Ralphy's Concert Reviews

Fish - Concert at Spirit of '66 in Verviers (Belgium) 05-06-2001

For those of you who came here looking for more information about who the singer/songwriter Fish is and what his past accomplishments are, I refer you to 2 earlier reviews I wrote about him, a CD review and an earlier concert I visited. I read about this concert somewhere in March and immediately decided to visit another show (my fourth) of ''the man with a gift for words" as he has been described sometimes. I already visited a Saga-concert in Spirit of 66, so I knew how small the venue was, which would guarantee on of those intimate performances that Fish is renowned for. Verviers is about a 45 minute-drive from where I live and we left with 2 cars at about 19.10 hours. We went with 8 people, 2 old friends of mine (who are Fish-addicts) with their girlfriends and in my car, the same friend who had joined me to the Saga-show (also a fan from way back when) , my girlfriend Monja and a nephew of hers, who was new to the Fish-experience, but very enthusiastic afterwards.

This tour is ofcourse to promote his new album, "Fellini Days", which hasn't been released into the shops yet. I've been told it will be available somewhere in July. I was lucky enough to already get a copy beforehand, the 2 Fish-addicts who came along had already visited a Fish-concert in Tilburg (NL) earlier and bought the CD there. As you can see on the set list below it was a good thing I got that copy, because "Fellini Days" was very prominently represented in the show. I've heard the album a couple of times now and I like it better than its predecessor "Raingods with Zippos". It has more guitar-riffs (the influence of co-writer John Wesley?) and seems more aggressive with a bit more oomph (I don't know a better way to describe it). I asked Fish after the concert if he himself thought it was more aggressive and he agreed. A bit unwillingly I must admit, but he seemed tired and a bit irritated at that point (some other fan had asked him some questions about how he dealt with cd pirates and about the split-up with his wife, which didn't fall into good earth, understandably ofcourse). But after hearing 7 of the 9 songs of the new album also performed live I can only give a positive advice to those of you, who are thinking about, buying "Fellini Days".

We arrived at Spirit of 66 just before 20.00 hours and bought some drinks in anticipation of the show that started at about 20.50 hours. Fish suddenly appeared on stage together with the band and they started playing 4 songs in a row. I especially liked the 2 openers (new songs), but ofcourse "Brother 52" found most recognition in the crowd. Although the public was very into it throughout the show. I've never known it to be different at Fish-concerts, since the man has build a very dedicated following, most of them joined in the fanclub "The company". What immediately struck me was Fish's voice, as he himself sometimes reports though his e-mail, he has his better and his not-so-good days. This was obviously (at least to me) one of the better days. The man seemed to be liking what he was doing and that showed. The band was also tuned together in sync, better than before according to one of the friends who attended the earlier Tilburg-show, where they had needed a bit more live-practice together according to him. I already enjoyed the guitar playing of Floridian John Wesley a lot in a previous concert. My girlfriend Monja got this autograph after the show

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After "Tumbledown" Fish wanted to start one of his famous comedic monologues, but he got into debate with an audience member who asked him where his hair had gone. He gave 3 answers, the first one being that his head had outgrown his hair, the second that his head was a solar cell unit for the sex machine underneath and the third that this was way better if you wanted to headbutt difficult concert visitors. He also stated it was better looking like this than like 'fucking Bon Jovi' as the questioner according to him did. The audience loved this comic interlude (my friends the 2 "addicts" often like those interludes better than the music). Fish than introduced "Long cold day" and after that he played "Tiki 4", until now my favourite song from the new album. After that there was time for some more comedy. Fish drank some 'Yugoslavian' wine, stated how Belgian beer gave him gas and that therefore drinking it on stage would lead to a burping singer and he joked a lot about the upcoming World Championship Qualifying soccer game between Belgium and Scotland. Finally he introduced another new song "Our smile" by telling that there are 2 things that will give humans a chizzled smile on their face, the one being oral sex and the other being in love, the latter being the topic of the new song naturally. After this song they played one of my favourites "The perception of Johnny Punter" with Fish sitting on stage for the (great) instrumental part. Following that Fish gave a long serious introductory monologue about UN-soldiers stationed in the former Yugoslavia and how the look on the face of one of them had inspired Fish to write the next song "The Pilgrim's Address", which is kind of an open letter to his president by a soldier. After that the drumkit of the excellent John Martyr needed some fixing, which gave room for some more comedy Fish-style. He explained how John Martyr was saved from a live of misery through the noble art of drumming, made fun of John Wesley who had been hanging out in the woods and enjoying himself with some US-soldiers called the "Grizzly Bears" and introduced the regular concert-song "Lucky" by stating that if the Belgians would want to defeat the Scottish in the upcoming soccer game they'd better be "Lucky".

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What came next were some highlights of the evening for me, 2 old favourites, "Credo", with a whole lot of crowd participation, and "Vigil", which ended the first part of the show. Ofcourse Fish and the band returned for the obligatory encore, although I don't think Fish felt pressured into anything this evening. As I stated before both the crowd and the band seemed to enjoy themselves that night. Fish mistakenly announced "The company", but was corrected by the other band members, they had to play another new song "Clock moves sideways" before that. After these 2 encores the band said goodbye and Fish told that this was the show and it seemed to be, because the tape music started, but after a few moments the audience started making noise again in order to get another encore. And sure enough Fish returned back to the stage, bare-chested. He told the people that the new keyboard-player, John Young?, was only with the band for a short time and didn't knew any more of the songs, so they couldn't play more, but instead of that Fish gave an acoustic performance of the Scottish National Anthem, "The Flower of Scotland" and he once more promised to try and come back to give a performance around the time of the soccer match Belgium-Scotland.

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My 2 old friends (the "addicts") and their girlfriends had to leave soon after that, because they had to make an early start the next day. The others and myself stayed a bit longer (we had to consume some more drinks, because we bought a bit too much of the local Spirit of 66 currency), although we were pretty tired after 4 days of concerts in a row (We visited the Pinkpop-festival in the 3 previous days). Thankfully I had vacation from work this week. After a while Fish reappeared and went outside to the bus where he started signing autographs and talking a bit too the fans. You can see my autograph to the left and Monja got her ticket signed (at the top of the page). I told Fish I was going on vacation to Scotland in the summer and asked him if he had any tips. "You'll like it", he just answered. Fish also hugged some (apparently) old acquainted fans and than went back into the bar, at which point we left to drive home.

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening with good music, that was performed well and some really funny Fishy-interludes plus the added bonus of seeing and meeting a teen (and still) idol up-close. Well the best compliment for the concert was probably the big smile on the face of Bert, my girlfriend's nephew, who may become another Fishhead yet. I rate the concert with an 8.5 .

The complete set list:

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