Fishy Stuff:
One of my favourite Fishbone stories is the time they played at UCLA, a few years ago. It was in Ackerman Grand Ballrom, and I was working in the Pizza Joint downstairs (called "Two Bears From Italy," or some bullshit yabba like that). I was eating pizza and was 21 years old and loving life and didn't have a care in the world except for how was I going to get into the Fishbone concert!? Well, at the end of my shift I grabbed a pizza, put on my hat, with the brim low over my eyes so no-one could see who I was, and rode the service elevator from the pizzeria up to the next floor. The door opened, and wouldn't you know it - I was backstage! So there I was in my full get-up (we didn't even deliver), people grinning at me (I must have looked like a nut), and now I'm trying to deliver this pizza to the soundman or someone, anyone! so I can just watch the show, which was about to begin.
I guess I owe them 7 bucks, or something.
So I walked out to the soundman, and ate my pizza. All cool, like I was supposed to be there, 'cuz I WAS! I took off my doofus uniform, stuffed it in the pants that I was wearing underneath ("No, Your Honor ... it wasn't pre-meditated, I swear!") and looked like a regular college kid. Nobody suspected that I WASN'T a card-carrying, legitimate student with dawg collie beer-breath and terrible grades. I'd pulled a "Bond," all in the name of music, of course! Just try and keep me away from a good jam! Had I told anyone, anyone at all, that I'd hi-jacked the service elevator (after reading the schematic, of course) and had jimmied my way in with a hot, steaming pizza in my hand, they wouldda olive said, "Yeah, right." If anyone pulls a similar feat at our show in Vevey, Switzerland on June 17th - well, I'll personally commend that person! Hey, I DARE ya ...
The show at UCLA was great. Those guys were on fire! I thought it was sooo cool that at one point, one of those guys pulled out a tuba, and was jumping around. It might have been Norwood, I'm not sure. Mohawks were everywhere. The singer dove into the pit (now, this was really amazing, no foolin') and they lifted him up and down, back and forth, as he bounced around, being thrown into the air by ecstatic UCLA hipsters. He flipped up and over, all the way to the back of the room, the entire distance of Ackerman, to the very back, by the soundboard, where I was quietly munching on my pizza. He'd gone through and over ALL of the people in the crowd, and it was alot! (I swear, this is all true ...) And when there ceased to be people anymore to hoist him, he fell down to the floor with a "plop", right in front of me and the soundman. He looked at us for a second, sort of like, "What do I do, NOW?" and then jumped back up into the thronging mass of people! That was outrageously cool! And then, ya know what?? He flipped and jumped right back up over the people, and was hoisted all the way back through the crowd again, until he finally got back up to the stage. We were all screaming in approval by then ... that was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen! Awesome! Man, that was fucking rrrrrighteous!
Fishbone stories, runners up:
- The time that bass player who ended up teaching english in Guatamala said (What was that guy's name?? He played in my band, too! And I can't remember his doggone name ...) Said that he was up in Santa Barbara, and these zany guys were driving around, way too many dudes in one van, mooning people and stuff, and it was Fishbone! They were yelling and singing and causing ruckus ... "Now that's A BAAAND!" he said ...
- Karl Reed, lives up in Santa Barabara, too. He had a Mohawk and everything (has absolutely nothing to do with previous story ...)!
- BK the drummer tellin' me all kinds of whackey tales about Fishbone ... like at the Cinerama Dome, watchin' a chill flick, Fishbone dudes in tha house. "Those guys are probably the hottest live show I've seen in a long time!"
- Aberslumbie hanging out at the Venice drum-circle, getting high with Mohawk people (may or may not be related to actual Fishbone members).
- People getting high at Fishbone shows in Switzerland because it's "Practically Legal" to do that in their country ... Mmmmm.
- Numerous true or made-up stories about the annual Amsterdam gigs.
- Bernard of the Migs tells me that Norwood is his neighbor, but I still don't believe him. Huh, huh.
Well, actually, there are literally zillions of Fishbone stories, so just conjerr them up, and let your imagination run wild! See you in the Alps, fuggahs!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Todd (still in the Midwest / dreaming of gigs ...)
Posted by calico at June 01, 2003 02:37 AMI think I remember that concert. It's when men were men, and women were green with big hair.
It also occurs to me that I think Circle Jerks played the same gig (am I insane?!!). Maybe some guy had seen the whole crowd riding thang, and had been having some bodily-externally-generated fun, but anyway, decided to climb up on a speaker, dive off, and probably hadn't planned to land where no people were - on his head. He kept dancing.
I saw him when his friends brought him to the back door where I was playing "The Man" and they said
"We think our friend's sick."
So me and the other "The Mans" looked, and sure enough, his brain was hanging out. Of his skull. Where the ground had had a peek, wondering what was inside. Which was brains. That we could see.
So... off to the hospital with him.
Just goes to show... if you're going to stage dive, be famous first.
TGK
Posted by: The Great Kazoo on June 2, 2003 12:41 AM