The 9:30 Club, the 8x10, Fletchers, Recher Theatre, State Theatre; For those of you who frequently go to concerts at small venues you know these names.  They are the small concert venues that are scattered throughout Baltimore, Fairfax and Washington DC.

Well, I’m happy to let you in on a little secret, shh…….The Badfish is slowly establishing itself as a bona fide live music concert venue.  I’ve been watching this scene take shape the past couple months and this weekend confirmed what I had suspected: Badfish is building itself quite a reputation for live concerts.

I’ve been meaning to write about this new format at Badfish since the end of the year and I’ve been scouting other venues as well for this story, and it became quite apparent to some that I was scouting, some even thought I was some sort of spy for other clubs.  Little did anyone know I was preparing this article, so I guess the cat is out of the bag!

This past Friday night they had local boys Shallow Deep open up the evening, followed by Atlanta, Georgia based Echovalve and highlighted by the popular regional band Lennex, who is fronted by Phil Richey.  Phil was one of the finalists on the recent Rockstar Supernova music talent show featuring Dave Navarro and Tommy Lee.  I was surprised to hear that Lennex has been together for 10 years and they have the same members as when they began.  That’s rare these days in music. 

Even with a cover of $10 for admission, which is a bargain for a live concert, Badfish was packed to the gills.  Okay, it’s Badfish and it was packed to the gills!  Seriously, all three bands put on a great show that had the packed crowd screaming for more. 

Jarod Taylor is the entertainment guy at Badfish and through his extensive network of bands and contacts he’s been able to bring in some national acts from as far as LA and Atlanta to play in Solomon’s.  Most of these bands are original acts, but some will throw in a few cover tunes too.  Badfish seems to prefer the 3 band format on many nights, which provides their patrons a nice sample of each band and many times they will bring the band back at a later date for their own show.  As of now the live music takes place on Friday and Saturday nights, and Badfish just started a new Wednesday acoustic lineup, where the areas finest bands come in and do an unplugged night of rock.

In other local music news, Solomon’s Island is getting geared up for the annual Tiki Bar Opening set this year for Friday April 20, 2007.  I know there will be plenty of festivities going on at each venue on Solomon’s, so any venues planning any events that weekend, let me, your music man on the scene know and I will devote an article the week before highlighting the popular events.  In other words, I will provide you, my loyal readers with the best bets for Tiki opening weekend.  Just email them to me at zrettstatt@comcast.net and I’ll pass it along.  I also plan to highlight a different venue each month and maybe a different band as well.

For more info on The Badfish and their events, visit www.thebadfish.net