I had the chance, on Saturday evening, to see Fishbone live a second time in the same week. Hardly believed it would be possible but this show probably was even greater than the previous. The venue, l'Aiglon in Aigle was almost full but very few in the audience seemed to really know the band.

Many were friends of the first supporting act, ska band "Ska to feel" who are all afaik between 16 and 19 years old. Tho their set is pretty limited, I have to put in a word for them 'coz their lead singer's one of my best friends' sista and they're full of energy. The 2nd supporting act, "Zion's Power", I didn't hear much of, I think they were mostly reggae.

Most of the other part of the crowd was certainly made of people from 'round Aigle who attended the gig just 'coz such party only happens once in a while in their town (no offense meant to your people, Nico !). Some asked me, noticing my t-shirt, what kinda music the band was playing.

Well, Fishbone arrived on stage with such setlist :

Angelo's poem ("optimistic yes" ... the list says 'Xqz me')
Nuttmeg world
Chim Chim
Deep inside
Riot
In the heet of anger
Karma tsunami
Ma'n'pa
Lyin' ass bitch
Get out of the city
Shakey ground (dedicated by Spacey to Eddie Hazel)
Bonin' in the boneyard
Premadawnutt
Skankin' to the beat
Skank'n go nuttz
Where'd you get those pants (Angelo got 'bout 10 girls up on stage to dance 'round)
Party at ground zero (ended with a long superb Stacey solo)
-----
In these last dayz
Sunless Saturday
-----
Demon in here
Fishbone is red hot (Angelo of course came down the stage and wandered 'round the whole place tryin'? to get everybody to sing. Yet, as I said before, only few seemed to know the song)

One of the main points o'the show was when fellow soldier Nico was called on stage and the band and staff members all sang him an "happy birthday" and offered him a big cake !

Dude ! All in all, the show was over 2 hours long and was... how to say... think it could only've been better if they had asked ME to write the setlist and choose all my favorite songs ;o). Well, I left pretty tired with the "March of the Fishbone soldier" sweatshirt that was outta stock on the previous gig and am now leaving it to Nico to tell you more about the after party. Was there one ?

Peace out,

P.L.

p.s. : too bad dumb me just noticed that Nov. 27 is not a Saturday, which means I won't make it to A'dam for the Euro reunion.

The Place : Aigle is a very small town of Switzerland(7000 people) not far from lake Geneva. It's only known because of its famous white wine.

The Venue : An old theater of 1920's with a large stage that can hold about 800 people.

Berfore the show : The boys arrived at 14h30 in their large bus. Walt and Norwood were the first to come out and began to cheer everybody. Angelo lost shoes the day before in Italy, and wanted to buy some, so we took my car and went to a mall in the next town. Angelo wanted sports shoes, but can't find some appealing so he ended with some boots. It was a real cool experience to go shopping with Dr Maddvibe. As he was wearing some suite with zips all over it together with a bowler hat, everybody was looking at him. But everybody was so amazed when he began to dance in the shop to try his shoes. Really cool.
While in the car we listened to "Truth & Soul" and "In Your Face", Angelo told me that it was more than a year that he didn't heard them. He was always playing with the volume button, making louder when he liked the song. He thinks they were a little overproduced, but still
like it. He said that he love to listen to them again to add noises or shout that were on the original record. And that night he began "Bonin'" doing the howlin wolf. He also stated that he would like to play again "Mighty Long Way", because that's how he feels now about Fishbone...
We went back to the dressing room, John and Spacey were having good times, and I spent sometimes watching the picture of the BBQ with John. Spacey said that each time he is hearing about it, he regrets that he couldn't come, and that he will be there next time. Then Spacey took his guitar and began to play. I sit there for about 45 minutes listening to him play anything from flamenco to funk, it was really amazing. He always looks so cool, but when you see his finger move at such speed, you can't believe it.
Next we went to eat in the restaurant. John, Walt and Spacey took steacks, while Norwood and the roadies tried our local fish speciality. Angelo didn't came, he didn't want to eat before the show. Everybody was really happy at the table, and I could see that the band and the crew were already close friends. Then back to the venue to introduce local production to the boys. Walt was warned of its power, but don't mind and smoke too much : he wanted to do a speech at the beginning of Nuttmeg world, but couldnt' find his word back...

The show : The show began as usual with a poem of Angelo, followed by Nuttmeg world. Then at my suprise they played "Chim Chim", very long time I haven't heard it. Then a wonderful version of "Deep Inside", very energetic. P.L. gave the setlist, here are the highlights for me :
"Bonin" with Angelo doing the howlin' wolf, "Lying Ass Bitch" really one of my favourite Bone song no days without singing the "LaLa lalalalala" line in my shower or in my car. "Shakey ground", Spacey at his best during a presolo of about 10 minutes in tribute to Eddie Hazel.
Spacey really stole the show and everyone was listening to him religiously. "Pants", I don't like this song too much (Prefer weed plant), but Angelo took eight or nine pretty girls on stage, and began to dance. I've seen that two times before, but this time everybody was so happy on stage, Angelo shaking his butt against girl's butt, even Walt began to dance with the girls. This was even greater as I was watching from behind the stage ;)

At the first "encore" my friends pushed me on the center of the stage, and Angelo and John came on the stage with a big "Fishbone" cake. Angelo made the crowd sing for me. It was so emotional, especially for a shy boy like me. The Angelo gave me the mike, I said a big thank
you to everybody and shouted a very loud "FISHBOOOOOOONE", Angelo was impressed. They finished with "Fishbone is red and hot", a very cool version as Angelo went down in the middle of the hall with everybody around him in a circle, and began to make everybody shout the song.

The Public : we did a great job in advertising and promoting the show, because it was sold out. More than 600 tickets were sold, and I think there was about 750 people (If you think that is 10 percent of the total population of our town, it's really amazing). I think we made more
people than both other Swiss show joined ! All the people were very happy, and a lot discovered Fishbone for the first time, even in the staff, it was really magic to hear people talk about it after the show : only compliments. Downpoint, a lot of people would have buy a CD, but there was only Maddvibe CD's at merchandising.

Aftershow : It was really weird in the backstage. A lot of people as there were 22 musicians, fans, staff, & lot of alcohol & smoke. Angelo drank 14 tequilas with Phil's girlfriend, she was so drunk and Angelo was fresh like after one ;) The boys had a lot of fun and a lot of young
new fans came to have autographs. The painful moment was the departure as everybody was so enjoying, they wouldn't go but there was a 15 hours drive up to Vienna. A lot of girls were heartbroken ;) and Spacey told one of them : "Yeah, I have to speak seriously to Angelo, we really need to come back here !"

I think that the show was really a success. Everybody from the band, staff, public was happy, except maybe Eric the tour manager who couldn't understand that even if the show was sold out we didn't made any benefits. We put so many money on having a perfect sound and lightshow, that we needed to sold out out to level the expenses.

Can't wait the Amsterdam show !!!

Bye, Nico.