May 19 2004 @ Beta Bar Tallahassee, FL

My best friend, Matt(whom I majorly turned on to Fishbone a few years ago), and I arrived at the Beta Bar at about 8:50pm. The Beta Bar is pretty much Tallahassee's premier punk, funk, and underground venue, and Fishbone used to play at it's previous location, the Cow Haus. The Soular System, a nuttmeg band whom is the best thing musically in Tallahassee, were scheduled to open followed by Living in Question and Fishbone.

I got to talk to John during Living in Question, and he extremely kind as always. Now I was under the impression that Rocky was going to be the only guitar player in the lineup, but as I was talking to John, who comes over but Tori Ruffin! I could tell that this was going to be a good night.

Now, as in the tradition of many Nuttwork reviews before, I will go song by song with the review:

The Lineup: Angelo Moore: vocals, saxophone, theremin Norwood Fisher: bass, vocals John Steward: drums Tori Ruffin: guitar, vocals Rocky George: guitar Pastor Dre: vocals, trumpet, bass solo on "Bonin'" Tre: keyboards, vocals

The Setlist: -"Unyielding Conditioning" They started off with a 5 min. jam that was incrdible -"Party at Ground Zero" Always a crowd pleaser -"Beer Gut" Think about the Chim Chim era ending and double the

length. This was fucking unbelievable! John was a drum monster on this one! -"Freddie's Dead" Intro was a gospel version of "Junkie's Prayer" with Tre going wild on his keyboard. -"Another Generation" Never heard this live, very nice! -"They All Have Abandoned Their Hopes" Angelo and Dre traded vocals. -"Cheyenne Star Forever Moore" very melodic dub style, I like it alot. -"Ma and Pa" Always good. Angelo and Rocky kept kicking each other in the ass the entire song and jokin around. Great to see them this happy. -"Jackass Brigade" Along the same vein of "Frey'd" and "Primadawnutt". I enjoyed the shit out of this song! -"Are You Wit It" The double guitar attack made this the best version I've ever heard of this song. -"Lyin' Ass Bitch" Best version I've heard so far again. -"The Suffering" Yet again the best version I've ever heard. Tre did his dub intro everyone's talked about. -"Alcoholic" Everyone took a swig of vodka before they did this song. Norwood said he was a little drunk and was asking the crowd for some weed. John then came on the mic and told him to sit his drunk ass down. Everyone on the stage just laughed their ass off. Hilarious! -"Subliminal Facism" Haven't heard it this good in while.

ENCORE -They came back on stage and just started jammin. They did a version of "Back in Black"("My ass is black"), "Iron Man", and Norwood started to sing "Runnin' with the Devil". -"Bonin' in the Boneyard" Holy shit was this awesome. Norwood did his solo, and then He took his bass off and let Dre hold it. Dre proceeded to do a sickass solo!

After thoughts: -Dre is talented as hell. The man can sing, and he can play the trumpet with amazing precision! -Tre is a master on the keyboards. He is better than Dowd ever thought about being live. His intro to "Suffering" was great! -Tori and Rocky trade off each other better than Kendall and John did, imho. They are both amazing guitarists, and they just continued to compliment each other throughout the show. -Bottom line, if this lineup becomes the permanent, look out for some shit to happen! I haven't seen this much energy, fun, jammin', and creativity on stage since my first two Fishbone experiences with the classic lineup when I was young. This Fishbone would be a force to be reckoned with on a whole new level! -I honestly haven't seen Angelo, Wood, and John this happy and energized in a long,long time!

I can't wait to experience this a second time tomorrow!

-Jamie

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