Nov 16 2006 @ Islington Academy London, UK

Small, Sweaty place, over enthusiastic security (he claimed that my dancing was a danger to public safety and threatened to throw me out twice), but they played a blinder - dont know why they dont play Bonin anymore but you cant have everything. band are definately on form at the moment, energetic, tight as a knats chuff, playing varied material, and enjoying themselves - cant ask for any more tha...

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Hi John and everyone else,

As promised, a review of last night's gig.

I'll put the set-list first for those of you who are not interested in my ecstatic ramblings. As the bloke next to me got Rocky's set-list, this may not be one hundred per cent accurate, but I will do my best...I think all the songs are there, but perhaps not in the right order in the middle. I am sure Colin and Roo-face will correct me if I'm wrong!

Unyielding Conditioning Greetings From Ja (???) The Suffering Everyday Sunshine Face Plant Frayed Fickin Nerve Endings Karma Tsunami Date Rape Skank 'n' Go Nuts Freddie's Dead Hide Behind My Glasses Primadawnutt Let Dem Ho's Fight Forever Moore Ma 'n' Pa Party With Sadaam Ugly The Devil Made Me Do It Subliminal Fascism Sunless Saturday

ENCORE

Behind Closed Doors

Overall impressions of the band are that they are a storming live band...very different from the 5 piece version I saw at the same venue in 2002 with Walt and Spacey, but perhaps more in keeping with the old 6 and 7 piece I saw in the late '80s and early '90s. The big difference from 2002 is that the guitar was the main instrument then, whereas the new sound is very keyboard and brass heavy (as someone criticised the new album for being)

The band look great with 5 of them up-front and basically now having 5 front men...from left to right -McKight, singing, playing guitar and trombone (often in the same song) and stepping in on keyboards to let Dre come up front -Curtis ( a little ball of energy) playing trumpet and singing and dancing with Angelo and acting out songs, especially Primadawnutt -Angelo, more energised than last time out -Norwood, resplendent in sparkly pink rabbit ears, playing astonishing bass-lines and singing -Rocky standing quietly on his own, almost hiding behind the speaker stack (except for smashing his guitar into the monitor at the start of Subliminal and cuddling Angelo and Dre for the outr to Sunless) -Dre is the fifth front man, crowd surfing with Angelo during Subliminal, snow-boarding (with no board!) into the crowd during face plant, singing the intro to Skank from the mosh-pit!It is just a shame that he spends so much time behind his keyboards...if they could get another keyboard player, he and Angelo would be great together up-front. -John Steward kept it all together with his playing and did the rap in Face Plant and echoed many of Angelo's between song chat!

The band seemed to be enjoying themselves more than 2002 and there were far more people at the venue. Loads of them bought SSIYT at the merch stand at the end. I had a chat with Curtis and Dre at the end...thoroughly nice people obviously having a great time in the band...and they said they would be back in February, which would be great.

Other random thoughts:

Seriously funky Everyday Stunning version of Sunless Norwood's amazing bass playing during Frayed Dre effortlessly picking up lead vocals when Angelo picked up his sax

Finally on a personal note, it was really nice tospend the evening with Colin (even though I should aplogise for my opening line of "You look even older than me", which fortunately he was!!!) Also nice to meet Roo-face and his female friend whose name I missed, with a stunning green mohican...a shame they arrived late as I only had a chance for a brief chat at the end.

Even finallyer (honest!) I was gutted at the end as the Extra Large tour hoody, the Mercg guy had put to one side for me had been sold and they only had small ones left, so I missed out...aaahhh!!!

Love and Even More Rambling then Usual!

Paddy

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I wrote this before I could access email so it duplicates some of what Paddy said (apart from the old comment! huh!)

End of Tour Blast! I think this was the best Fishbone gig I?ve been to! The gig at the Cannabis Cup was special because it was the Cannabis Cup but this was better! The atmosphere was much better than when I saw then in Birmingham with the crowd seeming to ...

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