Reel Big Fish at Irving Plaza

Ska music originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, as musicians playing Caribbean mento and calypso began incorporating American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica in the 1950s and 1960s, after which rocksteady and then reggae became the signature sounds of that nation. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, British bands including the Specials, the English Beat and Madness popularized the music within the punk movement. Beginning in the late 1990s, bands like California’s Reel Big Fish revived the music to new, younger audiences through the Warped Festival and other exposures. Although interest in the music generally seems to have waned again, Reel Big Fish rocked Irving Plaza tonight with its jumpy guitar and horn section. The band plays the Brooklyn Bowl on Monday, February 4th.