Sep 09 2001 @ Wetlands New York, NY

At 8:15pm, the Nutt-sanctifying funk of FISHBONE (from the planet of NUTTMEG) started their set with a little bit of Jimi Hendrix's "Power of Soul"........Spacey T's lethal guitarisms smoked the speakers in the Wetlands (which will be soon be "condo space", unfortunately). After the Hendrix tribute, it was on to "AIDS and Armaggedon". From there, it was off to stuff like "Cholly", "Ma and Pa" and ...

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Missed Mary Prankster, but got there in time to catch most of Maximum Penalty. Relatively boring generic hardcore. Funniest moment of the evening came when two shaven headed behemoths attempted to start a pit by themselves and succeeded in scaring the living shit out of anyone near them. Oh well, they had fun anyway...

Ari Up, formerly of UK punk band the Slits was next. Looking exactly like Keith Morris in a dress, Ari proceeded to surprise the hell out of me by delivering a bumping set of dancehall reggae, complete with guest toasters and solid backing band. Unfortunately, the set was cut short (total of 35 minutes or so) by time constraints, as the club had scheduled a second show that evening.

Fishbone, to put it mildly, was on fire. Didn't write down all the tunes but I do remember that they played all the new stuff soldiers have been mentioning recently (Devil Made Me Do It, Demon, Nerve Endings, Get Out Of The City, Wid It, Last Days and a few others I didn't catch the titles of). Folks, these songs are so heavy and musically dense I just stood there in amazement. I can't wait until these tunes are recorded, as there are at least a few of the bunch that rank with the best of the Fishbone classics. BTW, they played a good amount of familiar stuff as well (AIDS, Bonin, Alcoholic, Party, Ma and Pa, Skankin, to name the few I can remember).

Great energy in the club, flying fish on all the familiar tunes, usual oppressive Wetlands temperature and bass heavy sound mix...This set ranked among the best of the 14 or 15 Bone shows I've attended. Not to exaggerate, but I can't think of a living band that plays better than this. Run, don't walk, to a theater near you...

Oh, also met Adam, who was busy filming most of the evening, and Andy from the list - first time live encounter of list members for me. Very cool people, as expected.

Now if only the hearing will return to my right ear, everything will be just cool...

Sorry for the sketchy details, Ira

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Yes I was there and I loved it!! It reminded me of some of the first times I saw them. Small place, got real close to the band, lively crowd.

I was in heaven. Songs that stick out:

Cholly - one of my all-time favorites Sunless saturday ma and pa just allow bonin alcoholic

they ended with a rockin servitude

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I forgot the guset guitarist's name. He came on for Servitude, the last song, which they extended the end of with long guitar solos (think they've done that the past couple of shows I've seen of them).

New songs were really cool, but I don't think they're completely up to speed on them. There were a couple of times when it seemed they weren't quite in synch with each other...

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I rolled into Wetlands around 3pm and immediately met up with Alex Poppas who was one of the camera people at the Temple Bar shows 2 weeks ago. He flew out with the band and he, my friend Dan, and myself were filming the show for the documentary. Just to give you an idea of how cool Wetlands is and why it's such a favorite of musicians: Alex told me that the club actually paid to fly the band o...

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i believe the guest guitarist was Byron West. he also played on sunless saturday.

matt mckee

I caught up with an old friend last weekend. He lives in New York so I told him that he had to see Fishbone at Wetlands. I thought his take on it was pretty interesting:

you'll be happy to know that i followed your advice and saw fishbone. they played this past sunday. it was funny because i returned from MA, hopped on the net, and found out that they were playing that ni...

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this was a good show. the wetlands was a great club, nyc misses it. there was great energy and everyone was dancing, i broke a 7 year hiatus from stage diving and got a good ride. i have to say it was maby the best i have seen fishbone since all the changes. there were a bunch of people videotaping, they said for the band so maby we will all get to see this show sometime, or maby not, it was ...

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there's a great video of Cholly on this website: http://punkcast.com/93/index.html

I wish someone would post the entire show!