Man, since the first reviews of the euro tour were so so, i feared the worst for this gig, but was i to be mistaken !!!

the show started off with an usual "Everyday sunshine" and ended with a blazing 10 minutes long version of "Party at ground zero", a couple of hours later. In between, "the same old songs" but without a weak moment, except for my drinking song (Ma&Pa - which i was expecting sooner because of 100? dehydratation). Most of the songs had new arrangements, from Freddie to Skankin go nuttz (with an incredibly good intro by dre). a totally rearranged Let them hoes fight. Beergut!!!! Norwood told me later on that they were on the verge of palying "party with Saddam" which i haven't heard yet, but they didn't hence, no (really) new songs.

for me, certainly one of the very best show i've seen or heard since temple bar. Certainly up there on par with the Verviers gig, energy wise (no, i did not record it). Yes, Angelo's knee is killing him so he's rather quiet on stage, but i didn't mind.

i'll let Arne and Brady fill you up with other stuff. Arno, waar was jij?

little tidbits from the front lines:
-Fishbone has a documentary crew following them 24/7, filming what could be a Fishbone reality show. This is an independent autoproduce documentary. I don't know if anything will ever come out of this, but the guys behind it seemed to have their feet on the ground. they're looking for vintage footage, so if any of you think of sth other than the classic 1992 ppv, let me know.
-the record is getting ready. you probably can expect on this one, cheyenne, faceplant, primadawnutt, skankin go nuttz, date rape, freyed, jab, hoes, party with saddam, and ... Lose our minds !!! I hope i understood correctly Norwood when he told me this because it means a lot to me, but it seems they've recorded it.

anyway, this is about as much as i can recollect for now, but it was really a great show, 110% from start to finish.

Denis

Indeed, great great show in my opinion...

The Netherlands won their opening match at the World Championship, so there were a lot of people partying in the streets around the concert hall (all of them wearing orange t-shirts and more ;-) )

We arrived a little bit early in Tilburg and had a typical Dutch beer (Heineken) with some Mexican food (Quesadillas) and met up with Denis...

At 21h30 we entered the concert hall and few minutes later Fishbone took the stage. The concert hall is a nice one: not very large (probably capacity of 150-200 people) and a small but wide stage. Probably 120-130 people were there for the show.

Already from the first tunes of Unyielding, I noticed that Rocky was going to be good in the mix. The bass turned out a little muddy, but I had the impression that this improved a lot after a few songs.

The set list:

Unyielding
Every Day
Karma
Face Plant
Beergut
Freddie
Glasses
Suffering
Go Nutz
Ma&Pa
Date Rape
Ho' Fight
Fascizm
Sunless
--
Forever Moore
Party

As Denis desribed, new arrangements for most of the songs. They really did a good job... John McKnight played some crazy ass trombone! Curtis played really well! Dre came out from behind his synth for some more singing (rubadub, skank, and one more...?)

Although I have some neck problems, most of the show I was dancing my feet off.. ;-) Also, the 'fishbone virgin' I took to this show really enjoyed the music and was dancing up front all night... At some points I thought that Angelo's voice was not topnotch, but at other times it was really great. Every body seemed in good condition and indeed after 2 full hours they ended with a superb Party!

Definitely a great show! So if you can catch them, don't hesitate!

After the show we met up with Brady (how was your impression of the show?)! Unfortunately, monday was a working day, so we had to leave immediately after the show.

On the way home, driving up to a full moon, we kept on partying on some tunes by Fabulosos cadillacs.

Cheers and see you all later,

Arne

A bit late but better than never. I just got back from my little trip to the wonderful country of Holland where I was able to catch Fishbone in Tilburg. I have to agree with Arne and Denis that it was a fantastic show. I had a blast and got my fishbone fix after a 10 month withdrawal period since I saw them at the Paradiso in Amsterdam last August. In Tilburg it was a nice sized venue, appreciative crowd, and the band sounded amazing, as they always have when I've seen them.

I arrived in Holland on an early morning flight after about an hour's sleep, to unexpectedly find myself inhabiting a surreal orange martian world cup atmosphere from the moment I stepped off the plane. Hoards of orange shirted, orange head accoutred football fans seemed to be displacing themselves in massive numbers throughout the country on the different forms of transportation I was using to get to Tilburg.

Before catching the train I paid a brief visit to the lovely city of Amsterdam, where in typical tourist form, I proceeded to acquire no less than four different kinds of weed; hard to resist when tantalized by names like Blueberry Purple Haze, White Widow, or AK-47. This just goes to show the insalubrious effects that prohibition has on citizens of countries with strict ant?-drug laws. When suddenly finding themselves in countries with free conditions they behave in altogether unhealthy excesses.

In any case, by the time I got to Tilburg I was beginning to feel that my grasp on reality was becoming tenuous at best. Fortunately I had booked a hotel room where I could sleep and regain some strength for the show. The football fervour was just about reaching full pitch by the time I got to the hotel, which seemed to be at the centre of the activities organised around the world cup, with several stages set up with interesting music. I would have liked to have seen the match, but I had more important things to do later, and so I slept through it. Congratulations to the Dutch team in any case.

Having set my alarm, I got up and went down for a quick bite before the show. People seemed in great spirits after the victory, and I was informed by a friendly local while I was ordering my falafel that not only was the world cup going on, but that Tilburg was also at that very moment holding a Dutch song festival, hence the stages with the music. Dutch song seemed to consist of a casio orchestrated band playing over a polka beat with a heartfelt rustic singer making up for a lack of technical singing ability by giving his most impassioned performance. I'm sorry if any of the Dutch feel that I've misrepresented their song; this is what it seemed like to an outsider.

I made my way quickly to the club at around eight which gave me enough time to have a few beers and chat with the friendly locals. Denis had said that he would be there in his yellow t-shirt so I was keeping my eye out for him. Yellow was a very popular T-shirt colour that day, so I got to talk to a lot of people. One guy even thought I was asking him if he played tennis. I talked to an older guy who said the last time he'd seen fishbone was in 1993 in Amsterdam. I hope he was equally as satisfied in 2006.

I thought the opening band were really good. I believe they were Dutch but I didn't catch their name. They had a cool female singer, reminded me a little of the b-52's or Byork singing over some cool, quirky music with a nice hard raw edge. Too bad I didn't get to talk to them as I'd planned on.

Anyway, I was still pretty wiped out from all the travelling, sleep deprivation substance abuse, and by now a fair amount of beer, but luckily Fishbone have the virtue of being able to wake the dead. With the intro to unyielding conditioning they got me moving and kept me going non-stop to the end. Just as they were starting I looked over and saw a tall guy in a yellow T-shirt dancing even more enthusiastically than myself and I knew I had found the man I was looking for. Denis, the master, creator of this web page.

Again the show sounded great and I really liked the new bits of arrangements and it was nice to hear the new version of let them hoes fight. I particularly remember liking a funky jam bit, but I can no longer remember where abouts it came in the set. They let the break in Alcholic drag out to where the people in the audience had thought the soung had finished and then came in with a surprise slamming return of that AC/DC guitar part.

The crowd really seemed to love it based on how they screamed and cheered between songs. I'm still sore in strange parts of my legs from dancing and my voice is still a bit hoarse from screaming between songs. I had a great time, as I always do at their shows, and I'll always go see them anytime I can cause I don't know many bands that sound as good as they do live.

My only complaint was that it seemed a bit short to me, although it was clocked in at 2 hours, so I guess that I can't really complain. I think they were playing slightly longer shows last year in France. I could have gone on another two hours with how good they were sounding, but that's just my gluttony.

After the show I had a beer and a nice conversation with Denis and I briefly met Arne and his friend from Alicante ;). They all seemed really nice so hopefully we?ll run into each other at more shows in the future, or share a white beer sometime in Ghent.

I was in a post fishbone state of bliss which was enhanced by the potpourri of joints I had carefully prepared at the hotel before coming down and which I consumed joyfully throughout the show. I had a bit of a talk with Wet Daddy after the show and I even got to see his shoulder injury, which miraculously doesn?t keep him from playing the drums. It?s kind of like a big knot of torn muscles that protrudes about 2 or 3 inches from his shoulder when he holds his arm in a certain way. I seem to remember Norwood showing the crowd at a French gig last year a similar protrusion coming out of the side of his stomach, and wet daddy telling him to stop showing the crowd his hernia. So together with Angelo?s knee maybe this could be an interesting angle for the reality show they?re filming.

So that?s it for the history. Enjoy all you lucky ones who are fortunate enough to be going to one of the dates on the tour. They?re sounding mighty tasty these days. BRADY