Hi all...

I went to the show at the 9:30 club, got to the club around 5pm and met up with the band. My ex-gf was already on the bus with laptop showing Norwood the website again. First time she's ever really hung out with them at all. Anyway...so she brings her digicam and loans me her regular camera and we take pics of soundcheck. She got 2 disks of really good pics and I used up 3 rolls of film during soundcheck. I had to get on stage a couple times to get clear shots of Steward and McKnight tho cuz they weren't under good light. Once McKnight wasn't expecting it and when the flash went it scared him and he screamed into the mic. That was funny as shit. When soundcheck was over Angelo jumps off the stage and gives me a big hug (which hopefully impressed the ex :P ) and I introduced her to him and Walt. We talked for a few and food was bein served so Walt went to check that out.

Loaned Angelo my cell to make a few calls, then me and him hit the road on a mission for tube sox and a birthday cake. I'm not real familiar with the area around the 9:30 club so we drove around a bit and stopped in at a 7-11 for Angelo's coffee and my cigarettes. Then we hit a Rite Aid
(pharmacy) in search of tube sox (BTW, angelo is just wearin shoes, sox, shorts and a vest w/out shirt, all tattoo's on display). So we walk around for a few in the store, no sox to be found. Angelo asks the pharmacist at the counter "Hey man, y'all sell tube sox in here?". The Pharmacist looks at us like we're nuts. Evidently he didn't understand what we wanted, which is the coolest thing about DC, you can walk into any store anywhere in the area and ask for anything and they will always look at you like they have no clue what your talking about. "What! no
toothpaste?!?!" So we drive around some more til I see an athletic shop...which was right next to a small restaurant called "Negril" that I don't think Angelo noticed but struck me as odd. So we go in there... the girl in the athletic shop seemed confused by our request for tube socks too. Luckily they were behind the counter where we could see them when we walked in, so I just pointed at them. Cool...no we got sox...on to the birthday cake...must find grocery store/bakery. Girl at athletic shop says grocery store is just down the street...points in wrong direction. We drive about 10 blocks and still no store...turn off on a side street and find a cop, so angelo gets out to ask directions. I would love to have taken a picture of him standing about 10 feet from the cop dressed like that askin him about a bakery or grocery store. Cop gives us directions to the nearest Giant (grocery store) and says "You guys be
careful down there..thats a pretty rough neighborhood." So we get to the giant and find the cake quick...in line...no candles...I watch the cake while angelo is literally running back and forth in the store looking for candles after about 3 passes he runs back to where we got the cake and finds them. cool...out of the store...20 mins til doors. Drop angelo off so he can get changed.

Damn this is really interesting isnt it. (I'm boring the crap out of you I'm absolutely sure of it, which is why this story probably won't go on the internet) This is gettin long too. Tell me if its boring you and I'll make it quicker...oh yeah..you can't...hahahahahaha..guess you'll deal with the long version. Hmm...back to the story...where did we leave
our heroes? Ahh...they're gettin dressed and i'm parkin my truck.

So angelo tells me to come to the bus when I get back...I park the truck and i'm passing the front of the club and there's a huge line of people. Must be time to start flyering...so I get out a handful of flyers and walk up the line passin out flyers workin my way over to the tourbus. As I
approach the bus to get on, the club security guy stops me and says I can't get on the bus. I explain to him that I just dropped off Angelo and he told me to get on the bus. He says not without a pass and that I can't be in the alley..go to the window for my pass. Hit the window and they say check the other window for guestlists. Hit the 2nd window and they say that the club hasn't written up the guest passes yet. So I start flyering again...this big club security guy says "Sorry sir, you can flyer on the way out, but not on the way in" I explain that I'm flyering FOR the band..his response "Oh, well, in that case...sorry sir you can flyer on the way out but NOT on the way in"...fuckin dick. So I quit flyering and stand in the alley watchin for Angelo who eventually pops his head back out of the bus and escorts me on. Hung out there for awhile while he gets his Waffle House outfit together and on. Then we go into the club.

Inside the club we head with a box of videotapes straight to the merch counter. Angelo stays at the merch counter drawing HUGE things on just about every t-shirt purchased and signing anything else. He was still behind the merch counter when the rest of the band took the stage...then he jumps accross the merch counter and quickly fights his way to the stage....jumps on stage and right into the show, without missin a beat.

Show has started and I figure its a good time to get my pass...so I take care of that part, talk to a security guard about my remaining roll of film. The manager refuses to give me a photopass...I don't know what it is about the 9:30 club that half its employees have to be such cocksuckers, but whatever...so i make a couple attempts at getting backstage to be denied...finally go through the dressing room, at which point a security guard escorts me down. I go talk to Becky (soundboard girl) about my photopass issue...she says.. "Hop up on stage and take pics and if anybody says anything, they can deal with me." So there I am on the right side by Spacey-T takin pics. I should have gone around the other side too, but it didn't occur to me that I could and I didn't wanna chance losin the camera. I think I got some good shots tho of everybody but John McKnight, but I got some good ones of him during soundcheck so he won't be missed in teh gallery. He said he prefers it that way anyway cuz he's not photogenic (he says). So I nearly blinded Spacey-T as I took a couple flash pics about 3 feet from him (in the camera he seemed so much further away heheh..he said it didn't blind him tho.) So I stayed backstage for most of the show which was pretty cool..

After the show I walked around with Norwood for a few minutes...this guy took his picture and then was calling out after him "Kendall...Kendall...thanks man" Then he took a picture of a friend of theirs with dreads, can't remember his name, but I'm almost positive that the guy thought he was Spacey-T. So we went to the bus and I stayed for awhile while we had a birthday party for one of the DC girls (Amber).. Angelo tried to write her name on the cake but used up too many candles on the first 2 letters and I think all he got was AMB and you couldn't really tell so everybody was givin him shit and Spacey-T was yellin "Angelo, ya Jackass" at him like the guy from Happy Gilmore. So I said goodnite to everybody and went home to sleep.

I didn't write down the setlist so hopefully somebody else did...I meant to grab one on the way out, and completely forgot. The show did rock and they did play a lot of the old staples including the funkiest version of Everyday Sunshine that I can remember. Anyway, I think thats everything I
can remember. Hope it wasn't too freakin boring. I didn't spend as much time with them as last time due to traffic and flyer making so unfortunately I didn't get to talk to each band member alone really this time.

---Dave

here's the setlist from the 9:30 show, as promised:

Subliminal Facism
Give It Up
Just Allow
Ma & Pa
Where'd You Get Those Pants
Cholly
Suffering
Shaky Ground
Bonin'
Monkey Dick
Karma Tsunami
Ugly
Question
All Kept Startin'
Wish I Had a Date
One Planet
Everyday Sunshine
Aids & Arm
Sunless Saturday
Deep Inside

Encore:
Goose
Party at Ground Zero
Servitude

-N

I just wanted to give my favorite moments of the Fishbone show at the Nightclub 9:30 last Friday night. Hopefully I'll hit on a lot of points that Dave missed. Thanks to some crazy events, my buds and I rolled up into the club 30 minutes into the opening act (Clones of Funk). I saw the Clones of Funk last year when FB played the 9:30 with The Almighty Senators, so I didn't think I would miss much, but as it turns out I'm glad I caught what I did. For those of you who haven't seen the Clones, they are a local band here, out of Annapolis, that is a Funkadelic cover band...no Parliament Funkadelic, just the early stuff. I went to the merch booth and bought a copy of "The Yin Yang Thang" from Angelo, and he autographed the cassette while the Clone where playing. I kind of feel for these guys, because it's not like they can cut an album or anything. All they can do is sell t-shirts and perform live. Anyway, as they were playing their songs, you could see Spacey T. off to the side, groovin' to it the songs. Eventually he jumped in on one song, which I'm sure made the Clones night.

By the time the crowd maxed in time for Fishbone to take the stage, I'dsay the club was at about 90% capacity (roughly 600 people). It was cool seeing the people in the pit shoulder to shoulder. Some FB shows I have seen recently didn't draw big enough crowds for any stage diving, but DC came through again, and Angelo took advantage during "Give It Up" and "Ma and Pa". The pit was really active all night and I'm sure the band dug it after seeing the sparse turnouts when they opened the RHCP tour. I did see Dave behind Spacey T. with his flash working in high gear. Angelo broke out the orange and black baseball sox like Dave mentioned, with an orange jacket and shorts. Only my man can pull off that look. Once again Byron West sat in on a few songs. Does anybody have the skinny on this dude? Is he being tried out for a permanent spot in the band? The name sounds
familiar (jazz musician), but no one I've talked to seems to know for sure. Anyway, on to the show...

>Subliminal Facism - Really fast pace, a good song to set the tone for the night.
>Give It Up - This is when Angelo really started the crowd interaction with the stage diving.
>Just Allow
>Ma & Pa - More stage diving and crowd singing
>Where'd You Get Those Pants - This was the coolest song of the night. At least 20 ladies made it up to the stage to dance. This was different than the time they did it at The Garage because this was classy, people groovin' to a good song. I finally found a way to describe what went down at the Garage. It was like Dave Chappelle describing a thong contest in his HBO special. Anyway, judging by the good time had by everybody, I'm predicting that this will be the next song to hit the mainstream by FB.
>Cholly
>Suffering
>Shaky Ground - Spacey T. took the mic before the song, and gave his usual tribute to Eddie Hazel (with the Clones and Spacey's playing, there was a definate Eddie vibe throughout the night), and broke out into the most funkiest opening to Shakey Ground I've heard yet. They blended the song into "I Wann Know If Its Good To You" at the end. Pretty Damn cool. When he first joined FB, I thought Spacey was all chops, but now he's become really animated, and a treat to watch. Guitar God!
>Bonin'
>Monkey Dick
>Karma Tsunami
>Ugly
>Question
>All Kept Startin'
>Wish I Had a Date
>One Planet - The One Planet, One People chant is growing on the crowd every show
>Everyday Sunshine
>Aids & Arm
>Sunless Saturday
>Deep Inside

>Encore:
>Goose - I don't think they actually played this one, but I was hoping they would.
>Party at Ground Zero
>Servitude - Ahhhh...This was the best part of the night. I never got to hear this live so I went nuts when they broke into this. Angelo sung the whole song, and quite frankly sounded better than when Chris did it. Spacey played the solo almost note for note, unlike what he does on other Kendall solos. He has mentioned on quite a few occasions that the band will go in a darker direction than Nuttwerx, so I wonder if this is a test of the sound they might go for on the next record. The end of the song was a cool outro where Angelo announced the members of the band one by one, and the left the stage until there was no one left but "Wetdaddy" doing a drum solo. Da Bomb!

As you can imagine, this was a great show, and the band sounds as tight as ever.

Christopher