Mar 31 2017 @ High Noon Madison, WI

I attended high school in the mid-1980's in the whitest of Milwaukee's suburbs, where my and my friend's musical interests focused mainly on the "hair bands" of the day.  It wasn't until my enrollment at the University of Wisconsin that I was exposed to a greater variety of music, including Fishbone.  During my years in Madison, I would buy any Fishbone CD that I could find at the Exclusive Company on State Street -- LPs, EPs, singles, imports, it didn't matter.  

I saw Fishbone a few times, both opening for the Violent Femmes and the English Beat, co-headlining with Primus, and then finally as a headliner a couple of times in 2016.  Then I found out that Fishbone was returning to Madison again in 2017 for the Chim Chim Rises! Tour.  As fate would have it, Chim Chim's is the only Fishbone LP I never purchased.  Given I had seen Fishbone twice in 2016 and didn't know Chim Chim's, I was going to take a pass on this concert.

That is, until a friend of mine asked me go to.  He's not a big Fishbone fan, but his niece is currently a student at UW, and I think he used Fishbone as an enticement for us to spend a night in Madison hanging out with the college kids.  So I gave him a "yes," and off to Fishbone me, my friend, his niece and her friend went.     

I had "boned" up on Chim Chim's in the weeks before the concert, so I knew all of the tunes before the show.  The set list was the same as the Chicago and St. Louis set lists the following two nights.  I had promised the girls stage diving, but Angelo and Jay never left their feet.  The girls left half-way through the show due to being over-served.  Amateurs.  My friend couldn't say enough good things after the show.  Of course, I thought the show was great.  We headed for gyros at Parthenon's, then passed out in our hotel.  At breakfast the next morning, my friend's niece said she had fun, but I'm sure that a mosh pit full of bald and gray-haired men is a bit unsettling for a 21-year old girl.  

Thanks to Fishbone for persevering throughout the years!   

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