Sep 11 2004 @ Blake's on Telegraph Berkeley, CA

Okay, maybe some of the others who were there can fill in more blanks. (LisaB? Froggy? Albert?) In the meantime, here are my thoughts from the show last night, using a trite movie metaphor for structure:

THE GOOD --got to see the boys again. --newish players (Rocky, Tory) seem to be a lot more solid now. (Granted, when I last saw them, they were VERY new, and it was almost a year ago, so anyone gets better with time. Still, it was encouraging.) --Some of the songs have new-ish arrangements, intros, etc... made it very fun. e.g. new intro to "Everyday Sunshine" (although LisaB says it's been around for a while, so maybe it was just new to me.) --2nd guitar player (besides Rocky)-- I like the addition. Who is he? I'm sure it's been posted on here but I'm spacing on the details. 2nd guitar = good move. --Before the show, we saw Angelo outside with his daughter and some other relative. I don't know how much Angelo does or doesn't get to see his Lil Datta, but IMO *any* amount of time he can spend with her is good.

THE BAD: --even though the new band members were more up to speed, their overall sound wasn't as tight. It's definitely not your father's Fishbone. --about half the band was REALLY intoxicated, to the point where I think it affected their ability to dish out a serious show to us. --the venue was totally ass. I am Jack's complete lack of sightlines. --the crowd was pretty ass too. And put together with the venue, it made for a distinctly goatlike aroma the whole night. LisaB wasn't fond of the crowd either. --I am not a "pit snob" but I was highly annoyed by the 300-lb yetis that materialized out of nowhere for the "Sunless" encore, and thought it would be fun to careen around in the biggest flight path possible, and seeming to seek out the mellow people/small girls/etc. as crash barriers. --Am I the only person who actively dislikes the song "Are You With It"? Plodding, excessively long, and IMO the only reason for listening to that song left the band last Halloween. Plus the infinitely-repeated lyrics ("Are you with it? You gots to get with it!") are amongst the most moronic the band has ever had. "Break my ass like a windowsill" may not make sense but at least it's funny, and has context. --It was 9/11. LisaB and I were expecting (hoping for?) a bit more political ranting by Angelo. All there was, was about 60 seconds of "Oom Shackalack" before the band started. And "Party at GZ" mentioned the Taliban instead of the "commies". That was it.

THE UGLY --Fishbone trucker hats. Not sure how I feel about that. But that ugliness paled in comparison to:

-- WHO GAVE THE FRAT BOY THE MIC?!? YEESH, that was without question the WORST encore I've seen in years, from ANY band. After "Sunless"-- which was NOT together (the guitar player and drummer John couldn't synch up)-- then Angelo hopped on the drum kit and broke into a rather simple 4/4 beat. I was impressed with Angelo's limitless energy-- even after delivering a show, he could still maintain some relatively quick-tempo drumming. AND THEN THEY TURNED OVER THE MIC. Angelo introduced "a member of the Fishbone Familyhood" (his words) and up came a plaid Gap-shirt wearing yokel, who took the mike for a seemingly endless, barely-intelligible rap. Of the "throw your hands in the ay-yair" variety. Some other girl subsequently came up and took over-- which salvaged it somewhat-- except the damage had been done, and the guy still stood on the stage. It was NOT a happy ending.

If that guy is on this list: sorry, man, you meant well but I am calling it like I saw it.

And finally, I was keeping one eye open for KENDALL. I didn't honestly expect to see him, but I was looking. I didn't see him. Incidentally, I never received a response to the email I sent to what was supposedly his address.

There you have it. mig

<<<

ok my $.02 here. . .

i didn't think it was a bad show per se but not one of their best. they did change up the set list which was nice. one thing mig forgot to mention was a new song they played. unfortunately, i didn't catch the name. from what i recall & in no particular order:

critical times are you wid it everyday sunshine jackass brigade ug...

>>>

Not much to add about the Berkeley show, except to fill in a couple of blanks:

--The guest female vocalist was, if I heard the intro correctly, Durga McBroom (who shared co-writing credits with Angelo on "Karma Tsunami").

--The second of the new songs was "Cheyenne Star Forever Moore," or at least that's what the chorus seemed to be.

>>>