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I had no idea what to expect when I took my boyfriend to see Fishbone at The Glass House in Pomona. He’s a big fan of theirs. He’s also a couple years older than me, so he remembers their glory days in the early nineties a little better than me. I was expecting some long-haired white dudes playing metal. Clearly I should have done my research a little better. Upon viewing a poster in the venue, I discovered that the band, is, in fact, black, and they do not have long hair (though the bassist, John Norwood Fisher, did have a very bizarre hairstyle, off to the side, along with playing a six string bass superbly). They also don’t play metal, at least, not most of the time.

My boyfriend was bracing me for not enjoying myself that evening, since he had no idea what out of their seven album, 29-year career they would be playing. It turned out that they did a pretty all-encompassing set. There was ska, there was rap, there was reggae, funk, punk rock, and whatever Sublime’s genre was, as they played a cover of “Date Rape”.

My favorite part of the night was watching the moshing. I’d only been to The Glass House one other time (to see Sum 41 back in 2001) (I know, embarrassing; I was young), and that time I’d almost lost my shoe due to the mosh pitting. So I don’t know if it’s just that I’ve been there only when that kind of activity is encouraged or if it’s that living in Pomona makes one so angry that they feel the need to take it out on their fellow concert go-ers. I have a feeling it’s the latter. Several songs into the set, lead singer Angelo Moore, got down off the stage into the crowd, and this spurred the moshing to begin. And then it would periodically perk up again. But it wasn’t always moshing where people just run into one another. They were, like, skipping around. Some people were standing in the middle, and the angry boys would just angry skip around them. I was fascinated.

Fishbone was fun. They’re upbeat, and Moore does cartwheels onstage when he’s not playing one of his never-ending parade of saxophones. They’re still fresh, incredible for a band older than me.

• On 1/2/09 at 4:32pm thirdmandown said: fishbone -- 30 years young in 2009. crazy (and inspiring) that they are still going strong. This is a comment on a file from the review gallery. View File Reply