Fish Out of Water & Chingus

For some reason, the word Chingus makes me think of some sort of body piercing. Like, you go to the piercing shop and the piercer marks on their papers that the client is getting a pierced chingus. It turns out Chingus is actually some town bordering India and Pakistan that is having some boundary disputes. However, in Chico, Chingus is a funk-inspired jam band that got their groove on while the folks at the Riff Raff got their drink on with one-dollar drink specials.
One of the trippy things about jam bands is their use of keyboards. Chingus was no exception with their double tiered keyboard set that helped the band traverse the sonic landscapes of rock music a la Phish or String Cheese Incident. Songs such as "Red Rock" started out as any normal song - verse, chorus, verse - but would then cascade into an improvisation session complete with guitar solos. Unlike Phish, there weren't as many funny anecdotal stories to go with the songs. There was a strange chorus about a squirrel hanging out of a window, but I wasn't quite sure what that was about. I was delighted to hear a bit of the Star Wars theme song pop up.
After Chingus wrapped up their set, I gave my ears a break in the pizza-making side of the establishment, which also doubles as the backstage area for the bands. The next band, Fish Out of Water, was busy getting ready for their set. Apparently, their set would not be complete without microwave popcorn, because it seemed like they went to great lengths to get it. I had turned around for just a second when the guitarist quickly stripped down to his red plaid boxers and got ready to hit the stage.
Red boxers weren't the only crazy antics on the stage. The drummer had a huge afro wig on, and the bassist was wearing what looked like a pair of long john underwear on his head with grapefruit sized balls in the legs. He kind of looked like one of Matt Groening's demented cartoon rabbits. "Yeah. I know I'm wearing boxers. And I don't care!" cried the guitarist as they started their set.
Fish Out of Water was also a jam band, but they had a distinctly funked-up flavor. They sounded a little like Bèla Fleck and the Flecktones with nice, heavy, but bouncy, bass lines. Their song "Policeman" had a '70s feel that sounded like it could have been from a cop show from that era. The audience seemed in need of a little dance music, and Fish Out of Water was glad to oblige.
"We're here on hump day to help you out," the band announced. "So what if hump day is actually Wednesday? Tuesday is close enough! Here's hoping that you'll hump in the near future." This soon got the audience shimmying up against one another - even if they were just shimmying their way over to the bar. The guitarist and bassist switched instruments repeatedly so it's pretty safe to assume that they were more or less interchangeable.
Microwave popcorn was eventually popped in an effort by the band to "keep the audience happy!" and soon the venue smelled like a movie theater. Well, a movie theater that carries alcohol and plays funk-flavored music, that is.

- Valerie Lum
- Photo by Alyssa Starkey

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