Mar 01 2005 @ Undertown Genève, CH

The show was in a small club in the Geneva area called the Undertown, that looks a lot like an 80's discoteque with a very tiny stage and a very small bar too :( There were around 200 people and everybody had a great time. I met P.L. before the show, and they were lot of old fans judging by the t-shirts...

First some word on the first band Wolfunkind : They were a great opener. Some kind of festive funk with funny lyrics, I enjoyed it. Their guitarist was pretty good, he was playing some funky riffs at very fast pace, and was very funny. A good surprise !!!

Now the The Fishbone Familyhood show ! I don't remind if someone pointed it out but the T-shirt they sell is not labeled Fishbone, but The Fishbone Familyhood - Eggsperience Tour France 2005. It was great to see again Fishbone with eight member on stage ! The stage was a little small for all these people, but it didn't stopped the guys to move around and dance, everybody seemed to have a great fun playing together.

I have some mixed feelings about the new guys as I have for the show... The keyboard guy (Sorry I don't recall all new bandmembers names...) made some cool toast on the Suffering, but he was not very loud in the mix, so we didn't heard him very well. The new trumpeter (Dre ?) is some kind of Mini Dirty, cool, with a lot of energy and very soulful. He is perfect as a horn replacement for Walt, has a lot of presence and a good feeling with the audience, but the problem is when he tries to emulate Walt vocally. It doesn't work for me. There is less interaction between him and Angelo, and he miss the power, the tone and the natural coolness/wildness of Walter. I think that some songs should be played totally differently or left out of the set list because of that.

And this remark is not only for the vocals, they played "Sunless Saturday" and man, it sounded very very weak... I don't know if it was only in Geneva but for me it was subpar. The reason is mainly the guitarists. I've seen a lot of complaint about Spacey playing on this list and never understood it. Spacey is a very kick-ass guitarist who can play any music in any style, but I have the feeling that both Rocky as Tori(?) are great guitar players but none of them can handle the lead guitar like Spacey was.I can talk more about Tori as I was in front of him : Great in Metal parts(Very good fat heavy sound), but he seems to lack a little finesse (I don't imagine him one minute playing some flamenco tune like Spacey was...). Rocky was on another area and level of the stage and a little low in the mix too. He did a fine long solo on one song, it was hard to hear it as the horns were also playing ?, but Rocky didn't stop and soloed until the end of the song.

Mc Nutt was only playing trombone and singing some parts but seemed to have a lot of fun too. John and Norwood were tight as usual, and Angelo was a little less carrying the show on his shoulder and feeled happy to share the stage with the new guys.

Having a full horn section was very positive for me, and gave new light to some of the recent songs.

The Setlist :

Unyielding Everyday Ma & pa Faceplant Sub. Fasc. Freddy Suffering Kept Startin' Gonuttz Ugly Premadawnutt R U Wit It Glasses Alcoholic Beergut Sunless Servitude

Forever Moore Lyin' Ass Party

Great to hear again "Hide Behing My Glasses" which always been one of my favourite, they did also a fantastic jam version of "Beergut", and "Everyday sunshine" was done in a very soulful version a bit like in the Reality DVD. Norwood broke a cord on "Premadawnutt" and they jammed for five minutes, exchanging instruments.

My feelings about this show are very mixed, because I loved the show but I didn't felt like exactly going to a Fishbone show. It was less Fishbonesque than two years ago when they were only five in the band. And I think that this feeling comes because it seems that the band is more ecclectic than two years ago. Two Years ago it was like Fishbone with two sidemen, but this year it feeled more like an other group with members of Fishbone in it.

This is not negative, but instead very promising for the future. I think that they need time to integrate the new guys and their background and build a new Fishbone sound, because from what I heard I think that it's inevitable and that the previous Fishbone sound can't exist without Walt. You can feel that the sound is in mutation and that they didn't found the right balance between all the influences in the band yet.

Another very very positive thing I think, is that it is the first time since the Chim Chim Tour that they doesn't looked like the angry Fishbone, but rather like the happy Fishbone...

Very good show, very promising for the future, but a page has been definitively turned...

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