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 t...

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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 club at 2pm so I arrange to meet him at 2:30. I left at 1:45 and drove past a car fire on the interstate. Flames completely engulfing the front of this giant green oldsmobile. It was kinda slow drivin past and I was in the lane next to it. Everybody slowin down and shit and I'm thinkin 'Uhh...shouldn't we be drivin faster? I mean damn...its on fire, can't it explode still?' I damn sure didn't wanna be next to it when it happened, but it was all okay and I didn't get blowed up. So I get downtown only to find out that they've added new roads to my normal route and they're now open so I end up fuckin that up and find myself in Georgetown, 20, 21, 22, 23 blocks away, 24 as I drive the wrong way and finally notice the damn numbers are goin the wrong way. So I turn around and get close enough to the club to find parking.

I get to the club to meet up with Norwood at about 3pm. He of course is down the block havin sushi. So I'm walkin around the club lookin for somebody that might know when Angelo, or Norwood will be back when all of a sudden I hear this deep voice say 'You lookin for Norwood?' I turned around and said yes and the deep voice says 'I am too. Hi, my name's John'. I shook his hand and asked 'Steward?' and he smiles and says 'yeah'. So we talked for a few minutes while walking around lookin for Norwood and a bathroom. The lights are out in the men's bathroom so we find the women's. He pushes the door open and quick glances in side...no feet. He says 'fuckit, I'm just gonna do it in here.' I ask if he wants me to watch the door and he responds 'naw...let'em walk in I don't care' and laughs. When he comes out I hear people moving stuff around downstairs and decide to check and see if Norwood is back and down there. John stays upstairs and takes a nap or somethin.

When I get downstairs, I hit the doorway of the stage level floor and Spacey-T is talking to the club's hospitality girl. He looks at me and my fishbone shirt and says 'I notice your a part of the fishbone familyhood. Do you have the new album?' I answer 'yes'. He says, 'Is there a song on the album called 'Where'd you get those pants?' I answer 'yes' again. He looks at Miss Hospitality and says, 'see, I told you we were gonna play that song for you tonite, I told ya I wasn't lying.' She was wearing these tight gray flares (and I mean tight!) and well...it was definately the type of thing that would inspire a song like 'Pants'. She was surprised cuz she thought he was just hitting on her I guess. It's about 3:30 and still no Norwood so I sit down with Spacey-T while he's changing guitar strings. I pull out my spiral notebook and start drawing and stuff while were talking. I just asked him whatever came to mind, like how often he changes his strings (every 3rd show), etc. I told him about my roomate who DJ's 'Intelligent Jungle' that was comin to the show for his first live fishbone experience. Spacey-T says there will be some of that on the new album. He said that he listens to a lot of that too. He was saying 'thats one of the things that makes Fishbone work, is that all of us listen to all kinds of different shit'. He said he's planning to put out a solo album soon, not just tour distribution, but full-on album this shit is for real style. I mentioned to him that Cowboy Mouth has 4 frontmen and they each have a solo thing that they alternate doing solo acoustic sets as opening acts before each show. He liked that a lot and said that soon we can look forward to something like that with Fishbone shows. I was asking him if he was the guitarist from 1997's Chim Chim tour but he said he didnt come on til after Warped. He's never played the Warped tour yet. He thought J.B. was probably who I saw, but when I said I was pretty sure that the guitar player at the time had dreads, he said it might have been Freddy Flynt(sp) or Norwood's cousin that played with Prince for awhile (I forget the guy's name). Spacey-T finished up his guitars and helped set up his equipment on stage. He said he isn't as excited about the days off as the other guys, its nice and all, but he just wants to play. 'I LIVE FOR THIS SHIT!!!' he said a couple of times while tuning guitars, or walking back to me from the stage. He said 'I like to help setup my stuff because I want it to be perfect, I LIVE FOR THIS SHIT MAN!' He said he needed to go make some noise for a sec and see how it sounded. To my surprise he gets on stage and doesn't pick up a guitar...he drops himself behind the drums! He didnt play anything amazing, but he's actually pretty good. He played some jazz style beats. Its kinda like other guitar players I've known that just like to fuck around on the drums when the drummer's not there. Some of them become pretty fuckin good that way too. So I leave Spacey-T to play drums for a bit and go off to page Norwood again.

Norwood calls me back immediately and I'm standing in front of the club. I tell him 'I'm at the club man', he says 'so am I, I'm upstairs so come on up'. I get up there and he's sittin on the couch with this huge tupperware thing full of bud light in front of him, another one full of heineken and snapple to my right, and a big bowl of fresh fruit. We talked for a few minutes and I showed him the stuff I had been drawing and we talked about that for awhile. Then Angelo walks in and starts talking to Norwood, didnt see me yet. Then he turns around and looks at me, then Norwood, then back to me. He's staring at me with this 'I know that dude, but what the fuck is his name again' look on his face. So I re-indroduce myself and he remembered that Debra had introduced us several months ago at his MAdd Vibe show in DC. So then all 3 of us are in there talkin about stuff and my drawings and more stuff. Then my cellphone rings. I'm answering it and Angelo says 'Ha ha man, Yer Parasite's Ringin, Yer Parasite's Ringin'. So of course I changed the greeting on the phone to read 'Parasite' and all my friends will have to hear me say 'call me on my parasite' from now on. We spent a lot of time talking business style about some great wonderful things that will be affecting the familyhood very soon. Details are still in the works so I won't go into it here today. I think you all will be very happy. CAn ya FEEL IT!!!

Okay, so now its time for sound check. Of course I stayed for that. They played a really badass 'Jah Jah on the Telephone'. It was one of those that sounds like their just fuckin around, but man it was funky as all shit. They played several things like that. Then they played 'Dear God', which made me very happy after hearing everybody say that it wasn't being played at the shows. I think they're workin out a live arrangement for it still and some of you will get to hear it soon. Don't quote me on that tho because I forgot to ask them. I wanted to catch Walt by himself and see if he'd get it added to the setlist for me, but I didnt get much chance to talk to him at all really. My roomate shows up at the club and calls me from outside in the middle of Dear God so I went out and brought him in. His first Fishbone show and he gets to watch soundcheck! Lucky bastard! After soundcheck is over we went to get some food and earplugs.

When we get back from dinner we go back into the club and catch Angelo who's lookin for me already anyway so it was perfect timing. He was lookin to get back to the bus for his CD's. We were only 4 blocks from the hotel, but he had been siteseeing all day and had no idea where he was in relation to the hotel. So anyway, were goin downstairs to the soundbooth where he's got his laptop stored. He's yellin while we bounce down the stairs 'I love that thing! I can check my email from ANYWHERE NOW HAhahaha!' Angelo is workin on a new book from the road right now. He's doin his writings and stuff and sending it to Gaston, who is putting it all together for him. So after he's finished showing me the new Fishbone Chronicles he's making in netscape composer, he pops out of the soundbooth and rides back to the bus so he can play DJ for awhile.

I leave my roomate sittin in the club drawing and writing his stuff (which is really interesting, I'll see if he'll let me post some of it to the list later) and go outside to hand out flyers to the familyhood in line. I see John McKnight walkin up to the club so I grab him for a sec and we talked for a few. He informed me that the show was probably gonna sell out, which is great for DC. They usually have a good turnout here, but I think you can always buy tickets at the door the night of the show...even at the 9:30 club. We didn't talk long, but he was VERY approachable and I definately recommend you talk to him if you see him at a show, its like hanging out with a good friend.

After John went inside, Angelo and the tour manager pull up in front of the club with the boxes of T-shirts and Angelo's CD's. He stayed in front of the club for awhile playing with the sticks and talking to people standing in line and just walking by. I was on the 'parasite' with Josefek at that point, so I walked over to Angelo and gave him the phone for a few. I flyered the shit out of the people in line with Nuttwork Flyer #3 (get it at fishbone.net for your next show). Its amazing how some people just refuse to take flyers no matter what they say. I'm in a fishbone shirt, in the doorway of the club distributing flyers with fishbone logo's on them, and people are like 'no thank you', 'not interested' and many others. A guy said to me 'oh, i see you have some literature to pass out.' Very bizarre. Norwood comes flying through and I damn near flyered him, he asked me if he could have a poster instead. I flyered half the band as they passed me and I didnt see anything but their shoulders cuz I was separating the flyers. They all took the flyers tho and McKnight told me that he was looking for one of those just the other day. He also said that at the last show people were passing them out on full sheets rather than 4/sheet. If you go to Kinko's and download the pdf form from the internet, they will cut them in quarters for you and everything. I did 400 flyers for about 8 bucks yesterday in about 20 minutes and yeah...they helped me.

Okay...on with the show. The opening bands were called 'Jepetto' and 'Raging Alien Communication' or something like that. They were local bands of the rap/rock variety. Neither of them were very good. I had asked Spacey-T who was opening and he said that they never know til the bands are on stage pretty much, unless its a big tour like the Chili Peppers etc. That seemed strange to me since I thought they were touring the album. I thought this was the Nuttwerx Tour. But whatever, the local clubs are booking the opening acts I think and they just book whatever seems to be popular in the area. The Garage is not the normal club Fishbone play at so, I'm not sure that the venue really knew what to expect from Fishbone. I spent most of the opening band's sets back and forth outside and inside passing out flyers but basically not paying attention to the band. They all finally finish and Angelo spins records for about 30 minutes I guess...was hard to keep track of time at this point. He was putting CD's on and then he'd look around the room grinning til the song was over , and repeat. Norwood comes walkin through the room wearing a black bathrobe, shades, and I beleive that viking hat we keep seeing him in (no braids that I noticed). He looked like somethin that dropped right out of the Mothership. I think he was just runnin out to tell Angelo that they were bout ready to get on stage and to stop spinnin records, cuz about 10 minutes later they were on stage.

They come on stage and start with Party at Ground Zero. The crowd started moving immediately and there were people already swimmin. Nobody seemed to get thrown out for it tho. I remember seeing the same few guys doin it over and over. They moved quickly into Question of Life, which was great live (as usual). All Kept Startin was next and very bouncy, the crowd was definately enjoying themselves. Then Cholly complete with 'Fat Chicks' chant leading in. After Cholly, Angelo looks into the crowd and picks out a couple of girls and says 'I'm gonna dedicate this next song to you, and you, and you. Its about the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and then the suffering.' My roomate likes this song a lot so he was very pleased. Angelo played a smooth sax solo in this one that fit so perfectly. I think this was right after McKnight started gettin funky with the trombone, Angelo said, you feeling the funk...check this out..and started his solo. (might have been a different song, I didn't take real good notes.) Next song is When Problems Arise and Angelo finally decides to test the waters. He jumped in, rode around for a few seconds and back on stage to stay for the nite. The stage was very small so they were a little cramped so I guess that was bothering him a bit. Then Bonin in the Boneyard which was as funky as ever...then Beergut! At the end of Beergut, 'All aboard! Get your beer mugs ready! Next stop, hops and barley!' He has the band playin that fast paced train stuff while he's namin off beer. 'We got Budweiser! We got Fosters! We got Red Dog! We got Mad Dog! We got Heineken! We got Oooldd Englishhh, yeah Ooold Englishhhahahahaha!' 'Next stop! Wine and Spirits! We got whiskey! We got Jagermiester! We got MOON-shINE!!! Yeahhhhhh, MOON-SHINE!!!' Then Just Allow, Ugly, Ma and Pa, and on to Where'd you get those pants. They grabbed about 5 girls and pulled them on stage. The first girl grabbed Angelo and didn't seem to wanna let go. Angelo was like 'I just brought ya up here to shake them pants!' They were throwing themselves all OVER the guys man... To me they took what could have been a cool thing, where some girls were brought on stage and danced with the band to a song, and turned it into what looked like a buncha hookers on stage tryin to bone the band. Hopefully none of you were on the stage last nite, if you were, chances are I don't mean you cuz everybody wasn't like that, but the few that were..they made it the only thing you could really see. If you were on stage and your one of them I'm talkin about...keep some self respect next time man...thats all...just keep some self-respect. Oh...I almost forgot...there was this big fat white guy that got on stage that whas hilarious...he had no shirt on and he got up there and started dancin too. I was laughin my ass off, looked away for a sec, and looked back and he was gone. I guess Angelo pushed him off. The Hospitality girl was up on stage too dancin so we cheered for her a bit. Although I did find it very fitting that when they finished pants, they went straight into Wish I Had a Date (Whore, Slut...Whore, Slut...hahahaha) while the girls were gettin off the stage. Okay, this did get a little rude on my part so I'm gonna go ahead and apologize for that right now, but I'm not gonna delete it, so there. Next was 'One Planet! One People! One People! One Planet!' One Planet People...got the crowd, and I enjoyed the live version very much myself. Then Unyielding Conditioning, Aids and ARmageddon, both of which came off beautifully. The sax solo in Unyielding, and the funk they laid down for Armageddon, was just fuckin brillant. Then of course came the ever classic punk rock version of Curtis Mayfield's Freddy's Dead. I think live is the way I like this song best. They played Sunless Saturday next and at one point in the solo, Spacey-T raised the axe over his head and the lights were on him in such a way that I immediately thought of the old He-Man thing. (By the Power of Fishbone, I have the Power!!!!) It was like the gods reached down to Spacey-T all at once with a great finger of light pointing him out to be the chosen one or something. He played beautifully on that and every other song too. They closed the set with a very high speed Subliminal Fascism, that for a second I thought was gonna be Chim Chim's Badass Revenge. They left the stage with Angelo saying 'Y'all hold tight for a minute'. They then came back for their encore and played a very slow and pretty version of Weed Plant. It was just Walt, Angelo, and Spacey-T on the stage for this one. Then the rest of the band came out for what Angelo called his 'Dixieland Punk Rock' (I think thats what he said anyway) Karma Tsunami, which is fuckin GREAT live. They closed with Housework...they must have, Chris didn't say otherwise, so I'm stickin to that part of my story.

After the show...(yeah, there's more, not much more, but there's more)... I gave Angelo the stack of flyers I had left so he'd have somethin to autograph so that people might keep the shit and check out the websites (Hmm...I should check into a marketing career.) and went upstairs to talk to Norwood real quick. Once we got upstairs I'm walkin towards the dressing room and there's this big muscular guy walkin around with no shirt on near the bar. I noticed next that the guy's wearin no pants! Its John Steward walkin around in his underwear upstairs. I was tempted to sing to him 'Where'd you put your pants', but well...he was headin to the dressing room and I wasn't tryin to distract him from his mission of gettin dressed. While I was waiting for Wood to change, Walt comes walkin by and the Hospitality girl is standin over by me in those pants. He smiles at her and says, 'Your a very inspirational young lady.' So we said goodbye to McKnight, Walt, Wood, and Angelo and ran out to the truck to go home. We passed some frat kid who had passed out for awhile on some steps next to a couple homeless guys. We had a good laugh as we debated wakin him up or not. Decided to let him sleep cuz he looked safe enough and kept walkin. Came accross some brand new leather boot shoes sittin side by side like somebody put them in a closet and we stopped and looked at them for a sec, looked around and decided it had been a long enough nite and so we left the drunk, left the shoes, and left the city for the nite.

So thats the story, at least what I can tell you heheheh...sorry it was so damn long.

Dave

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