Feb 25 2005 @ Le Botanique Brussels, BE

First off, i've got to give mad props to the opening band (and booking agent), Wolfunkind -> http://www.wolfunkind.com/. I was to tired to enjoy them fully in Paris, but these guys play a great tight set of french fpunk, not very far from the F?d?ration Fran?aise du Fonck (FFF) less the horns. A great show, too bad the audience was taken by surprise.

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WOW, what a great show! Like Denis, I thought the opening band "Wolfunkind" was really great. Everybody should support them and buy their double cd "Cycofonk" at one of Fishbone's concerts or via their website: www.wolfunkind.com. The other support act, PPz30, indeed became a little bit annoying after a while. I just wanted to see the 'bone man! I was really curious about the new line-up, and my e...

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I was also there and i really spent a good time. I wasn't expecting them to play that long and was glad to see that they're still giving a lot of themselves on stage. I liked Angelo "crazyness" (in french we say "folie") and energy. It is a night I won't forget as didn't forget the first time I saw the band at AB twelve years ago. It was a revelation. And this time as I'm older I can say I rea...

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Comment un tel groupe peut-il "tenir" aussi longtemps (+ de 20ans!)... Quand tu as assisté à ce concert, t' as compris! A+ (see you soon)

Hey all,

I finally have found the time to write the required review of a superb show....

I only got to the Botanique by 21h30 due to late work and traffic jam, so I missed the opening band Wolfundkind, and I only caught few songs of the other opening act PPZ30...

I had made some flyers (ca 100) to promote fishbone.net, fishbonelive.org and the nuttwork neighbourhood, and started flyering after meeting up with Denis. Angelo was spinning some cd's while the audience grew steadily to fill up the house for a good 85% (completely filled with still some space left for dancing...).

Fishbone took the stage at around 22h15 with Angelo reciting Fishbone Soldier with the rest of the band providing the soundtrack... Next into Unyielding: from the first few notes it was obvious to me: this was going to be a great show! The guys were having a good time, and the sound was very good (although Rocky was a little bit too low at the start of the show...). The sound is again incredibly full and multilayered, and reminded me very much of my only GAMAB-period show! Rocky's playing was very clean and crisp, and I can only dream of the sound adding another gifted guitar player like Tori. The horns section is top: Mc Nutt on trombone and crazy Pastor Dre on trumpet! D'Andre Gipson on keyboard also addded very much to the full sound! Angelo was wearing a black wig and looked like withney houston's sister, but his singing was may'be even better than ever... very clean and soulful. The other vocal parts were perfectly filled in by both Dre's and Wood, and even Wet Daddy took the microphone when Angelo and Pastor Dre stole his seat at the drums.

Next song was everydady sunshine, and it was incredible to see al the happy faces! The crowd got really into it, and danced their asses off on Ugly... Next up was faceplant, and Angelo pulled me from the crowd (tearing my 1992 Racism Sucks tee, RIP, now I can finally hang it to the wall) to dance on stage... One second later I found myself in a stack of fishbone band members (at least Angelo and Pastor Dre) in a kind of on-stage horizontal pogo heap... The next moment I was flying like a fish back in the audience... The band really got into it with the uptempo Sub.Fasc. and a really funky Freddy! Next was Dre Gipson doing lead vocal on a reggae intro into a mighty version of Suffering... (I can't remember exactly what came first, but it was also intertwined with reciting Junkie's prayer...???)

A little later they new song Jackass Brigade was accomanied by a new dance by Angelo and Pastor Dre! Great song by the way: which gets better and better... like it's building up to a climax... Also Pastor Dre is really crazy (positive), as next to Angelo's crowd surfing, this guy jumped in the crowd for some bad ass pogoing! Somewhere along i was hit in the head by a flying fish (when I came home I found out I had a blue eye, a small bruise under my left eye, a good reminder of a fantastic show ;-), I wonder what my boss will say...).

Another highlight was 'I like to hide behind my glasses' with angelo sporting sunglasses...! And the intro to alcoholic was a superb mix of slapstick (D'andre Gipson) and reality (eg. Wood and others getting pretty drunk)... Also Wood got a flat tire with his bass, and during repair the guys started jamming with Wet Daddy singing "Don't waste beer, give it here..."

The final song Party was like a 'grand finale'... with a lot of dancing crowd on stage! It was pretty clear that the band and the crowd were completely exhausted after this final song! After a 2h+ show, neither Fishbone nor the crowd could take more! No encore and still this show was the easily the best show I've seen so far! It was really really superb! This line-up has a lot of possibilities, I hope that this new drive can get the band to new heights with new material and superb shows. This line-up reminds me very much of the line-up of my first show ever (1993 - Rockwood in Belgium). In my opinion, Fishbone needs at least 7 people on stage in order to create this full and multi-layered sound! With all these gifted musicians, fishbone is the baddest band in the world!

I drove home with burning ears a body filled with energy and a heart filled with hope. Respect for all these guys! (PS: I bought the Wolfundkind cd and listened to it on my way home, it was the perfect closing soundtrack for an incredible night).

If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to contact me!

Best regards,

Arne

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It's been a long time i hadn't seen them outside festivals. There's no comparison. You really get the real power of this band on stage at their own gig. It's amazing that a band that you have seen many times can still amaze you at that point. It's now clear, this band is synonym of positivism, life, energy and love. Thank you all on stage and the former members.

I really enjoyed the reviews everyone wrote so far, so I'm sure that mine is going to be repetitive and boring. But I have to reiterate that this was one of the best concerts of my life because it was POSITIVE and fun. I hate even calling it a concert because it was so much more than that. Concert implies that it was merely music being played when this was actually more like a party or movement. A...

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aw man what a show,my first time seeing fishbone and definately not the last,i mean for a band to have played that many shows in one month and put in a performance like that is just surreal (j lo has a lot of catching up to do) ive never seen a band have that much fun on stage and having met angelo before hand just made it all the more beautiful i wouldve gone home happy then,i cant sing fishbones...

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From what I remember, that was a wild performance. Met Angelo and John at the bar before the show. They agreed to take some photos and we chatted a bit. Very nice and funny guys as always...

By the time the band came on stage, everyboy seemed to be, hum... slightly drunk! So, like I said, that was a wild gig.It sounded very chaotic. Chaotic but... fun!

 After the show, Joh...

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