More than 500 UNCW students list them as a favorite band on Facebook, posters hang on dorm and apartment walls everywhere and on hot days their music can be heard out of open windows on the drive to the beach. Yes, the fact that the band Sublime has not actually existed since 1996 does not seem to be stopping students from being huge fans. But since Sublime is no longer on the road, is the hope of hearing some great live music a futile one? Not if you ask one dedicated cover band.

Wrong Way, based out of Athens, Ga., consists of Geoff Lewis (keyboards), Joel Byron (guitar/vocals), Brady Smith (drums), Doug Gross (bass) and Mike Sparrow (vocals) and has been playing Sublime covers since 2004. In fact, it all started at a restaurant Christmas party.

“As far as how all of this got started, it really revolves around a little restaurant in downtown Athens, Ga., called The Grill. There were always all sorts of musicians from the local music scene working there and every year the employees of it would get together to form a band to play at the annual Christmas party. Basically, we would do a live band karaoke type of thing. We would learn whatever songs other employees wanted us to learn and they would get on the mic and sing them with us at the party. Three of us were playing in the band one year, and we all had such good chemistry that we decided it might be cool to play a gig or two around town. We decided on Sublime and in no time we were playing downtown regularly. It kind of blossomed from there,” bassist Doug Gross said.

Why cover Sublime?

“Aside from the fact that they’re a killer band, I think one of the big reasons we started playing their music is because people don’t have a chance to see them perform live anymore since the death of their frontman, Bradley Nowell. So many people out there still love the band but will never get to see them play, so we just try to be the next best thing. We really just want people who love Sublime to have a chance to hear their music performed live like it might have been years ago” Gross said.

Wrong Way will be playing Sept. 27 at Red Dog’s in Wrightsville Beach, but if you missed that, don’t worry — they will also be playing in Asheville, N.C., in November and many other locations in South Carolina in the next few months (to see a complete list of show dates visit the band’s page: www.myspace.com/wrongwaysublime).

Why see the show?

“Students should come to the show because we rock! No seriously, I guess the real reason for anyone to come to our show is because it’s fun music. Sublime is party music, and we definitely like to party,” Gross said.