Phat Fish (Reel Big Fish in general)

Member Name: chooflafla

Product:	Reel Big Fish in general
Date:	27/08/03 (237 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great music, Fantastic atmosphere, I was at the front! Nuff said

Disadvantages: Hot, Can get a bit violent, Sweat, and lots of it!

Phat Fish

INTRODUCT& #73;ON

I've only been a fan of Reel Big Fish for about a year now, but all I can say is 'oh my God!'. I went to see them at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London on the 15th with a couple of friends from Cornwall as well as a few friends from London and I can definitely say that it was one of the best concerts that I have been to in a long time. having been to the Reading Festival in 2001 for the entire weekend, seeing Reef perform near my home town in quaint ol' Cornwall and also to see Nickleback last november, I've had a fair insight into the sweaty and loud environment of concerts, and I tell ya, I have nothing to do other than to extol RBF for both their ability to entertain the masses and to make the mere £20 well worth it. Even the train journey from Aber to London (which may i add was delayed by just over two hours [trains are evil]) was a fantastic investment, knowing that I would soon be seeing a group of fish singing in front of thousands of people!

BACKGROUN& #68;

RBF cover two main genre of music, namely ska and rock. Admittedly, I don't actually know how to define ska, all I know is that I like it! I think it has something to do with trumpets. Anyhoo, RBF have also done a few covers ranging from Frank Sinatra's 'New York, New York' to Aha's 'Take on me' (which was the soundtrack to Matt Stone and Trey Parker's film, 'Baseketball'). The band itself consists of the main singer, Aaron, two trumpet players, Dan and Travis, the drummer, Scott and the guy on the keyboard, Matt. The cool thing about this band
is the diverse range of ethnic minorities as Matt is Chinese and Travis is an Afro-Caribbean. Their three main albums are called 'Cheer Up', 'Turn The Radio Off' and 'Why Do They Rock So Hard?'. I think there is also a fourth album too, however, this mainly consists of tracks from the aforementioned works of art, as well as a few others that didn't make it onto the other three albums.

BEFORE THE GIG

The venue is pretty easy to find and you can take either the Central Line (red) or the Hammersmith & City Line (pink) to get there. Both lines have Shepherd's Bush as a destination, and although the Tube is a bit smelly, it's generally very reliable, with trains coming every 5 minutes or so. Don't be daunted by the complex looking Underground map as it's very easy to decipher.

As Mike, Mandie, Emine, Emma, Rachael and myself got closer to Shepherd's Bush Empire, we could feel the atmosphere as we drew closer to the arena. Drinking in the environment, we made our way to the queue, where we were told that Rich, Emine's boyfriend, had secured us a place in the queue. What we weren't told however, was that he was second in line! Of course, this worked towards our advantage really well and we managed to squeeze in, thus getting through the doors more or less as soon as they opened. It was rather lucky really that Mike was with me at the time, as I'm a short lad and he towers over most people, so there were no complaints from the people who had been queuing since 11am (the gig was at 7pm) when we got in line at 6pm! I know that this is unethical and I don't usually have a propensity to do that very frequently, but how often do you get to see
one of your favourite bands perform live, and have the opportunity to stand no less than 15 feet away from them?!

PRE-FISH

As with most concerts, there were defenceless beach balls being tossed around in the sea of people. Unfortunately, many were either deflated or stabbed by heinous technicians who were tending to the speakers on-stage by penknives, which they probably carry in order to compensate for something? ahem. Yes, I was annoyed, but mainly because I wanted to take a beach ball home as a trophy in case I didn?t catch the lead singer?s plectrum (like I did when I saw Nickleback). This was the one thing I didn?t like compared to Nickleback, I didn?t get to take anything home other than a boot leg T-shirt from a dodgy tout outside.

The warm up band was a semi-popular King Prawn (how apt) who I had never heard of until the night, however, I have been converted to their music as my taste ranges from cheese to rock, with King Prawn being the latter. King Prawn also includes an Asian guy and also a weird, yet highly skilled, bald man in a white robe. After having witnessed King Prawn strutting their stuff, the restless crowd were hungry for more and chants of ?Reel Big Fish, Reel Big Fish? filled the arena after they dispatched.

REELING IN THE KUDOS

The one thing I love so much about concerts is the unity that they provide to people from all walks of life that attend. The crowd consisted of all sorts, ranging from the very young to the middle aged, short, tall, thin and uh, not so thin. There were your typical punk rockers, a few Goths here and there and an equal ratio of male to female, so this is one band that doesn?t conform to the typical boyish type music such as t
he Bloodhound Gang, to the girlie type music such as Avril Lavigne (my apologises to anyone of the opposite sex who owns such music [I have both by the way, and I borrowed the Hooray For Boobies album from my friend Rosie]).

There was a bit of violence within the crowd, mainly due to moshing and the gits who crowd surf and ruin it for everyone else. I suppose in the way, the crowd surfers provide unity to the rest of the audience as those of us who were crushed by their bulk tended to toss them rather violently as we were trying to enjoy the atmosphere. To this day, I still don?t feel guilty about stealing one of their shoes as they kicked the back of my head on their way past! Now, I?m not usually easily annoyed, but it was the last straw when I was smacked by the same girl in a short tartan skirt every time she surfed past (every time as in more than one, six times in fact, that is, before I lost count)! Crowd surfers also ruined Mandie?s night as well, as when RBF were singing Thank You For Not Moshing, she was moshed straight into the barrier and consequently sprained her wrist and had to be hoisted over the barrier and carted off to an ambulance. However, this gives me an excuse to go again should they play in a geographically desirable area, as I could claim that it?s tradition that Mike, Mandie and I should attend RBF?s concerts together! ;)

Before and during the gig, Travis was continually swigging from a bottle of Jack Daniel?s, and taunting the dehydrated audience by pouring ice cold beer over himself. I don?t even like beer, but it was cold and wet and I daren?t go to the bar as I?d never get back to the front! I simply had to rely on the kindness of strangers and gulp down their water. Fortunately, being crammed like sardines and sweating profusely, I su
ppose they could sympathise and many were willing to part with their liquid refreshments. Phew!

RBF opened up their phenomenal performance with Beer and proceeded to play songs from all three of their main albums. These include Trendy, Ban The Tube Top, Skatanic, Where Have You Been?, She Has A Girlfriend Now and many, many more. By the end of the night, most of our party had lost our voices due to the excessive singing and cheering we were doing, a bit like a night out on the tiles, but sober!

Being with so many likeminded people that night was so refreshing, considering that I only know a handful of people who have actually heard of RBF, let alone own any of their albums. Overall, I had an absolutely amazing time and the excitement and adrenaline was well worth the price of a night out getting drunk.

TRACK LISTINGS

?Cheer Up?

1) Good Thing
2) Somebody Loved Me
3) Ban The Tube Top
4) Cheer Up
5) Where Have You Been?
6) Suckers
7) What Are Friends For
8) A Little Doubt Goes A Long Way
9) Dateless Losers
10) Valerie
11) Rock ?N? Roll Is Bitchin?
12) New York, New York
13) Sayonara Senorita
14) Boss DJ
15) Brand New Hero
16) Drunk Again
17) Kiss Me Deadly
18) Rock It With I
19) Give It To Me (hidden track on the end of Rock It With I at 5m42s)

?Turn The Radio Off?

1) Sell Out
2) Trendy
3) Join The Club
4) She Has A Gi
rlfriend Now
5) Snoop Dog, Baby
6) Beer
7) 241
8) Everything Sucks
9) S.R.
10) Skatanic
11) All I Want Is More
12) Nothin?
13) Say ?TEN?
14) I?ll Never Be
15) Alternative, Baby

?Why Do The Rock So Hard??

1) Somebody Hates Me
2) Brand New Song
3) She?s Famous Now
4) You Don?t Know
5) Set Up (You Need This)
6) Thank You For Not Moshing
7) I?m Cool
8) I Want Your Girlfriend To Be My Girlfriend Too
9) Everything Is Cool
10) Sleep All Day
11) Scott?s A Dork
12) Big Star
13) The Kids Don?t Like It
14) Down In Flames
15) We Care
16) Victory Over Peter Bones

Summary: