some quick thoughts before I ramble:
Left my setlist at home- had it in my hand this morning and apparently wasn't coherent enough to take it out the door. I'll send it and any related comments in pt. 2.

Small crowd, but better than I expected for a Tuesday night in a tourist/resort area.

Lots of new songs- Norwood quoted 5 after the show but I think he meant, new to the public- we'd heard some already. (Heat of Anger, Primadawnutt)

The boys didn't seem very into it- reaction to the small crowd size, maybe.

Ok, here's my train-of-thought-after-4-hours-sleep review: AB, NC borders other smaller towns on Bogue Banks as well as 2 larger towns, Morehead City and Beaufort, so the size of AB alone is misleading. That having been said, the whole area is about the size of... umm, I don't know a good reference for everybody, nor do I know the population, but it's not remotely close to "metro" nor is it very artsy/college area/boho either, so the population of locals aren't used to events of culture of any sort, much less nationally known underground musical artists, esp. on a weeknight. The population easily doubles on summer weekends but this was Tuesday night. Probably had 100 ppl in the door through the night. This may have affected the band's energy, as the show started kinda sluggish. I love Walt's album, and the guys started w/2 of his songs which the band really smoked, but I feel announcing "DW and the Columbus Sanitation" and opening w/them sorta threw the crowd for a loop. 5 or 6 ppl danced like fools and everyone else appeared to want to but were just confused, like maybe they were thinking "What, they're not Fishbone anymore? Changed their style?" So this, along with a sparse crowd in the beginning, and playing most of the new songs unannounced along with other midtempo tunes in the beginning (i like "suffering" and "shakey ground" slow like that, but i totally see how they don't get butts moving at that tempo) didn't really reach out & grab the audience. This is the first Fishbone show i've attended out of 11 since '92 that the crowd, no matter what size, didn't go apeshit upon the first song kicking in and continuing to go nuttz until the house lights came on. Last
night, I left a Fishbone show in dry clothes for the first time.

Wow, i made it seem like a bummer there, didn't i? esp. after Meggatron Rob's post, re: Atlanta. (by the way, we know you meant Steward and not McNight!) i don't have to tell any of you that FB on an off night is better than 99% of every other band on the planet on the best day of their lives, so it's not like it wasn't still smokin'. it just wasn't an insane, high-octane, burn-the-roof-down, stanky-sweaty hurricane like usual. I (and the 5 or 6 other seemingly diehard fans) loved hearing the Walt tunes and the new material live, but it left a lot of less casual fans confused. They were still tight as a mosquito's ass, and balls-out Nuttmeg all over the joint. The show's energy gradually picked up as more & more people came in- coincidence or direct cause-effect?- so by the time they played Freddie, Behavior Control, etc. they were in full form. unfortunately, even then the audience wasn't thick enough for Angelo or anyone else to swim. no pit at all, in fact.

Speaking of BCT, i heard them play that and Servitude for the 1st time since Feb. '94, extra special treat! Wet Daddy Stew is a baaaaaad dude- he was tight all night, far as i could tell- no missed cues, cool rearranged intros to BCT, Freddie, and the end of Servitude almost made me want to give up the drums and take up needlepoint or something. he did look very stern and not too happy during AND after the show, but i realize everyone has moods.

i'll send the setlist and anything relevant to it, as well as whatever i can't think of right now, in pt. 2.
-Tim

best i can recall, they didn't deviate from this:
Walt:
Understand Me
Nuttmeg World
FB:
Skankin'
Karma
Skank'n Go Nuttz
Heat Of Anger
Primadawnutt
Frey'd Fuck'n Nerve Endingz
Behavior Control Tech.
Aids & Arm
Shakey Ground
Suffering
Alcoholic
Pressure
Riot
Freddy
Servitude
encore:
Party

also listed for the 1st encore were One Planet and Cholly but they had to stop at midnight 'cause it was a weekday (residential neighborhood close by). Deep Inside and Sunless were listed for the 2nd encore.

so, starting the show with 8 non-album/unreleased songs had us few diehard fans groovin' but didn't help the general energy, esp. since the fellas seemed a bit let down by the turnout and were probably also getting very tired by this point of the tour, as Sarah alluded to me. these tunes were completely unfamiliar to the casual fans that made up the majority of the small crowd. BCT got things jumpin', then the next 3 songs were played really slow, even Suffering, which is already a bit slow but was played even slower. by the last 5 songs of the set the crowd had thickened somewhat, coincidentally as the songs became faster/more aggressive, so the energy in the room was greatly heightened by this point. the crowd was noisy & energetic enough to bring them out for the short encore.

other notes i forgot from pt. 1- Norwood remembered me from last year- obviously not my name or from where, but I reminded him I interviewed him, Steward & McNight over dinner in Winston-Salem in May 2000, hung w/him quite a bit pre-show in Wilmington the next night, and again along with Angelo in Sept. in Atlantic Beach. Also met 'Wood's son Everett at the merch booth- indeed, a very cool, intelligent kid! He seems to really enjoy touring with "Pop's" band. He advised me to keep on the lookout for "major changes" in Fishbone and Nuttsactor 5, but like a good soldier he didn't let on any more than that! I asked him about McNight and all he told me was that he took another gig for more money. he didn't allude one way or the other whether he was permanantly out of the band...

speaking of him, i'm apparently the only Nuttwork soldier so far who missed McNutt (or someone) on keys/trombone/guitar... i think they made up for it very well but the horn parts were thinner, and some songs suffered from the lack of keys & 2nd guitar. casual fans wouldn't miss it but some of Spacey's substitute parts left things gaping a bit, and sounded weird going from that back to the guitar part, and although i love Angelo's theremin playing (really creative, and since it's movement-based, it really suits him), it doesn't quite fill the gap either. just my opinion... any chance they can get Anthony Brewster back if McNight's out for good? (Does anyone know if he's out for good?)

-Tim