We got to see Fishbone – twice in one year! They opened for George Clinton/Parliament Funkadelic at the Lyric.
This is just my opinion, but… I don’t know why anyone – even the great George Clinton – would want to perform after Fishbone. You can’t follow them! They are too awesome. I think this billing was a lot of fun and made sense, but holy cats Fishbone are a machine.
I enjoyed seeing Parliament, too. What a night!
We saw Fishbone last night. It was so good! So happy to have been able to see them again with Chloë and take Beverly for the first time.
The Slackers opened – we had not seen them before. They have a song in the yet to be released Renfield film. The Slackers were outstanding. A lot of fun, and their sound was clear, tight, and joyful.
Norwood was exceptionally loud, clocking in with 4 separate cabinets and two hefty pedal boards. From where we were sitting, it was pretty bass heavy. He doesn’t seem to wear earplugs, so maybe he needs that much muscle (the amps, I mean). Conversely, Norwood is awesome, and I got to watch/hear/feel him to things I’ve never seen another bass player do – namely a three fingered triplet splap/pluck technique.
As a bonus to a fun night, several morons in fast, loud cars peeled burnouts in the harbor. It looked like their pals blocked up the intersection so they could do this. I heard the cops don’t chase them because it’s too dangerous, but they also caught one of the cars last night, too. So much excite! So much danger!
It’s a great honor and privilege to introduce my daughter to the hardest working live band in the world – the mighty Fishbone. At the Baltimore Soundstage. I told Angelo it was Coco’s first Fishbone show, and he kissed her on the cheek.
Chas and I caught a Fishbone/English Beat show in DC. Fishbone remains a hurricane of loud, sweaty, mosh-pit dance fun, while English Beat satisfied the easy listening, feel-good swaying needs of gray haired dudes in blazers and their wine sipping dates. Dave Wakeling was in fine voice, and his backing band of slick, highly polished fellows were precise, if not too young to remember when the English Beat records actually came out.
Upon taking the stage, Fishbone’s Angelo Moore walked out into the middle of the audience on the floor and MADE everyone dance like ska-monkeys (which we did) before Fishbone would start their engine. Then it was on to Ma & Pa, Lying Ass Bitch (pointed directly at “anti-Obama, Tea Party mother-f*ck*rs who should just let the man do his job”), Bonin’ in the Boneyard, Cholly, Party at Ground Zero among others. At one point, HR from Bad Brains joined the band on stage – words cannot describe the awesome. I’m so happy I got to experience that.
Post sweaty fun.
@ 9:30
Angelo Moore after coming off stage.
Angelo has long been one of my heroes – he’s unstoppable. Chas is, too, really. It was a great night. Completely Awesome.
Set list as I remember it:
I saw a meme on Facebook that I can’t resist – the albums that we find most influenced us in our lives. I don’t care for Facebook. I hang a shingle there for peeps who don’t blog, flickr or twitter. But, I digress. Here are some my favorite records, in no particular order.
This last one took me a while to track down. I had this record in my basement as a kid, and it made a profound impact on me. The dissonance in the reverb soaked surf guitar was intriguing to me. I still love it.
There are many other singles, albums and bands worth listing. For example, Neil made me plenty a-fine-mix-tape of outstanding music. Tim and J Cookson shared lots of hardcore and punk (Angry Samoans, Dead Kennedy’s, Marginal Man, Dead Milkmen, Butthole Surfers and Minor Threat). I am still into my old Knitting Factory records, Latin Jazz, 1950’s be-bop and indie rock. But the records above all contributed something important to my musical DNA.
This is an incomplete list. What about YOU? What records do YOU hold dear to your soul?
