My only glimpse of Fishbone before Hallowe'en of this year had been at
Lollapalooza III and much has changed in terms of the band's line-up
since then. They played as part of the "Alley-Cat Scramble" (a
competition for bike-couriers) at the Cinespace Warehouse near the Lake
in Toronto.

I arrived shortly after 9 PM and the bike competition was still going
on. Angelo was walking around just hanging out and talking to anyone who
approached. Nice to see he's still for the fans!

They went on pretty much right at 11 PM. Angelo came out in his baggy
suit and derby and blew a single BWOP from his sax and sang out "Holy
shite" 3 or 4 times and then said "Thank you, good night" and walked off
stage. Everyone thought that was pretty funny and he then came back with
the rest of the boys. Norwood was in the Hallowe'en spirit wearing a
big, purple bedsheet and pointy wizard hat.

The line-up was Angelo Moore (vocals/sax), Walter Kibby
(vocals/trumpet), Norwood Fisher (bass/vocals), Spacey T. Singleton
(guitar), a keyboardist/trombonist and a drummer. I forget the
keyboardist's name (what's his name again? Help me out!) and the drummer
was nobody I recognized (I don't think it was Fish, correct me if I'm
wrong).

They started with a song called "The TV is a liar" or something. I was
hoping they'd start out with "Swim" but not to be.... Their set list
included the following (maybe I've forgotten a song or two, not
necessarily in this order):

- The TV Is A Liar
- Sunless Saturday
- Beer Gut
- When Problems Arise
- Ma & Pa
- Unyielding Conditioning
- Bonin' In The Boneyard
- Masquerade
- Skankin' To The Beat
- VTTLOTFDGF
- Party At Ground Zero (YES!)

Now, my traditional 3 concert evaluating categories:

Stuff I Expected They'd Play But Didn't: Swim, Everyday Sunshine, Chim
Chim's Badass Revenge.

Stuff I Hoped They'd Play But Didn't Expect: Housework, The Goose,
Freddie's Dead, Cholly.

Stuff I'm Glad They Played But Wasn't Expecting: Bonin' In The Boneyard,
Ma & Pa, Party At Ground Zero.

Angelo also did a few Dr. Maddvibe poem snippits here and there, too.
The crowd was really into the show and there was no knuckle-head
security or "men-on-a-mission" in the pit out to hurt people. Stage
diving was rampant throughout the show but nobody got hurt. Girls also
went up on stage whenever they wanted and danced with the band without
reprisal. Overall there was a good atmosphere to the show and, like I
said, nobody attending or working was out to prove anything.

Since it was Hallowe'en there were many people in costumes which led to
some amusing moments. One guy had a really good "Colonel Sanders" oufit
on and it looked hilarious when he was dancing on stage. Also, during
"Beergut" Walter encouraged anyone with a big gut to come up on stage
and this guy who came dressed as Fat Albert (with tons of padding to
simulate the fat) came up and did a stage dive.

The show was about an hour and 20 minutes with no encore. That seemed a
little short but Fishbone was probably told when they had to be on and
off because there were still events to do with the bike competition
going on after the concert. I give the show an 8.5 out of 10, and the
marks lost are only due to the fact that it seemed cut short a little.
Good show, 'Bone.... don't stay away too long!

--
Chris W. Engler, CWE Consulting

I just got back from a weekend trip in Toronto. When money, time, and
opportunity are available, I try to travel to cool places. For those of
you who may have not traveled to T-O, I highly recommend it. I love the
Toronto Maple Leafs, and of course Fishbone. On this weekend the Leafs were
a major disappointment, while Fishbone was anything but. As is normally the
case, Fishbone had to play under less than suitable conditions. They were
playing at a bike courier, figure 8 race track in what is normally a
warehouse on Halloween. It seemed like a really cool idea, but I don't
think it was promoted very well. Unless you were standing right in front
you couldn't see much of the stage. Thankfully I'm 6'3" and can see over
most heads.
The band came out fired up, and Angelo seemed particularly juiced
(naturally of course). I'd have to agree with whoever said in their post
about the LA show, that the less familiar material got more puzzled looks
than anything, but they didn't let that affect them. Considering how new
the drummer is (Deion), them were as tight as ever. I didn't want to admit
it, but this guy is every bit as good as Fish, and even gives a bit more of
a stage presence (as much as a drummer can), much like Jamie Miller of Snot.
Walt was on the money, getting the crowd involved. Norwood was dressed in a
Merlin's outfit for Halloween, and funky as ever. John McKnight seems to
feel more at ease and plays trombone and keys really well. Spacey T. is
Spacey T......A pure rock talent... 'nuff said! That's my main man. And
Angelo? This was a classic performance! I dont think he stopped to rest
even for a moment. Even with the smallish crowd, there was stage diving
aplenty. My favorite part of the show was the guy dressed as Colonel
Sanders and his buddies wearing the Michael Myers masks and KFC buckets on
their heads stage diving like it was the last Fishbone show. Walt seemed to
be find them particularly funny, and I've hardly ever seen him laugh. There
was also the guy dressed as Fat Albert, pillows and all (THIS time, I'll
forgive the black face ;-) ), who jumped on the stage, drinking a beer
while they were playing beer gut.....then they rolled him off the stage.
If anyone out there thinks Fishbone is fading, they've got a suprise
coming. I spoke to Spacey T. after the show and he said they are going to
take a long break from touring to complete the Friends of Fishbone CD for
Hollywood records. They sound great and they look like they're having fun
again.
Without going into details, Angelo did a major favor for me, one that he
obviously went out of his way to do, and I can't thank him enough.
Hopefully if he or any of the guys in the Fishbone camp read this post, I'd
like to thank him and the band for everything. These are great human beings
as well as great musicians, and I'm proud to be a part of a devoted group
that supports them.

P.S. - Special hello to the beautiful Bloodroot ;-)

Peace to All You Soldiers

High C

And a few more things, now that I'm rested from that 9 hour drive back
to Washington DC. The Alley Cat Scramble in itself was cool, but having
Fishbone play there on Halloween night made it really cool. They played
in-between the semifinals and finals of the bike courier race weekend. The
bike riders there seemed to be real uptight. I hear its a real bad attitude
sport. It was almost as if they were pissed that people came to see
Fishbone instead of them, but wouldn't you want to bring in a new audience
to your sport? Anyway, the weird thing was when Fishbone was done with
their set and encore, they were ready to come on for a second encore, but
the people who put together the event wanted them to stop so they could
start the finals, so they turned off their mics. Definitely not cool. Keep
in mind this was a warehouse, not a bar, so there were no city curfews to be
met. After the crowd got a little restless, they did let them play one
more, and they closed with "The Goose", with Walt singing from behind
Norwood's amp??? If your familiar with the song, near the end, Fish used to
go off and show why he's one of the baddest drummers alive. Well the new
drummer Deion (if I'm misspelling, please forgive) played that part even
better than Fish! I hope this guy is a keeper and they can get on to making
some good new material. The recent exposure on the Magic Hour and Viva
Variety was good, but I hope they stay in the public eye more consistently
until the Friends of Fishbone album comes out. Spacey T. told me that they
taped a performance for, get this...... The Donny and Marie Show?!?!? It's
supposed to air on December 1st.
For you guitarists out there, Spacey T. appears to have dropped the
Jackson guitars, and now plays what looked like Parker Fly models (black and
white), and the sound improvement is obvious. I spoke to him a little bit
about his previous work. If you haven't heard the O.G. Funk album, pick it
up today. He plays on all of the tracks, but the best thing is a tribute
song he did to Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic called "Music for My Brother".
It sounds like a "Maggot Brain" cover, but is definitely all Spacey. You
can tell the soloing was from his heart and soul, and I imagine it was hard
to write a song for a close friend that died. It's a bit long, so you
really have to like guitar solos. This song shows how great he really is.
He also said he is going to be doing some work with HR after the Soul Brains
tour is over, and get this....he's reuniting Sound Barrier! Yeah....I was
shocked too. He said the original guys are still around in L.A. and they
are going to start playing soon. Sounds like he has a full plate, but he
said "now's the time" and he' s "just got to get it done"....... Fishbone,
HR, AND Sound Barrier....whew!
I just got my copy of Angelo's CD. It doesn't sound like the past
Fishbone albums, but definitely a good representation of his personality,
and I'm glad I purchased it. I noticed in the liner notes, he gave thanks
to "The Original Members of Fishbone". Its great to see he has no
bitterness towards them, and even now, takes the time to think about them.
As I said earlier, a class act!
This winter should bring big things for Fishbone and I am looking
forward to it.

Halloween with Fishbone. Yes!
First we did the Halloween rounds with Eric my eight-year old. He was
dressed as Yoshi. We got a lot of "what a cute little dinosaur" comments.
We dumped the loot and Eric ditched his costume and Linda (my wife), Eric
and I booted it downtown to catch Ozomatli at The Guvernment. They were
with Spring Heel Jack, The Pietasters and The Cherry Poppin' Daddies.
Ozomatli played first and they were really really hot. We were all
grooving. Eric has been playing their CD non-stop the last month and he was
singing along in spanish which he has phonetically learned from the CD.
They only palyed about 45 minutes which was just a teaser. I can't wait for
them to come back for their own gig.

Next was Spring Heeled Jack and they play that speed thrash ska which
doesn't do much for me. High speed skanking with metal guitar drowning out
the horns and some guy yelling incomprehensible lyrics. We left during the
third song. I was having to hold my hands over Eric's ears too, as it ws
too loud for an 8 year old. I mean let him fuck up his hearing by himself
when he's a teenager.

We just crossed over the street to Cinespace which is actually a movie
shooting stage where Fishbone were to be playing at the Alley Cat Scramble.
But they wouldn't let us in with Eric because it was a 19+ event promoted
by a cigarette company.
Eric ws tired anyways. We went home and tucked the little guy into bed.
Linda was beat too so I didn't have to get our neighbour over to watch
Eric. I went back to see Fishbone.

And they were really good. First thing, Angelo said that they had been over
catching Ozomatli. Then they started with Black Box, Behavior Control
Technician, ..um I forget, then Sunless Saturday, Then they did stuff like
Skankin' to the Beat, Maskaraid, the slow Problems, Freze dried Godzilla
Farts, and they ended the show proper with the complete Party at GZ. About
an hour and twenty minutes. People were surfing and dancing the whole time.
I was over at the right of the stage behind these guys on stilts for those
who were there. The older looking guy.

So then the encore time comes and people are appauding and cheering but the
goofs at the place start to play music through the PA and turn up the house
lights and everyone got confused. I mean we Canadians are quite polite and
when a show is over the signal here is to turn up the lights. There was
still the men's bike race finals to be run yet. So the crowd didn't know
whether that was the deal. Anyways this guy got on the microphone and
rabble roused the house and everyone cheered the house down and Fishbone
came out. Angelo wanted to play Monkey Dick but he got voted down and they
played Alcoholic. Then the house lights came back on again and the
organizers tried to say that was it over but Fishbone weren't leaving the
stage and the crowd was cheering like crazy. I mean you can fool us once
but that's it. The guitar player and one of the sax players from Ozomatli
joined them for the last encore song which was.... I meant to check this
but I think it was the Goose from Fuelin'.

Fishbone. The new drummer is at least as good as Fish is. He seems a bit
looser of a player. I mean Fish was so tight, so right there, that anyone
would seem loose compared, I guess. McKnight was perfect as keys and
trombone man. Spacey cranks it out. Walt and Norwood were having a good
time and Angelo was happy too. Angelo is getting really hot on the
Theremin. It has gone from being a novelty to being a real instrument
playing it's proper part in the songs. I want to get one now.

I'm happy I got to see Fishbone and my new fav band Ozomatli on the same night.

Robert

Yo, for those of you going to see the bone I got

a set list from the show in T.O. here it is:

1.black box
2.behavior control
3.zilla
4.sunless
5.give it up
6.ma & pa
7.skankin'
8.just allow
9.beer gut
10.bonin'
11.problems
12. maskeraid
13.unyeilding
14.party
15.alcoholic
and the last 4 they didn't play
16.sub. fasc.
17.monkey dick
18.freddy
19.swim

Later,

Ted da Bone Head

The Toronto show on the 31st/10 was the first time I have seen Angelo use the
theremin.It was cool live , he freaks on this thing. By the way , wasn't
the encore the coolest shit ever? Fishbone were joined by Ozomatli on stage
and played "The Goose". There has to be a Fishbone / Ozomatli tour. They're
the perfect compliment to one another. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Chris