Fishbone Stand Behind 'Party at Ground Zero'

Nearly a decade after 9/11, Fishbone frontman Angelo Moore has no qualms about performing his band's 1985 classic 'Party at Ground Zero.' On their upcoming tour with the English Beat, he'll sing the song the same way he always has: without hesitation.

"It hasn't changed the meaning of the song," Moore tells Spinner. "I've been thinking the same things ever since before 9/11 happened. It's a song that's timeless."

Released at the height of the Cold War, just a few short years after President Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an "evil empire," 'Party at Ground Zero' imagines an apocalyptic final battle between what were then the world's two superpowers.

If the subject matter is dark -- atomic blasts turn the Earth to "flowing pink vapor stew" -- the music anything but. As was characteristic of the songs on Fishbone's self-titled EP, the Los Angeles quintet's first proper release, the song features a buoyant brass hook and breakneck ska guitar. It also riffs on the ridiculousness of war, making the end of the world sound like a pretty good time.

"It came out of what was going in society at the time -- that's what we ended up writing about," Moore says, adding that, early on, Fishbone made a conscious decision to mix its political messages with absurd humor. "You've got to be a little satirical, you know what I mean? Add some humor to it and still get the point across. When it's witty, you get the point across more, without being blatantly offensive."

While the specifics of the song are now irrelevant -- America is no longer worried about "Ivan" flying his MiG fighter jet into the western hemisphere -- the underlying message remains sadly pertinent.

"In general, war has been something that's been around for centuries, man," Moore says. "Everybody can relate to it. That song was written in the '80s and it's still making a lot of sense now."