20 Years Ago: Opening for Reel Big Fish at St. Bonaventure

Nostalgia

Apr 30

It’s wild to think it’s been 20 years since one of the biggest weeks of my early music career — when NAVAR had the chance to open for Reel Big Fish not once, but twice in 2005.

The night before the St. Bonaventure show, we got the surprise of a lifetime: we were asked to open for them at the Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA.

Getting that call was electric — a huge vote of confidence that pushed the whole experience into another gear.

Here’s a look at two nights that changed everything:

📸 Crocodile Rock – Allentown, PA (4/27/2005)

After that wild night, we rolled into St. Bonaventure ready to keep the momentum going.

The St. Bonaventure show itself was unforgettable.

Huge thanks to our manager Adam Jester and to Steve Plesac for making it happen.

They believed in us, fought for us, and gave us a stage (literally) that helped put us in front of a ton of new faces.

The band that night was the real deal — my brother Ben Barry holding it down on bass, Mike “Skippy” Yudichak on guitar, and Tim Lindhome driving it all from behind the drums. We were young, loud, and tight as hell. I’ll always be proud of how we showed up that night and left it all on stage. Many thanks to Jeff Perry for always doing such a great job with our gear and logistics…along with being a dear friend.

Some highlights I’ll never forget:

Our intro song (Pink Floyd’s “Money”… or maybe “Have a Cigar”?) ended up playing way too long before we actually hit the stage.
Jason Thomas jumped up with us for a rowdy, epic version of the “Mojave Shake.”
Two of my CUTCO coworkers — Kathleen Donovan and Pam Bailey — joined us on stage during “Touch of Class” to clap along and lift the energy even higher.
We sold a TON of merch — probably one of the best merch nights NAVAR ever had.
After the show, we ended up at AJ’s in Olean, shooting pool and sharing beers with the Reel Big Fish guys — some of the nicest, most down-to-earth dudes you could ever meet.

Those are the nights that stick with you.

Not because everything went perfectly (because it definitely didn’t — see: 5 minutes of a Pink Floyd intro) — but because it felt perfect.

Music, connection, community — the reasons you start a band in the first place.