I’ll never forget the feeling of walking into Albany’s Knickerbocker Arena on December 12th, 1997 an hour-and-a-half before Phish was scheduled to take the stage and going into a state of panic when I noticed the house lights were down and heard music coming through the P.A. It took me a little while to finally figure out what was going on. Longtime Phish friend from their Burlington days, guitarist J. Willis Pratt, was the evening’s surprise opening act along with his band – We’re Bionic.
[Fish and J. Willis by John Kasiewicz]
Pratt and We’re Bionic played for about 45 minutes as extremely confused Phish fans entered the building to hear a heavy metal band on stage. Drummer Jon Fishman has stayed in touch with Pratt, aka “The Heavy Metal Brat,” and somewhat regularly performs with him. On Saturday night Fish played as part of We’re Bionic at Burlington’s Radio Bean. Bassist John Kasiewicz and guitarist Arthur Lafreniere made up the rest of We’re Bionic, besides Fish and Pratt, for the Saturday evening performance.
We chatted with Pratt about the gig and he shared some additional information. “(Fishman and I) met in the mid ’80s and recorded three albums. I met him at Goddard College. When I played Wild for Fish, he dug it and then we became band mates. Some Phish Heads didn’t like us, fuck them. I thought we did o.k. We only got to play for about 20 minutes, but I had a lot of fun as many old Goddard fans and friends came to see us at Radio Bean.” J. Willis also advised us that the next We Are Bionic CD may be recorded in September and that his next gig is on June 1st at South Side Tavern in Barre, Vermont.
Two clips from Saturday’s gig have surfaced on YouTube…
This Could Be Love
[Photo by Aimee Dufresne]
Love
14 thoughts on “Jon Fishman Performs With We’re Bionic In Burlington”
Holy fuck they are terrible.
heavy metal?
I guess if “Crowd Control” counts as metal then sure
Damn these guys suck. Don’t quit your day job fish.
we rock fuck thous who say we suck
This is so bad I cant take it seriously — is this a joke? So bad, terrible …… terrible.
the joke is you moreons that wouldnt know good music if it hit you in the face
To everybody who says this sucks, how many of y’all have played, toured, or hung out one-on-one with Fishman? You can say all this shit about technical playing, but I’d rather hear someone putting their soul into their music than someone who knows every chord progression and has perfect rhythm but plays by the numbers instead of their heart. There’s something to be said for someone who gives 100% to what they’re playing… that’s what it means to Rock Out!
thanks brian
my rhythm has goting better if they could only watch they may learn baybe lol
https://glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/944726_573600942674734_1059738498_n.jpg looks like a good band to me
Willis is one of the greatest, truest rockers I have ever known, and always will be.
thanks esme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=488&v=bEM0wLVMHYM we didnt suck here