Okay, maybe some of the others who were there can fill in more blanks. (LisaB? Froggy? Albert?) In the meantime, here are my thoughts from the show last night, using a trite movie metaphor for structure:

THE GOOD
--got to see the boys again.
--newish players (Rocky, Tory) seem to be a lot more solid now. (Granted, when I last saw them, they were VERY new, and it was almost a year ago, so anyone gets better with time. Still, it was encouraging.)
--Some of the songs have new-ish arrangements, intros, etc... made it very fun. e.g. new intro to "Everyday Sunshine" (although LisaB says it's been around for a while, so maybe it was just new to me.)
--2nd guitar player (besides Rocky)-- I like the addition. Who is he? I'm sure it's been posted on here but I'm spacing on the details. 2nd guitar = good move.
--Before the show, we saw Angelo outside with his daughter and some other relative. I don't know how much Angelo does or doesn't get to see his Lil Datta, but IMO *any* amount of time he can spend with her is good.

THE BAD:
--even though the new band members were more up to speed, their overall sound wasn't as tight. It's definitely not your father's Fishbone.
--about half the band was REALLY intoxicated, to the point where I think it affected their ability to dish out a serious show to us.
--the venue was totally ass. I am Jack's complete lack of sightlines.
--the crowd was pretty ass too. And put together with the venue, it made for a distinctly goatlike aroma the whole night. LisaB wasn't fond of the crowd either.
--I am not a "pit snob" but I was highly annoyed by the 300-lb yetis that materialized out of nowhere for the "Sunless" encore, and thought it would be fun to careen around in the biggest flight path possible, and seeming to seek out the mellow people/small girls/etc. as crash barriers.
--Am I the only person who actively dislikes the song "Are You With It"? Plodding, excessively long, and IMO the only reason for listening to that song left the band last Halloween. Plus the infinitely-repeated lyrics ("Are you with it? You gots to get with it!") are amongst the most moronic the band has ever had. "Break my ass like a windowsill" may not make sense but at least it's funny, and has context.
--It was 9/11. LisaB and I were expecting (hoping for?) a bit more political ranting by Angelo. All there was, was about 60 seconds of "Oom Shackalack" before the band started. And "Party at GZ" mentioned the Taliban instead of the "commies". That was it.

THE UGLY
--Fishbone trucker hats. Not sure how I feel about that. But that ugliness paled in comparison to:

-- WHO GAVE THE FRAT BOY THE MIC?!?
YEESH, that was without question the WORST encore I've seen in years, from ANY band. After "Sunless"-- which was NOT together (the guitar player and drummer John couldn't synch up)-- then Angelo hopped on the drum kit and broke into a rather simple 4/4 beat. I was impressed with Angelo's limitless energy-- even after delivering a show, he could still maintain some relatively quick-tempo drumming.
AND THEN THEY TURNED OVER THE MIC. Angelo introduced "a member of the Fishbone Familyhood" (his words) and up came a plaid Gap-shirt wearing yokel, who took the mike for a seemingly endless, barely-intelligible rap. Of the "throw your hands in the ay-yair" variety. Some other girl subsequently came up and took over-- which salvaged it somewhat-- except the damage had been done, and the guy still stood on the stage. It was NOT a happy ending.

If that guy is on this list: sorry, man, you meant well but I am calling it like I saw it.

And finally, I was keeping one eye open for KENDALL.
I didn't honestly expect to see him, but I was looking. I didn't see him. Incidentally, I never received a response to the email I sent to what was supposedly his address.

There you have it.
mig

ok my $.02 here. . .

i didn't think it was a bad show per se but not one of their best. they did change up the set list which was nice. one thing mig forgot to mention was a new song they played. unfortunately, i didn't catch the name. from what i recall & in no particular order:

critical times
are you wid it
everyday sunshine
jackass brigade
ugly
alcoholic
new song, whatever it's called
another generation
the suffering - i still love this song, but miss walt's backing vocals which norwood has taken over
freddie's dead (w/female guest vocalist, don't know what her name was)
lyin' ass bitch (dedicated to bush, about as political as angelo got last night)
encore: sunless saturday
instrumental jam with angelo on drums, norwood, torrie
"frat boy rapper" in the plaid shirt - get your hands in the air y'all - not what i was hoping for in an encore song.

as for the crowd, yes i was quite annoyed. maybe it was because it was berkeley & it's a college crowd but it was a lame crowd. i'm normally pretty calm but was ready to kick some ass last night. the venue was in the basement & air was only circulated near the bar & bathrooms. angelo's mic was very low so you couldn't hear the vocals very well.

as for the band, i think they had some pre-show celebrations earlier in the day. today is norwood's birthday - happy birthday norwood! before the show we talked to rocky outside who stumbled out & reeked of alcohol. i'm not sure who was the worst case but my vote was for rocky. dre was on keyboards and i'm not sure who the trumpet player was either. he didn't do trumpet on sunless saturday which was disappointing.

i really wanted to go to the saturday show because it was 9/11 & 9/12 is norwood's birthday. i was hoping for more political talk - even telling these college kids to go out & vote would have been nice - but they didn't.

it was also very nice meeting albert from the list. turns out he lives very close to mig & myself here in the south bay.

as always, i'm thankful for listening to their music which puts a smile on my face regardless. it might not have been a perfect show but at least it was a show that i got to see.

LisaB

Not much to add about the Berkeley show, except to fill in a couple of blanks:

--The guest female vocalist was, if I heard the intro correctly, Durga McBroom (who shared co-writing credits with Angelo on "Karma Tsunami").

--The second of the new songs was "Cheyenne Star Forever Moore," or at least that's what the chorus seemed to be.

I think Lisa and Mig covered the rest. Personally, I give the show a B-.

Take care,
Albert