Concert Review: Fishbone at CBGB FESTIVAL 2012

Date: July 9, 2012
Venue: Brooklyn Bowl (NY, Brooklyn)
Concert review by Jim Hoey

While the first ever CBGB Festival was raging all over town this week and bands were playing in the hot sun defying expectations, some of the older bands on these round-town bills were trying to bring back the magic of ’02, ’92, or ’82. This is the agenda of the CBGB Fest: present emerging and established artists in the spirit of early NYC punk and Hilly Kristal (CBGB’s owner).

When Fishbone took the stage this Sunday at Brooklyn Bowl for the final performance of the festival, they did just that, playing a raucous, hard hitting set that dwarfed the efforts of the opening act, Paranoid Social Club, and probably most of the other bands playing on bills across town at venues like Central Park Summer Stage and Times Square. Groups like Agnostic Front, Guided By Voices, the So So Glos, Superchunk, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, and the Hold Steady all fanned out across the city and presented a battering array of sounds for curious fans to attempt to experience. Fishbone was the one act I was able to catch.

Having screened their critically-acclaimed documentary at the fest also, Eternal Sunshine – The Story of Fishbone, they took the stage in what seemed to be rare form, channelling their younger energy effortlessly, the two original members, (Angelo Moore vocals, sax, theremin,and John Norwood Fisher, bass, vocals), with a mix of new and semi-new players making up the horn section, and rock/rap crew that can achieve the rare musical balancing act between ska, reggae, punk, hardcore, funk and soul.

From the start of their set they banged out old standards like “Party At Ground Zero,” ” Freddy’s Dead” (for the encore), and lots of cuts from newer albums that went over well with the mixed crowd like “Crazy Glue.” Despite the point made in the documentary about these guys never crossing over to the mainstream in the way that similar bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, or No Doubt did, they seemed to be doing it their way, the same way they’ve been doing it for years, uncompromisingly hard, with the same humor and anger just beneath the surface as they ever had. In fact, what’s amazing about this band is that they never stopped recording new music, and live they successfully mix the old and new tracks in such a way that the crowd stays charged and lit up the whole concert through.

This night was like a 90’s flashback, in the best sense: audience and band members stage diving, crowd surfing, people wiping out in the mosh pit looking up to a conscientious hand extended down for help, all the good energy of those great shows everyone remembers, and really nothing detracting from this.

It was a world away from the Cro-Mags, Vision of Disorder, Sick of It All show debacle, which ended early when a former founding member of the Cro-Mags snuck backstage and stabbed some fans and band members at Manhattan’s Webster Hall (supposedly because they wouldn’t let him play).

With Fishbone, the energy was positive and musical the entire night through, and if the CBGB’s Fest is able to become an annual event, it will be bands like this that take it to the next level, paying just tribute to what came before, but still moving onward into what’s going to come next.