Wednesday, June 18 at Empire Underground with Fishbone felt less like a concert and more like a full-body exorcism. If you were there, you didn’t just hear it, you were possessed by it.
Albany’s own Girth Control kicked things off with an opening set slap to the face. No horns. No fluff. It was guitar, bass, drums and enough chaos to jump start a dead battery for a riot. Their set was fast, filthy and funny. Songs blinked by, but each one landed like DIY ska-core with teeth and zero pretense. They didn’t warm up the crowd, they body-slammed it awake.
Then came Bite Me Bambi, exporting Orange County sunshine straight into the basement of Empire Underground. Their ska-pop spark was immediate. Armed with sharp hooks, crisp horns and a rhythm section dialed all the way in.
Frontwoman Tahlena Chikami owned the stage with charisma to spare and a voice that cut clean through the wall of sound. They closed with “Hot Lava,” a playful, high-energy eruption that left the floor bouncing and the crowd grinning.
By the time Fishbone took the stage, the room was already on edge and they wasted no time pushing everyone over.
Two songs in, Angelo Moore launched himself into the crowd, mic in hand, surfing a sea of raised fists. He didn’t sing a word. He didn’t need to. He was conducting the energy itself. Moments later, he directed their trumpet player into the crowd too. Another body floating over the chaos, urged forward by the bandleader’s wild grin. It was theater. It was madness. It was Fishbone.
They tore through a blistering set that included “Party at Ground Zero,” “Ma and Pa,” “Drunken Schizo,” “Last Call in America,” and a venomous “R.P.O.S.” Midway through, they broke from the frenzy to address the crowd—speaking on America’s current political nightmare, the fractures and the noise. The message was clear, music can still be a weapon. A release. A place to gather when everything else falls apart.
Fishbone has been doing this for over four decades, but they don’t coast. They charge. Every note was feral. Every transition, whip-crack tight. The band didn’t play, they took total control. Flipping the room upside down and shaking something loose.
But the real magic wasn’t just onstage. It was in the pit, the crowd surfers, the strangers dancing shoulder to shoulder. In a time where division is everywhere, this was the opposite. This was connection. Sweat-soaked and chaotic, but real. A shared moment of release that reminded everyone what music is actually for.
Fishbone didn’t headline they transformed the room. No gimmicks, no nostalgia trip, just pure, explosive communion in the key of punk-funk-ska.
Setlist: Those Days Are Gone, Swim, Simon Says’ The Kingpin, Skankin’ to the Beat, Drunken Schizo, R*P*O*S*, Last Call in America, Dance to the Music / Everyday Sunshine, Ma and Pa, Cubicle, Party at Ground Zero, Spoken Word: The Black Out (Dr. Maddvibe), Black Flowers, Movement in the Light,
Encore: Sunless Saturday, Fishbone (Is Red Hot)
→ Continue reading at NYS Music
