May 30 2003 @ Mean Fiddler London, UK

Tonight your intrepid NOISE! reviewer has those kind of mixed feelings that you get when a band you've admired return after a lengthy absence. Naturally, as a long term 'boner (okay, less of the guffaws), I am looking forward to seeing them again. Memories of twelve years ago when the Los Angeles based band rocked Kentish Town's Forum and your lucky writer got to meet the guys afterwards come flooding back.

However, with a certain amount of trepidation, I am also wondering what to expect. After several years of mixed fortunes, Fishbone seemed to have given up but now they're back in a cut down version with only three original members. Their new album, a one disc Greatest Hits, is apparently only being released in Japan. Frankly, I am wondering whether maybe they should have called it a day a long time ago?

Checking out the merchandise stand, I find to my disappointment, that the 'smoking fish' t-shirt is not available in XL (okay, maybe I should lose some weight), so I venture further into the depths of the Mean Fiddler, grab an overpriced Grolsch and wait in apprehension.

It isn't long before Doctor Madvibe hits the stage and regales the throng with one of his poems about the rigours of being in a band. For the uninitiated, Doctor Madvibe is lead singer, saxophonist and founder member of Fishbone, Angelo Moore. As he finishes, the rest of the band take to the stage and break into the intro to Party at Ground Zero. Thus, a heady mixture of funk-ska-metal-punk-rock begins.

The band leap and jump, as do a fair number of the rather meagre crowd. Yes, that even includes your funked up writer. Unfortunately, the initial few songs are marred by problems with Norwood Fisher's bass. This other original member's playing isn't at fault, it's the sound mix which is atrocious. Amidst squalls of feedback, I wonder whether there had even been a soundcheck? Thankfully, the gremlins are soon banished and the band get into their stride.

As hit after hit washes over us, more and more of the crowd are drawn into the seething tide. People leap and spring about like flotsam and jetsam on an ocean of euphoria. The stage diving soon begins in earnest, with both fans and the band hurling themselves off. With the announcement "The pool is now open", Fishbone break into Swim, their ode to crowd surfing. Doc Madvibe lunges off the stage and literally 'swims' across the crowd. Although this is undoubtedly a heart-warming sight, it's not quite the spectacle I witnessed twelve years ago, when at the much larger Forum, the manic vocalist 'swam' all the way from the stage to the sound desk and back again!

Unfortunately, despite the veritable tsunami of infectious songs such as Freddie's Dead, Everyday Sunshine and Fight the Youth, this is the niggling doubt I have about the whole night. As much as I enjoy it, singing along and leaping about like a large salmon trying to make it's way upstream, nothing they can do can live up to previous Fishbone gigs when they were a full band playing to packed audiences. Still, despite my longing for past glories, it's undeniably a pleasure to see them again and I'll doubtless happily amble along to witness their antics again in a few week's time at London's ULU.

JAMES MURRAY (http://www.noise-online.com/fishbone.html)

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12hrs ago I was in London rocking away to Fishbone!

(First the boring bit!)

Anyway the gig for me started over a hundred miles from London at 1.30pm when I left home - somehow I got lost on the way to Oxford which was particularly clever of me as I've driven there loads of times and it's just one road all the way! God knows how I got on the wrong roa...

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