Fishbone: Live Review

2008-04-07 22:38:25

You can tell that Fishbone have been playing live for a very long time. As I waited for them to come on, a guy I'd been chatting to told me that he'd seen them once before in Rock City - eighteen years ago. A reflection of that time in the 90s when their blend of funky rock, rap/metal was so popular, Fishbone were playing bigger rooms then, and the band had played to a much larger audience in the main room upstairs.
    
Founding member of the LA band, Angelo Moore - known also as Dr Madd Vibe, really warmed the place up with playful and entertaining poem called 'Superfly' which he performed with the aid of a science fiction sounding foot long, tubular device attached to a brief case. But this was no solo performance, as the audience provided the percussion to the saxophone interlude. In fact, audience interaction is a big part of the Fishbone show - whether it be supporting band members as they took turns at crowd surfing, or when invited to join the band in harmonies to introduce Sunless Saturday.
    
Dr Madd Vibe performed another poem about: breaking out of the norm, marriage, divorce, George Bush, and Condoleza Rice and the Iraq War, as an introduction to a rocky performance of The Timelords: Doctoring the Tardis.
    
What became obvious tonight is that Fishbone are primarily a live Ska band - this was highlighted by members of the middle age-approaching audience jumping joyfully up and down to the hectic percussion and horn section, which was interspersed by brief ragga solo performances from the keyboard player who took turns with Madd Vibe in hanging from the lighting rig as he did so.
    
Fishbone have truly had their ups and downs - having lost members to madness and even religious cults - but have kept going and are truly masters of the live performance. This is only the second date of a frantic touring schedule in which the band will perform consecutively every day. If tonight's performance is anything to go by, it will be a well-earned rest when the tour-bus pulls up in LA.
    
Review: Ben McVay
    

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