It was so humid last night on the club side at Water Street Music Hall that if you moved too fast, you'd make waves. Christ, I needed a snorkel. But then again, hot 'n' sweaty is where it's at in rock 'n' roll. Just try getting your rocks off in air-conditioned comfort. One-hundred or so bodies filled the joint to dig 40 oz. To Freedom and Texas jammers Egress.

The third-base coach was waving Egress home when I walked in, so I only caught the band's last song: a funky reggae crescendo.

In its couldn't-care-less beach bum dress code, 40 oz. To Freedom mounted the stage and was tight and all right. I didn't hang for the entire set, but felt my buck had received sufficient bang as the band seemed to play its set backward, opening up full throttle complete with plenty of solo wail typically reserved for the end of the night.

I should point out that 40oz To Freedom is a Sublime tribute band. I'm sure by now, everyone who reads my stuff knows I'd rather dry-hump a porcupine than listen to a cover band, but Sublime was a unique band just shy of becoming its own hybrid genre when its leader Brad Nowell bought the farm in 1996. There was a void and there still is. Maybe 40 oz To Freedom will keep this funky fun active and eventually write its own material within the idiom (if it hasn't already) or help pave the way for someone who will.