I hate the sunless saturday.
What to say about the Fishbone show?
Start from the beginning. Des Moines, 1998. Fishbone playing at the Safari for $5, Dale skipping out because of some lame-ass study-related reason. Regretting it.
Flash forward to today. I find out that Fishbone is playing at 'Canes tonight for $15 bucks. I hurredly talk Math Rock into accompanying me. We are able to get tickets, and settle in for a long winter's night.
The first band was a totally worthless hard rock/reggae band. The guitarist's tone was way too bright, and he relied far too much on the wah pedal. Not that the wah pedal isn't fun to play, but every damn solo? Anyway, they were pretty terrible.
The next band was a total mixed bag. Apparently they were called "Alfred Howard and the K23 Orchestra". Well, the K23 Orchestra was pretty cool. Alfred Howard, on the other hand, was a totally cliched "socially-conscious" rapper, the kind of lyrics that Bob and David made fun of in the 'Spank' sketch from Mr. Show, season 1. The K23 Orchestra, however, was a well put-together fusion band of some decent invention and sensitivity. Some serious Mahavishnu Orchestra influence. Once the rapping started, however, instant crap.
Next, Fishbone.
You know there's going to be a problem when the band takes the stage and your bass player is obviously shitfaced drunk off his ass. OBVIOUSLY. I mean, he was able to handle himself, but he definitely had that 20-yard stare goin', if you know what I mean. Angelo Moore was his regular energetic self, but his frequent instrument changes required there to be a roughly 10 minute break between every song, during which Norwood Fisher would scream "I like to get drunk!" into the mic over and over.
For some slightly stupid reason, they brought out the lead singer from Slightly Stoopid to do a few verses on one of the songs. Total mistake. They also did a cover version of that "Gang Rape" song. Why? Also, their version of "Party At Ground Zero" was totally fucked up - the drummer was off, somehow. From the very beginning, it looked as though it was going to be a sloppy performance, and it lived up to its advance billing. Even Angelo, who was trying his best to pull the show together, seemed ambivalent by the end.
It also didn't help that the sound was clearly engineered by someone who was incredibly hard of hearing. The sound was totally muddled. It was virtually impossible to make a distinction between the instruments being used. I mean, I'm ok with it being loud, but this one was ridiculous. It was actually very very difficult to hear much of anything, because it was so freakin' loud.
During one of Fisher's "I like to smoke weed" between-song rants, Math Rock (who had disappeared, presumably to find a place where the sound was better) came up to me and announced that he had had enough, a sentiment with which I strongly sympathized, but I decided to stick it out, given my $15 investment, and my general faith that a Fishbone show somehow had to be a good show. HAD TO.
Don't get me wrong. There were some good moments. They did play 'Sunless Saturday'. They did play 'Ugly'. But they played with a real lack of energy (probably because a) they were shitfaced or b) they didn't much care or c) both).
Dang. If I had it to do over again, I would have spent $5 to see the show. The ghost of the missed Des Moines show remains unexorcised.
Start from the beginning. Des Moines, 1998. Fishbone playing at the Safari for $5, Dale skipping out because of some lame-ass study-related reason. Regretting it.
Flash forward to today. I find out that Fishbone is playing at 'Canes tonight for $15 bucks. I hurredly talk Math Rock into accompanying me. We are able to get tickets, and settle in for a long winter's night.
The first band was a totally worthless hard rock/reggae band. The guitarist's tone was way too bright, and he relied far too much on the wah pedal. Not that the wah pedal isn't fun to play, but every damn solo? Anyway, they were pretty terrible.
The next band was a total mixed bag. Apparently they were called "Alfred Howard and the K23 Orchestra". Well, the K23 Orchestra was pretty cool. Alfred Howard, on the other hand, was a totally cliched "socially-conscious" rapper, the kind of lyrics that Bob and David made fun of in the 'Spank' sketch from Mr. Show, season 1. The K23 Orchestra, however, was a well put-together fusion band of some decent invention and sensitivity. Some serious Mahavishnu Orchestra influence. Once the rapping started, however, instant crap.
Next, Fishbone.
You know there's going to be a problem when the band takes the stage and your bass player is obviously shitfaced drunk off his ass. OBVIOUSLY. I mean, he was able to handle himself, but he definitely had that 20-yard stare goin', if you know what I mean. Angelo Moore was his regular energetic self, but his frequent instrument changes required there to be a roughly 10 minute break between every song, during which Norwood Fisher would scream "I like to get drunk!" into the mic over and over.
For some slightly stupid reason, they brought out the lead singer from Slightly Stoopid to do a few verses on one of the songs. Total mistake. They also did a cover version of that "Gang Rape" song. Why? Also, their version of "Party At Ground Zero" was totally fucked up - the drummer was off, somehow. From the very beginning, it looked as though it was going to be a sloppy performance, and it lived up to its advance billing. Even Angelo, who was trying his best to pull the show together, seemed ambivalent by the end.
It also didn't help that the sound was clearly engineered by someone who was incredibly hard of hearing. The sound was totally muddled. It was virtually impossible to make a distinction between the instruments being used. I mean, I'm ok with it being loud, but this one was ridiculous. It was actually very very difficult to hear much of anything, because it was so freakin' loud.
During one of Fisher's "I like to smoke weed" between-song rants, Math Rock (who had disappeared, presumably to find a place where the sound was better) came up to me and announced that he had had enough, a sentiment with which I strongly sympathized, but I decided to stick it out, given my $15 investment, and my general faith that a Fishbone show somehow had to be a good show. HAD TO.
Don't get me wrong. There were some good moments. They did play 'Sunless Saturday'. They did play 'Ugly'. But they played with a real lack of energy (probably because a) they were shitfaced or b) they didn't much care or c) both).
Dang. If I had it to do over again, I would have spent $5 to see the show. The ghost of the missed Des Moines show remains unexorcised.
posted by dd0031 at 2:14 AM
1 Comments:
Sorry for cutting out on you early. I was tired and hungry, and like you said, the sound was engineered in such a way as to fatigue my brain - all muddy, thumpy, undifferentiated low end. I thought the show started out with great energy, and Angelo sustained it remarkably well. But that extra-long reggae jam with the Slightly Stoopid guy really put a damper on my attention span, and by 1:30 I was thinking wistfully of food and sleep.
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