(from the New York Times, June 17 1991)

One of the better things about American popular music is that it has traditionally encouraged audience participation, and at Fishbone's show on Saturday night, the audience participated.

At one point the group's lead singer, Angelo Moore, had the entire floor of the Academy, on West 43d Street, moving in a huge slam-dancing circle. At another, he had himself carried out by members of the audience on the floor to the balcony, where he lifted himself off their hands, wandered around upstairs, then jumped back into their waiting arms. For the whole show, the audience, miasmic and dancing wildly, offered up enough stage-divers to keep the bouncers at the stage looking threatened.

Throughout the nearly two-hour show, the seven-member band moved from speed metal to dissonant and jokey Jamaican ska, from dense Parliament-Funkadelic funk to blues and soul and quartet gospel swing. The group used the audience to reach a consensus about what constituted good taste, what was historically worth saving; at one point it inducted fans in the willing crowd into the Fishbone Familyhood by having them pledge allegiance to fun.

But the sense of community was extended beyond the Saturday good-time ritual when the band, unabashedly political, did some preaching as well. Kendall Jones, the group's lead guitarist, spoke about his definition of obscenity -- wars, not words. Mr. Moore delivered some antiracist remarks that had the audience cheering wildly.

That feeling of community makes Fishbone one of the most exciting bands currently working. Although it doesn't generate hit songs -- and doesn't have great singers, either -- it generates an extraordinary intensity, the sort that can make a long show seem short and an audience pliable. It helps that it's a real live band, capable of dynamic, textural and tempo changes that make its performances, in small auditoriums especially, endlessly dramatic. Its drummer, Phillip (Fish) Fisher, knows his way around the vernacular styles the band rushes through, and he can make just about every rhythm and beat feel good. The band also keeps the show's visual requirements going as well, running around the stage, diving into the audience, waving instruments around. When the concert was over, the crowd filtered out to Times Square, hanging around, keeping the party going. Passers-by wondered what had just gone on.

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/17/arts/reviews-pop-fishbone-s-group-dy…