Fishbone will grace the New York City metropolitan area with 2 shows during early September. The shows at Webster Hall on September 8th in New York City and Mexicali Live Cafe in Teaneck, New Jersey on September 9th are particularly notable for the band. Webster Hall was once The Ritz, where the band played their very first show in New York City in the early 80's.
Mexicali Blues on the other hand, is an interesting choice for a national act like Fishbone. Its a very small club with a capacity of no more than 300 people. The intimate nature of the club will ensure 1) a very quick sell out and 2) the kind of heaving, packed to the gills, crowd surfing environment that Fishbone has made a hallmark of their live show over the last 30 years.
I had the good luck to see the band perform live at The Ritz on Halloween in 1985. The bill included 24-7 Spyz and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but it was Fishbone who stole the show with their turbocharged ska. The Ritz was the epicenter of live music in New York City in the 1980s. An expansive, high ceilinged, two-tiered theatre, it was relatively perfect in every way and I saw many shows there including Bad Manners, the first General Public show in the US and this Fishbone show. It remains one of the best live shows I have ever seen in my life. I recently had the good luck to discover two rare pictures of the band taken during the Halloween performance at The Ritz in 1985:
Below is a very rare live video of the band performing the never released song 'Why'd You Make Me Mad' along with 'A Selection' and others from 1986:
While there is no live recording of that Halloween show from 1985, as a special added bonus, below is a live stream and a download of a show the band performed December 27, 1985 at The Keystone in Palo Alto, California. This is one of the very first known live recordings of Fishbone. It includes a great selection of early tracks (many of which surfaced on later albums) and is a great historical document as this show featured many of the bands most well known songs taken from their first EP 'Fishbone' as well as their first full length album 'In Your Face'. The set list is below:
1. I Got a Fish
2. Skankin' to the Beat
3. Ugly
4. Another Generation
5. Knock It
6. ?(Modern Industry)
7. A Selection
8. Deep Inside
9. When Problems Arise
10. What Have I Done
11. They All Have Abandoned Their Hopes
12. Game of Destruction
13. V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F
14. "Simon Says" The Kingpin Alcoholic
15. Party At Ground Zero
16. Lyin' Ass Bitch
17. Bonin' in the Boneyard
18. Fishbone is Red Hot
5 comments:
I was at that Halloween show at the Ritz too. Most of the crowd was in costume. Ahh, the good old days. I've seen them many times in many places. Chili Peppers too.
I saw Fishbone a few month's ago in Ft. Lauderdale with The English Beat. Great show.
Fishbone is still red hot.
Hi Mookie! I do remember the crowd bing in costume. In fact there was a contest for the best costume that that Anthony and Flea presided over. If memory serves they picked a guy dressed up as a woman's breast as the winner!
Thanks for the heads on up the shows, didn't hear about them at all til I read the blog and immediately bought tickets for the Jersey show
On my way to the show soon! GOt my tix a while ago from excessdb.com
Thanks a lot for this early Fishbone show, it takes me back, forgot how great a band they are
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