I made the 4 hour drive to see them at the Firehouse in St. Louis, MO.
The place has a cool website so I thought it would be cool there. Thats
only what I thought... It looks cool, it's an old firehouse converted
into one big bar/restaurant room (with good food and friendly
waitstaff), and one big performance room with a bar and a game room in
the back.
The event was KSLU (http://kslu.slu.edu), a college,cable radio
station, 50th anniversary or something and those kids ran it. SO it was
great that the tickets were only 5 bucks but not cool that the tickets
said show starts at 8pm and at 9pm ~150 people were still standing
outside not let in yet.
The first band was a heavy band from Michigan.I didnt see them, I think
it was there fault everbody had to wait an extra hour and a half.
THe second band was Slightly Stoopid. They were 3 guys who played
reggae/punk/rock/ska and they were all good players but after waiting an
hour and half for the first band to start, tom me, everybody's faces
seemed to say "..but we want to see Fishbone NOW"
My time zones were all mixed up but FB went on after 12 I think.
(I talked to Walt before for a second and he said he still had to do
some paperwork and then his cd would be out!)
Angelo brought out his Tangerine iBook and did the poem "The End of the
WOrld as We Know It"(to the dismay of some females/lesbians in
attendance) and then they started with "party at ground zero" and they
were off. The place was totally filled by then so i think at least 500
people or so were there.
from left to right it was Jon McKnight on the keyboards/trombone/guitar
and usually sitting,John Steward an the drums with an O'Neal racing
shirt,and Spacey T on the right hand side. the semi-circle inside of
them were Angelo on the leftwith the
theremin/altosax/tenorsax/basssax/EbBabysax,Dirty walt an the pocket
trumpet right in front of the drums,and then noorwood on the electric
and 5 string acoustic basses.
They sounded like FISHBONE at their tightest and the crowd was so
excited to see them. THe crowd was a mix of everyone but lots of college
kids. Sometimes Spacey T was lost to my ears but other than that the mix
sounded pretty good. I knew the songs with more than 3 horns on the new
album would sound different live. THey did the words from "Weed Plant"
and not where'd you get those pants.
After the last song the crowd startes chanting "fishbone is RED HOT.."
over and over and FB acted a pleasantly surprised we were so
enthusiastic. Although Norwood led at least 2 or 3 chants during the
show that everyone made sound loud.THe set list was similar to Houston
with maybe a few differences. They did 2 encores. The last one Norwood
had to act as a calming mediator type figure because of this:
--------------------------------------------------
(warning: security guard rant to follow....if you work security at a
club and are on this list, i'm sure you are a cool one...)
I will probably never go to the Firehouse in St. Louis to see a
concert ever again. I hate places where the security as*wipes are
fuc*heads. At the beginning i saw this dude with a mag lite but he didnt
appear to be security. but oh, I must have just missed the sign on his
forehead that said "tonight i will use this mag light to draw blood from
a concert goers ear". it started after a light,very light mosh pit had
been going off and on for a few songs. this crowd was not unfriendly or
out of control at all. I saw the idiot door guy go charging in and put
someone in a headlock and take him out. I thought that maybe he took out
someone who was out of control outside. There is a sign outside that
says no crowd surfing or you will be ejected,but no one had yet. pretty
soon it happened again and again to some people.
Then I was able spot the bastards with either tan hats or maglites and I
watched how they were looking at people. Then Angelo jumps out into the
crowd toward second half of the set the crowd holds him up and gets him
back onstage. the aswipe security look like they are confused. then, of
course, someone starts to swim and everybody's passing them and 5
security fuks charge in(hurting whoever is standing between them and the
surfer)and take down the surfer so hard it would have been better if the
surfer would have fallen to the floor, and they charge through to the
door(again hurting whoever is standing in their satanic path)
That was only the first one.Most happened when "Swim" was played. THe
stupid idiot fukkers were actually trying to bob their head to the song
they had know idea what it was about.after the second or third one
someone actually grabbed the door man's(he was the worst) baseball hat
and threw it in the air.and it wasnt only surfer's that continued to get
thrown out but random other people at the end it seemed like if you made
a face at them you were goin out in a headlock, full abuse and all.My
fiends Dustin(from Boogie Shoes) got thrown out during Swim and he's a
small guy, he was taken down by the neck!
the crowd started to rebel at the very end where at least 4 or 5 fans
physically pushed them back after getting shoved out of the way by
security(and of course were taken out and abused in a headlock).
I've seen fishbone from coast to coast and never have i seen total
aswipes like these security schitts.if you were there,email the
firehouse,i am.
(rant over...)
-------------------------------------------
after the last song norwood said hey loved the crowd at st. louis and
so did John Steward. and you could tell they meant it.backstage the
whole band looked so excited and was congratulating themselves, that you
would have thought this was a first year band out playing their first
successful shows. Hopefully this wave will keep up and the people will
continue to pack the houses on every night of their tour so they can
more dates to the tour!!

** flattFUNk **

The show knocked my socks off, and, I think, is the best show I've seen
since Chris left (and, I think we're currently about 50/50 with about 8 with
chris, and 8 without...)

The shit is finally all coming together.

The webcast was a wash...no one seemed to have a mic that Angelo could use
for this.

I hooked up with a DAT taper, so, I'll hopefully be able to get a copy of
the show.

I wrote down a setlist for ya'll

i just checked it with the Houston show, and it's exactly the same, except:

1) They didn't do where'd you get those pants, they did weed plant (someone
said before the song..."pants, or plants...")

2) Freddie's Dead began with Junkie's Prayer.

3) they did a 2nd encore, playing Shakey Ground and BEHAVIOR CONTROL
TECHNICIAN!!!!!

a little something a mousy told me before the show....good news and bad....

GOOD: Fishbone was asked to open up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers/Stoned
Temple Pilots tour....(and after all that shit we talked about RHCP not
helping them out.....)

BAD: They might not wind up coming through the midwest at the end of may
(good thing I drove 12 hours to go see em....)

Question: Wouldn't the Fishbone and Friend's album have been a perfect time
to record a good version of "Fishbone is Red Hot"??

Brian: checked your site, and wound up checking back into the Spearhead site
(hadn't looked in a month....)....are you going to check him out in
Bloomingtom? I was thinking about it, but, then I noticed the DeKalb date, I
guess I'm going to that....Did you see the guy with the Spearhead sweatshirt
at the show? I told him about www.spearheadvibrations.com he has no idea
Michael was still doing stuff....

Piece y'all,
N

I was there and I have the bruises to prove it. Brian summed it up pretty
well. I stood in the very front the entire time and when they started in
on Bonin' some crack head motherfucker wanted me and my bro's spot up
front. I had driven 4 hours and stood though two opening bands. He didn't
get it, then he tried to get a spot from this girl next
to me, she grabbed him around the throat! He backed down after that.
The show was awsome and the crowd was really in to it.
Then we went back to the hotel, the next morning we see Angelo walking
though the lobby, they had stayed in our hotel. I guess KSLU put them up.

Leland W. Blank