Fresh off sixth months of successful touring, mostly across the United Kingdom and Australia, California ska-rockers Reel Big Fish began their North American tour in style Saturday night, delivering its brand of sarcastic, self-deprecating riff-rock to a sold-out Club Axis in Boston. RBF, as they are affectionately known to their fans, took to a dimly-lit stage around 8 p.m. as the Star Wars theme song screamed over the house PA system. The crowd began cheering as soon as the house lights went dark. I had the chance to sit down and speak with three of the remaining founding band members before the show in the cozy confines of their bright red tour bus-quite a different setting from the deafening and sweltering conditions inside the venue. I asked Aaron Barrett (vocals/lead guitar), Dan Regan (trombone) and Matt Wong (bass) about the band's ever-changing roster and how such fluctuation has affected the band throughout its decade-long career. "It keeps it fresh,' Barrett responded. Wong immediately chimed in, explaining that he believes the current lineup is "musically, the tightest we've ever been."

In fact, long-time band member Scott Klopfenstein (trumpet, guitar, piano, vocals) was absent for Saturday night's show due to a prolonged illness and hospital stay in New Zealand. Filling in on vocals and trumpet for Saturday's show and the foreseeable future was John Christianson.

Yet the recently-updated lineup could not spoil RBF's sold-out opening night, which began with a vengeance as the band immediately burst into "Good Thing," an atypically optimistic song from a band known for its woeful and dejected lyrics. The song's chorus features the line "You know we've got a good thing going/and I don't want to see it end." Although entirely uncharacteristic of the band's style, it seems to describe the group's general demeanor and attitude, particularly regarding their careers.

"A lot of people say, 'You guys had a lot of success way back when,' but we're successful right now," Barrett said.

"The problem is that people who don't really know equate success with being on the radio and that actually is not true at all," Wong continued with a serious tone. "Right now we are the most successful we have ever been. Ever. I think that the secret to our success is that we do focus so much on our touring and our live performance because that's our bread and butter."

This was glaringly obvious from the first note RBF played Saturday night. Despite the cynical tone of most of the songs played-including "Everything Sucks," "She Has a Girlfriend Now," "Beer" and "Sell Out"-it was clear that all five band members thoroughly enjoyed themselves from beginning to end. The same can be said for the audience who, by the second verse of the first song, had transformed the club's main floor into a battle royale. At one point toward the end of the night, part of the aggressive, even brutal, crowd toppled over, causing a domino effect of sorts and knocking a large portion of the room to the ground.

The hundreds in attendance were treated to RBF songs both new and old, as well as covers of Morrissey's "We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful," which is featured on the band's most recent record entitled We're Not Happy 'Til You're Not Happy. Also included in the set was a cover of A-Ha's '80s hit "Take on Me" and a Sublime tune.

I asked the band about one track off of We're Not Happy, fittingly titled "Don't Start a Band." "We don't need the competition!" Barrett stated emphatically.

IThe single best word to describe their performance has to be "energetic." It's rare to see a band with as much on-stage personality and energy as Reel Big Fish, and their devout fans consistently responded in suit, singing along to nearly every word that came out of Barrett's mouth.