings Marching Band was set to take the football field Friday under the direction of Daniel Pendley, who has taken over the beloved band program that was one man's empire for more than three decades.

SUNDAY HEAVEN AND HELL: The heavy metal band fronted by Ronnie James Dio is joined by other genre heavyweights Coheed and Cambria at Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway. Gates open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $35-$75. Go to ticketmaster.com. DANCING IN THE STREETS BLOCK PARTY: Dance in the streets of Pikesville and take a step back into the 1950s and 1960s with classic rock and classic Corvettes. An Elvis impersonator, Big Cam & The Lifters, and J.D. and the Blades perform.

The joke at Ravens camp Sunday was that Derrick Mason would arrive by helicopter for his first post-retirement news conference. The star wide receiver would be lowered on a rope ladder to the practice field at McDaniel College, where a band would play and the crowd would cheer and the media would eat it up, especially the TV people, who always whine they need better "visuals" anyway. Only it didn't work out that way. Look, there's a recession going on. Know how much it costs to rent a chopper these days?

For six years, the Wiyos ground out a living on the road, playing hundreds of shows in the U.S. and abroad. This year, all that relentless gigging finally paid off. The Wiyos, a little-known four-piece band from New York, got an opportunity most bands dream of - the chance to open for legends Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp on a 28-date summer tour. Friday, that tour brings them to Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. Even now, after a few stops on the tour, the members of the Wiyos wonder just how they earned the opening spot on a bill with such heavyweights.

For years, the Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad has thrilled and repulsed audiences with its absurd brand of over-the-top hard rock. The five guys in the Baltimore band wear outrageous costumes (like a giant horse head and a mad scientist outfit) and sing songs that are aggressively inappropriate. But after gigging around the region for a couple of years and releasing the album Die Humpin!, the band members felt like they'd hit a wall. They could only play the same Baltimore venues so many times, guitarist Ryan Graham said.

THURSDAY 'DR. STRANGELOVE:' Stanley Kubrick's 1964 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb screens at this week's Flicks from the Hill at 9 p.m. at American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Highway. Peter Sellers stars in this political satire as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and Dr. Strangelove. Attendees may also tour the museum for free from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event is free. Call 410-244-1900 go to avam.org. STAIND: The Massachusetts-based rock band fronted by Aaron Lewis has gone from covering '90s grunge bands to recording six studio albums that included such singles as "It's Been Awhile."

John Miliauskas had watched so much change at Towson University that he finally came to a conclusion about the university band's most-played piece. "It was OK," the band director said of Towson's fight song, played at football games and student rallies. "But we wanted to make it something extra special." With that in mind, Towson is holding a contest for new fight song lyrics. The competition - open to students, alumni, faculty and donors - will run through July 17. The winner will receive $500.

CONCERT Conor Oberst: This indie rock star is busy. He's on his own solo tour, he's opening for Wilco this summer and he's even starting an indie supergroup dubbed the Monsters of Folk. So much for a relaxing summer. You can catch the sensitive singer along with his Mystic Valley Band at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Ottobar. Web: theottobar.com TV 'Ruby' : Not all of the stars of reality TV are wafer-thin and unlikable. Ruby Gettinger, an overweight Savannah, Ga., woman trying to get healthy, has won over legions of fans with her poignant struggle.

First Thursdays, an event that's become one of Baltimore's quintessential summer evening experiences, is returning to Mount Vernon. The summer concert series, which is off to a late start after being canceled in May and again in June, debuts, weather permitting, at 5:30 p.m. today at West Mount Vernon Park. Annapolis band Pressing Strings will open for the Guggenheim Grotto, a pop folk band from Ireland. "In a time when being connected means tapping at your keyboard or PDA, First Thursday provides people the opportunity to interact with their friends," says Steve Yasko, general manager of WTMD, the radio station that's sponsored the shows for the last five years after inheriting the responsibility from Baltimore's City Paper.

FILM Public Enemies: Johnny Depp plays lovable knaves like no one else, so it's no surprise that he feels right at home behind the tommy gun as 1930s gangster John Dillinger. And what's a bad boy without a gal at his side and a G-man on his tail? A-listers Marion Cotillard and Christian Bale round out director Michael Mann's all-star cast. In theaters Wednesday. CONCERT Guggenheim Grotto : This up-and-coming Irish folk-pop band finally gets the First Thursday concert series up and running this week.