Concert Review: Fishbone – Asheville, NC 2-20-2013
The Grey Eagle is a quirky music-centric club that is nicely sectioned off into three areas and has a warm sound that serves the alternative music scene very well. Tonight was the off the hinges performance artist The Mike Dillon Band opening for some of our favorite ska-funksters Fishbone continuing to support their Crazy Glue album.
The Mike Dillon Band rides some serious energy waves top to bottom and once they get revved up are a tad difficult to stop. Their avant garde approach to jazz with its funk infusion is probably a good peculiar opening to the uncategorizable Fishbone. Mike Dillon performed behind xylophones while the rest of band kept minimal and trombone player should have reasonably passed out with her overactive performance that included thrashing with the crowd on several occasions. A nice addition was the percussionist from Deep Banana Blackout which we hear will be touring again soon.
Next up Fishbone hit the stage, and the crowd was very much ready for the performance. Asheville is a great crowd to play for because of the eclectic nature of the city’s musical infrastructure. Fishbone seemed slow to get moving at the beginning of their show, but once they fell victim to the high energy crowd, the show began to quickly alter into a frenzied madness complete with mosh pits.
The selection of music for the Fishbone setlist borrowed heavily from their entire career including Party at Ground Zero to their current title track Crazy Glue. The night was also filled with some great crowd pleasers such as Cholly, Ma & Pa, Sunless Saturday, Everyday Sunshine and many more. The recipe proved well for the Asheville crowd as it satisfied 3 generations of Fishbone fans.
We can never say enough about the Fishbone shows and their high level of energy and you’ll always get as much as you put in. If the crowd delivers them a lot of love, you will always get it back multiplied which could include mosh pit participation, swinging from the rafters (which happened on this night), stage diving or any other possible insanity that could well cause you or them bodily harm.
But that’s why you go to a Fishbone show is to release all of your inhibitions, hear some funkafied ska rhythms, witness Angelo’s antics and set in awed wonder of Norwood’s bass prowess. We give Fishbone‘s Asheville performance a 4 out of 5 afros. Are they hitting your town? Be there!
