May 09 2000 @ The Garage Washington, DC

First I want to give a shout out to Lady D. for being the special soldierette that she is. Do you ever miss a show? I think I saw you Dave (short blond crew cut, old t-shirt?), but you looked a little busy. And to all the other soldiers who got to see a special show amongst all the teens supremes, but I'll get to that a little later.

OK....so far you've probably seen the set list, and if you haven't made plans to go see the Fishbone show coming to your town, or anywhere near you, you'd better strongly consider adjusting your plans, because you would be missing out on the next big thing. It's becoming obvious that with each passing show, this current line-up gets stronger and tighter. One thing is for sure: I'd hate to be the Stone Temple Pilots having to go on stage after Fishbone, night after night. Getting shown up like that could be damaging in a lot of ways.

To the Fishbone fans other than us diehards, most of them came to see Angelo, and had said as much in the past. But very soon Spacey T. is going to become the other headliner in the band. If its even conceivable, he is getting BETTER. No looking across the stage for cues, no focusing on his guitar neck throughout the show....the dude is going to blow up real soon. I spoke with him for about a half an hour before the show. He was with his buddy, Wes I thing his name was, who filled in on a couple of the songs during the show. I got a real history lesson about Eddie Hazel and black rock music in general. It was really cool hearing him talk about the whole Eddie, Jimi, and George scene back in the day. Turns out that George going around telling stories about Eddie knowing Jimi weren't exactly truthful. Anyway, it seems that all of our concerns about the welfare of the band and black rock musicians in general are a bit unnecessary. Spacey says that he and Walt are working on some things that are going to turn things around, and they have just been waiting for the right time to bring things out. They are fed up with waiting for the traditional routes of getting music out, and the word of mouth from the underground. They have a plan, it makes perfect sense, and with the right focus and a little luck, they are going to make a lot of money. He says that they are going to finance their own projects, instead of having the "industry" tease you with a little bit from time to time. I don't feel comfortable saying what's in the works, but if they get all of this stuff to fly, this could be the hottest thing since the flannel shirt boys from the

John McKnight and John Steward claimed to be "off", but if they were, they fooled everyone. I haven't seen an appreciative Fishbone audience like that in a long time. "Wet Daddy" isn't Fish, but no one is, and he does very well as his replacement. The guy on the Magic Show, and they guy last night, might as well have been two different people. If you get a chance to talk to him, he really has a great sense of humor. His takes on the Super 8 days are funny as hell. He's also strong as all get out. I shook the guys hand and he nearly broke mine, and I'm no stranger to weights ;-) One funny side note is how one of the Fishbone groupies keep confusing one of my BDR band buddies as John Steward at the after show party. Similar complexion, both are bald and play drums, but that's where it ends. All of this was going on while the actual John Steward was walking right behind her...funny shit.

That girl was all of maybe 16 years old, which brings an interesting thought to mind: do any of you "old timers" notice that the Fishbone fan base is getting younger and younger? At one point I turned to my bud and said "you realize that a lot of people here weren't even walking when 'Party at Ground Zero" came out, much less dancing". I say it's a testament to the strength of their music, which knows no age boundaries.

I think the scene that Dave was referring to was during "Where'd you Get Those Pants", the band brought a parade of girls from the crowd to dance on stage during the song. A few of them were classy soldierettes, who just wanted to do their thing to the groove. A few of them, however, made it abundantly clear to Angelo, Norwood, Walt and the rest of the audience at The Garage, that they could care less about what the band was playing, and more about what was going on in FISHBONE'S pants. I know it's a musicians want to "get his fuck on", but I can't help but take notice and cringe when I see the young girls who just throw themselves at musicians at shows, tripping over one another, then turn around and ask you "which one was he"? Maybe this has to do with me being a daddy of a beautiful little girl. Maybe I'm just getting old (turning the big 33 on the 18th).......Nah man, that shit wasn't funny, even when I was 21......I'm giving my daughter to the nuns when she turns 6.

Back to the music. Right now there is a serious dearth of musical talent and originality, and the ground is fertile for the next hot musical seed to be planted, and it looks like Fishbone is in perfect position to take advantage. Yet another reason to see them now, because if things go right, in a few months the venues are going to get bigger and the dancing space a lot tighter, and you certainly won't be able to just go up and buy a ticket at the door on the night of the show.

It was a blast....I'm looking forward to the next time.

Peace All,

High C

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I page Norwood at about 10am, 10:30am, 11am, and again at 11:30am while makin flyers at Kinko's, and one more time at noon. His voicemail on his pager sounds like he's holding a rainstick up to the phone or something, which lasts about 30 seconds, then you hear his voice kinda sing 'Leave a Message' and then the beep. Anyway, he calls me back at 12:15 and tells me they are gonna be at the cl...

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