Aug 30 2002 @ House of Blues Anaheim, CA

Here it is kids... some thoughts about Friday's show, aka "Mig's 1987 Dream Team":

First: Untouchables. Due to circumstances conspiring against us (ticket situation for sold-out show, plus an unnamed familyood member had to do her toenails!) we missed 'em. :( Clyde was walking around though, looking rather Clyde-ish. I last saw them in 93, so I was a bit bummed that I missed them. Oh well... next time!

Next up: our Heroes. Not counting the UT's (because I missed them), they were by far the best act of the night. Lisa B. and I agreed that the show, though good, didn't match the craziness of the Justice League show in SF two months ago. Though at the HOB show, "Alcoholic" had the place going nuts. The crowd was filled with annoying people who were getting mad at the most mellowest of moshing. They got mad at Sarah, who was flying around the crowd in true Sarah style.

Further Fishbone thoughts toward the end of this.

Next: Neville Staple, from the Specials. Okay show... but it didn't do much for me. It was cool hearing some songs that I'd never heard live before-- "Little Bitch", "Gangsters"-- but there was something lacking. Partly because the band didn't do it for me. (No gentle way of saying this, but it was a bunch of unknown young white kids). The annoying crowd also didn't help: a ton of middle-aged frat guys saying "hey! We used to listen to the Specials in college!" and chest-bumping each other, singing along with the only Specials line they knew ("Rudy... a message to you Rudy.") It WAS cool, however, to hear "Ghost Town" though, which they finished with.

Finally: Dave Wakeling. Having seen him a zillion times, it was no surprise that the predictably-erratic bandleader has changed his whole lineup yet again. I didn't recognize the people in the band; though he does like to use L.A. area scenesters who have been around for a while. This lineup had a lot of people... but I think he works better with a smaller band. And he desperately needs to hold a guitar, even if it is indeed mostly for show... because his frontman, mike-only dancing looked very Middle Aged Man. Most distressing, though, was the return of his extremely annoying manager/booking agent guy, whom Dave got rid of a while ago, but is apparently back. This guy (Rob) insists on being allowed to be on the stage to do backup singing... he's really big on occupying stage space for the sake of glory, without contributing anything. In this case, "vocals and percussion" means backing vocals on the chorus, plus an unmiked tambourine. But it looks like he is handling booking for all the acts at this show (including Fishbone... PLEASE guys you can do better) so I guess it was pretty easy for him to put this show together. If anybody else has experience with this guy, good or bad, I'd really love to hear.

A few final Fishbone thoughts: they had the only real merch table, except for Neville who I think only sold one or two CDs... and who was getting badly upstaged at the merch table by our Doctor five feet away.

The big thing that I noted, though, was that of the four acts, only one (Fishbone) was still going. The other three were reformed, flashback, VH1-Storytellers acts. I love them all... but Fishbone was the only band of the four that is still going and still doing their thing.

Thank you for listening to my old war stories.

(flyboy go fly your) -Mig

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ok now i have to put in my .02 since i got slammed in mig's email! it was mig's fault we got on the road late to begin with! i couldn't go out without doing my toenails! i'm a girl dammit! :-P

i too was bummed that i missed the ut's. when i got in (before mig & cathy), they were playing their last song & i needed a beer. so i heard them while i was at the outside bar. ...

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