After 2005’s self-indulgent We’re Not Happy ’Til You’re Not Happy, a bitter rumination on their unceremonious fall from stardom after ska fell out of popular favor, Reel Big Fish returned to the silly, irreverent party music fans expect of them for 2007’s Monkeys For Nothin’ and the Chimps for Free. The group keeps the good times rolling with their upcoming Fame, Fortune and Fornication, a collection of cartoony, punked-out covers of songs by Poison, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp. The band reasserts their ska credentials with the requisite Toots and the Maytals cover (“Monkey Man”) and nods to their considerable frat following with a stab at “Brown Eyed Girl” that’s just begging to be licensed to the next National Lampoon straight-to-DVD college farce. Reel Big Fish tops a 7:30 p.m. bill at the Rave tonight with openers Streetlight Manifesto.
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