Oct 31 1998 @ Alley Cat Scramble Toronto, ON

My only glimpse of Fishbone before Hallowe'en of this year had been at Lollapalooza III and much has changed in terms of the band's line-up since then. They played as part of the "Alley-Cat Scramble" (a competition for bike-couriers) at the Cinespace Warehouse near the Lake in Toronto.

I arrived shortly after 9 PM and the bike competition was still going on. Angelo was w...

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I just got back from a weekend trip in Toronto. When money, time, and opportunity are available, I try to travel to cool places. For those of you who may have not traveled to T-O, I highly recommend it. I love the Toronto Maple Leafs, and of course Fishbone. On this weekend the Leafs were a major disappointment, while Fishbone was anything but. As is normally the case, Fishbone had to play under less than suitable conditions. They were playing at a bike courier, figure 8 race track in what is normally a warehouse on Halloween. It seemed like a really cool idea, but I don't think it was promoted very well. Unless you were standing right in front you couldn't see much of the stage. Thankfully I'm 6'3" and can see over most heads. The band came out fired up, and Angelo seemed particularly juiced (naturally of course). I'd have to agree with whoever said in their post about the LA show, that the less familiar material got more puzzled looks than anything, but they didn't let that affect them. Considering how new the drummer is (Deion), them were as tight as ever. I didn't want to admit it, but this guy is every bit as good as Fish, and even gives a bit more of a stage presence (as much as a drummer can), much like Jamie Miller of Snot. Walt was on the money, getting the crowd involved. Norwood was dressed in a Merlin's outfit for Halloween, and funky as ever. John McKnight seems to feel more at ease and plays trombone and keys really well. Spacey T. is Spacey T......A pure rock talent... 'nuff said! That's my main man. And Angelo? This was a classic performance! I dont think he stopped to rest even for a moment. Even with the smallish crowd, there was stage diving aplenty. My favorite part of the show was the guy dressed as Colonel Sanders and his buddies wearing the Michael Myers masks and KFC buckets on their heads stage diving like it was the last Fishbone show. Walt seemed to be find them particularly funny, and I've hardly ever seen him laugh. There was also the guy dressed as Fat Albert, pillows and all (THIS time, I'll forgive the black face ;-) ), who jumped on the stage, drinking a beer while they were playing beer gut.....then they rolled him off the stage. If anyone out there thinks Fishbone is fading, they've got a suprise coming. I spoke to Spacey T. after the show and he said they are going to take a long break from touring to complete the Friends of Fishbone CD for Hollywood records. They sound great and they look like they're having fun again. Without going into details, Angelo did a major favor for me, one that he obviously went out of his way to do, and I can't thank him enough. Hopefully if he or any of the guys in the Fishbone camp read this post, I'd like to thank him and the band for everything. These are great human beings as well as great musicians, and I'm proud to be a part of a devoted group that supports them.

P.S. - Special hello to the beautiful Bloodroot ;-)

Peace to All You Soldiers

High C

And a few more things, now that I'm rested from that 9 hour drive back to Washington DC. The Alley Cat Scramble in itself was cool, but having Fishbone play there on Halloween night made it really cool. They played in-between the semifinals and finals of the bike courier race weekend. The bike riders there seemed to be real uptight. I hear its a real bad attitude sport. It was almost as if they were pissed that people came to see Fishbone instead of them, but wouldn't you want to bring in a new audience to your sport? Anyway, the weird thing was when Fishbone was done with their set and encore, they were ready to come on for a second encore, but the people who put together the event wanted them to stop so they could start the finals, so they turned off their mics. Definitely not cool. Keep in mind this was a warehouse, not a bar, so there were no city curfews to be met. After the crowd got a little restless, they did let them play one more, and they closed with "The Goose", with Walt singing from behind Norwood's amp??? If your familiar with the song, near the end, Fish used to go off and show why he's one of the baddest drummers alive. Well the new drummer Deion (if I'm misspelling, please forgive) played that part even better than Fish! I hope this guy is a keeper and they can get on to making some good new material. The recent exposure on the Magic Hour and Viva Variety was good, but I hope they stay in the public eye more consistently until the Friends of Fishbone album comes out. Spacey T. told me that they taped a performance for, get this...... The Donny and Marie Show?!?!? It's supposed to air on December 1st. For you guitarists out there, Spacey T. appears to have dropped the Jackson guitars, and now plays what looked like Parker Fly models (black and white), and the sound improvement is obvious. I spoke to him a little bit about his previous work. If you haven't heard the O.G. Funk album, pick it up today. He plays on all of the tracks, but the best thing is a tribute song he did to Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic called "Music for My Brother". It sounds like a "Maggot Brain" cover, but is definitely all Spacey. You can tell the soloing was from his heart and soul, and I imagine it was hard to write a song for a close friend that died. It's a bit long, so you really have to like guitar solos. This song shows how great he really is. He also said he is going to be doing some work with HR after the Soul Brains tour is over, and get this....he's reuniting Sound Barrier! Yeah....I was shocked too. He said the original guys are still around in L.A. and they are going to start playing soon. Sounds like he has a full plate, but he said "now's the time" and he' s "just got to get it done"....... Fishbone, HR, AND Sound Barrier....whew! I just got my copy of Angelo's CD. It doesn't sound like the past Fishbone albums, but definitely a good representation of his personality, and I'm glad I purchased it. I noticed in the liner notes, he gave thanks to "The Original Members of Fishbone". Its great to see he has no bitterness towards them, and even now, takes the time to think about them. As I said earlier, a class act! This winter should bring big things for Fishbone and I am looking forward to it.

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Halloween with Fishbone. Yes! First we did the Halloween rounds with Eric my eight-year old. He was dressed as Yoshi. We got a lot of "what a cute little dinosaur" comments. We dumped the loot and Eric ditched his costume and Linda (my wife), Eric and I booted it downtown to catch Ozomatli at The Guvernment. They were with Spring Heel Jack, The Pietasters and The Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Ozom...

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Yo, for those of you going to see the bone I got

a set list from the show in T.O. here it is:

1.black box 2.behavior control 3.zilla 4.sunless 5.give it up 6.ma & pa 7.skankin' 8.just allow 9.beer gut 10.bonin' 11.problems 12. maskeraid 13.unyeilding 14.party 15.alcoholic and the last 4 they didn't play 16.sub. fasc. 17.monkey dick 18.f...

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The Toronto show on the 31st/10 was the first time I have seen Angelo use the theremin.It was cool live , he freaks on this thing. By the way , wasn't the encore the coolest shit ever? Fishbone were joined by Ozomatli on stage and played "The Goose". There has to be a Fishbone / Ozomatli tour. They're the perfect compliment to one another. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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