Aug 02 1997 @ Tramps New York, NY

just went to the front lines last night--- the boys were AWESOME...

BTW -- complete jumbled setlist follows - if you don't wanna know what they're doing, don't read the end of this post.....

i've seen the 'bone maybe ...30 times since 1985... and this easily goes down as one of the top 3 or 4 shows.... for sheer energy, but mostly for LENGTH of show a...

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yeah. I definitely agree. The show was majorly slammin. 2 and a half fucking hours of mayhem. I've seen Fishbone now maybe 20 times, and I feel that this was one of the best shows. The best since (now this is for you NY'ers) the 2 times they played at the Palladium (circa Reality) and Angelo did a flip off of the balcony. The P-Funk cover was "The Goose", from 101. I could of sworn that I heard a new song in there as well. I don't know if anyone was paying attention, but before Fishbone came on stage over the PA they were playing what sounded like Fishbone songs that I've never heard before. I guess that it was the new record. Although I could hardly hear any of it clearly, it sounded slammin. Did you also notice ow much better Monkey Dick sounded? They slowed down and grooved up the chorus on that, and Angelo also did a wild Theremin solo on the intro for VTTLOTFDGF. One of the most fun things of the night was guessing what the next song was from the intro. For the most part they altered the intros (especially for the old songs), then modified it back to the song. I really dug the performances on the songs from the first ep through Truth and Soul. They performed the songs through the filter of Fishbone now. They toned down the quirky 80's sound, and beefed up the drums and bass, which is how I feel the songs should have been produced in the first place. It was how they always played them live anyhow....

I had been kinda disappointed with all the Fishbone shows since and including Lollapalooza. They just didn't seem happy. This is definitely a return to form. As a band they never sounded better. Angelo's still my #1 singer, but his voice isn't quite as good as it used to be. Years and years of touring have to affect you somewhat. and boy is he bald. It looks like he even shaved his eyebrows. He's still a great live performer, but he doesn't act as goofy as he used to, with the making faces and all. The Tramps stage is tiny and he doesn't have as much room to jump around. They are older..... They even seem to have a new sound in a way. The horns and the funk are more beefed up (may just be from the addition of a keyboard and 3rd horn), but the music is real bottom heavy, which is great. It's just as skankin' but it's also thundering. Fish is so fierce. Well, here's to Fishbone taking us in to the next millenium..... NIKO

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The Fishbone concert on August 2, 1997 at Tramps was worth the fifteen dollars that was paid to the scalper for the ticket. I say this because there were three opening bands for "The Bone". The first was a girl fronted band named Tamara, who looked like a cross between an African American Gwen Stefani and the head leader of Skunk Anansie. Their music was a mixture of soul and rock.

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this was the greatest fishbone show i have ever seen. they hit up everything i have ever wanted to hear them play, including a ridiculously perfect Lemon Meringue.  This show was on the heels of their tour with Goodie Mob and De La Soul, so they had a more mixed crowd than usual.  i swear that i boosted method man up into swim position!  he kicked me in the balls on the way up, ...

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