Sound Advice: Fishbone and GZA Bring "Truth and Swords" Tour to Bogart's

This story is featured in CityBeat’s Nov. 1 print edition.

Fishbone formed as teenagers back when Jimmy Carter still held the highest office in the land, which means the Los Angeles collective is now heading into their fifth decade. Yet it wouldn’t be a surprise if the uninitiated confused the band — which currently includes original members Christopher Dowd (keyboards/trombone), John Norwood Fisher (bass), Walter A. Kibby II (trumpet/vocals) and Angelo Moore (lead vocals, saxophone, theremin) — for loose-limbed youngsters based on the sextet’s recent self-titled EP, which dropped in May as a bookend to their 1985 debut of the same name. In fact, the cover art repurposes the original’s signature image of the band in full mayhem mode, a portrait of guys in thrall to equal parts Dizzy Gillespie and The Specials.

Fishbone has been an off-and-on entity over the last 20 years, largely held together by Moore’s unwavering love of the band’s frantic mix of ska, funk and punk. But things seemed to have coalesced again with the return of Dowd in 2018, leading to a series of live shows and the aforementioned five-song EP, which leans more heavily than ever on the band’s fizzy horns and interweaving vocals. And, of course, there remains the mix of humor and social commentary.

The buoyant “I Don’t Care” revels in Fishbone’s oddball tendencies, no matter what family members or doctors might say, and the zippy “Cubicle” laments those chained to convention. The obvious centerpiece of the EP is a collaboration with NOFX, “Estranged Fruit,” a contemporary variation on Billie Holiday’s iconic “Strange Fruit.” The band can’t help but comment on how far America hasn’t come in the decades since Holiday’s haunting rendition: “We may not see as many bodies hanging from trees/Because they’re busy lynching our ideals/Our pride and liberties.”

The fact that recent live sets have opened with “Estranged Fruit” and closed with the band’s 1985 anthem “Party at Ground Zero” is further proof of Fishbone’s versatility and verve.

Fishbone and GZA play Bogart’s on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. Info: bogarts.com.

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