Article Courtesy of www.denveraccess.com

Well kids, after a crazy, crazy night at Cervantes my faith in musicians has been restored, at least for a few days. Fishbone's exceptional show Sunday night at Cervantes Ballroom almost didn't happen. The promoter for the show, a mister Bobby Baugh from Solid Entertainment in Utah for those keeping track, bailed out on the band a night before in Colorado Springs. The band had a contract and a crowd of fans waiting but no one to pay them. I can assure you the tensions were running high.

Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and the band and the venue were able to reach to reach an agreement that would allow the show to go on. As one of the people who had to deal with the fallout of one assholes folly (I rented the venue to Solid Entertainment) I just want to extend an extreme thanks to Fishbone, P-Knuckle, The Expendables and my comrades at Cervantes for making the night a success.

Politics aside the show couldn't have been much better, the crowd was just the right size for a Sunday night. The crowd was just Small enough to make the show intimate but large enough to create an amazing energy.

The night started of with a rocking set by Santa Cruz's Expendables and was followed up by a stellar performance from Denver's own P-Knuckle. The result was a crowd primed and ready to welcome their heroes to the stage. Fishbone hit the sage with ferocity and passion of 7 angry men.

Fishbone has always been one of the best live acts on the touring circuit. Their Ska influenced grooves, crossed with an experimental mindset reminiscent of Parliament/Funkadelic or even Frank Zappa's Mothers, had the crowd dancing till late in the evening. Some of the evenings highlights included performances of Servitude and The Suffering.

Another new era for Fishbone begins. This nexperience is great, loose and jazzy, very enthusiastic. All seven members of the band crowded onto a Grateful Dead "lighning bolt" carpet spread across a small round stage like a family reunion or an experimental jazz odyssey.

Some surprises in the setlist: The Suffering, Another Generation, Servitude.

The crowd was small, maybe a 100 people. Fishbone's new mgmt needs to do better than this. Also, Fishbone didn't start 'til midnight, which doesn't help their cause. No encore.

Here's a freeform setlist - they played a lot of new material:

Unyielding Conditioning
Party at Ground Zero
* Rock and Roll McDonalds
Alcoholic
* Thanks for playing scorpions???
Subliminal Fascism
Junkie's Prayer
Freddie's Dead
* Trey Sings Dance Hall Number
The Suffering
* Shine??? Good Times???
* Norwood's Sings Scat for Awhile
Another Generation ("Ho-tastic" version)
Ma and Pa
Ugly
* Jackass Brigade
* "I'm Going to Hollywood" (Look out Brooke Shields)
Servitude

* = new song and/or jammed-out weirdness