I drove down to see Fishbone last night in Seattle at the Ballard Firehouse.
Fishbone took the stage shortly after 10pm as Angelo walked out in a black
and white striped prisoner's uniform, carrying a cardboard tombstone with a
Fishbone logo drawn on it. He proceeded into a poem about what a 'bitch' the
music industry is. This had me pretty worried that the show might end up
being a real downer. Well, it got off to a slow start but the 4th song
(Pressure), the band was givin' it 200% and Angelo crowd surfed about 5
times during that song alone! Walt was smiling, John was smiling, Spacey T
was possessed playing the guitar, and Norwood was laying down some bad ass
bass. They played a lot of old stuff with the highlights being Alcoholic,
Give It Up, Every Day Sunshine, and Pressure. In no particular order:

Unyielding, Date, Karma, Last Days, Ma & Pa, Everyday Sunshine, Cholly, Give
It Up, Alcoholic, Let Dem Hoes Fight

The tensions that have been transpiring in the band were not very evident to
the audience until the end of the show. During the whole night there were
lots of people climbing on stage but at one point, someone climbed on stage
and bailed on Spacey's pedal board. He was pissed off and told the guy off
and pushed him back into the crowd. During Let Dem Hoes Fight, two people
again climbed up on stage and one landed on his pedal board and the other
knocked over his POD which was on a stand. Angelo immediately went over and
blocked off his "pedal area" from some other people trying to get by but it
was too late. Spacey through his guitar into the corner and left, looking
super pissed off. That was it. the end of Fishbone with Spacey T and Walt.

This scenario looked really bad from an audience perspective and it almost
got worse. Spacey came out and grabbed the Mic and told everyone it was his
last show with the band and that "[we] ruined it for him". Some faint and
lots of "awe. come on.." could be heard. But suddenly, the most amazing
thing happened. John Stewart stepped up the mic, long after Angelo, Norwood,
and Walt had left, and began thanking the fans for coming out and telling
that the rumours were all true but Fishbone would be back for the fans.
Spacey said something else into the mic, which John answered "whatever man"
to, and then apologized for what had happened and explained that next time
people should be a little more careful but still have fun. I was completely
astonished. John recovered the performance with his little speech at the
end. He made that connection between the fans and the band, while Spacey
looked like a complete asshole (I know he isn't, he was just pissed). He
then ended by thanking everyone and threw out half a dozen or so drum
sticks.

This made me sense that there is hope to the situation. One thing that I've
always admired about Fishbone is the guys are very approachable and when
something does happen on stage, like Angelo's mic's getting knocked over, no
one has ever freaked out like Spacey did. They deal with it, usually in a
pretty entertaining way, and continue on. Spacey is a great guitar player,
he's a real good guy, but in my opinion, he's never been right for Fishbone.
He's a very technical, "all settings have to be perfect" type player whereas
the rest of the band has more of a 'fun', less serious attitude to them. I'm
definitely not saying that anyone is lacking in skill, but I'm just saying
that Spacey's performance isn't as free as Norwood's or Angelos', etc.
Anyways, I think the performance last night proved what I've thought all
along and I'm looking forward to seeing them with a new guitar player.

Walt, on the other hand, is going to be a big loss. Nobody will be able to
replace his comedy and the way he fills out the live sound with his backing
vocals. I spoke with Angelo briefly after the show and I've never seen him
so down. He seemed confident that they would be getting things back together
but I have to agree with a lot of people on the list.. They need a break
from Fishbone. Regroup after five years and see what happens. If it takes
longer, then so be-it. I have a feeling that Walt will be back.

To all you tape traders, I did not tape the show. I wanted to enjoy the
experience and not have to worry about my gear. However, I did take a few
photos: http://www.elchango.ca/fishbone/

cheers,
Mike.
(submitted through the Nuttwork)

This show was scheduled to begin at 8 PM so I arrived a few minutes prior to that time. After finding out that there would be a couple of local openers I went back to my car to sleep for a while as I had a very long day at work and was very tired. I got back to the venue shortly after 10 PM just in time to work my way up front before Fishbone was set to come on.

I've never really been a Fishbone fan but had heard a lot of rave reviews of their live performance so I was eager to check them out. Angelo Moore came on stage and began with a spoken word piece that centered around the lines "living the lifestyle of the rich and famous without getting rich? aint that a bitch" that seemed to be based on the band playing and touring together for so long without seeing any financial gains. The words seemed to be straight from the heart; one could easily tell that he meant everything he said. When his mike went dead Angelo continued on, raising his voice so that his words could still be heard. He then let it be known that this performance would be the last Fishbone performance as the band was calling it quits before the rest of the band came on stage to begin their sonic assault. They tore through a fairly lengthy set with what seemed to be great precision and the intensity of the band and the tightly packed audience grew with every minute. At approximately the midway point Angelo began crowd surfing with his mike, which spurred the audience on to stage dive and crowd surf as well. Once the bigger people started with the stage diving I decided to move back to protect my equipment and allow myself to enjoy the show without having people come down on top of me all the time. After "Sunless Saturday", Spacey T's guitar effects pod was knocked over and broken, causing the set to end before the band could play their scheduled encore of "Party at Ground Zero" and "Fishbone is Red Hot". To sum this set up, Fishbone played a very entertaining set of music that sounded like a cross pollination of punk, ska, rock, funk, and jazz. Each musician displayed a heck of a lot of skill with their instruments, from the many different saxophones of Angelo to the pocket horn of Walter Kibby to the blistering bass lines of Norwood Fisher. Angelo is hands down one of the highest energy frontmen I have ever seen, I hope that he will be able to find another group of musicians to perform with as it seems like music and entertaining is his life and something he truly loves. It's too bad that that Fishbone decided to call it quits but I am happy I was given the opportunity to see them play before that happened.

Review by Chris Slack (http://www.shadows.com/gravemusic/live/kingsx-fb110103/review.shtml)

It's official Soldiers.
Saw Fishbone last night in Seattle at the Ballard Firehouse. After
getting a little elbow from Angelo, he told my partner and I that this
is their last show. They've cancelled the tour. Angelo was walking
around with a Halloween style tombstone that stated plainly, Fishbone
RIP. The show was electric. Walt looked really happy, Norwood just
played, Angelo was maniacal and on the last song, John broke his kick
peddle and they were unable to finish the number...they all had a piece
of the mic and said a few words and that was it. They left the stage.
Long live Fishbone. sob.

nuttshell@attbi.com