Brooklyn, 10pm
Samantha Fish rocks. I’ve seen her at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, and the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank. All the shows were great, but I haven’t had the chance to see her in a few years. When it popped up on my feed that she would be playing Brooklyn Bowl on 12/20/25 I snagged tickets right away. I had only been to Brooklyn Bowl once, but that was for a food show Crisi was running with her company.
After fighting all the traffic going in (an hour ride took us closer to two), we grabbed a drink and some food over at the bar at Sungold inside the Arlo hotel. A few apps and a couple cocktails and beers later and we were ready to go.
We missed the opener, Jon Spencer, but I wanted to make sure we got in there for the second act, Cedric Burnside. Cedric is a blues artist from Memphis, TN and his grandfather R.L. Burnside is a blues legend. I love old school R.L. stuff and Cedric is right there with him. His guitar playing and his voice are so powerful and stand alone, so much so that there wasn’t much I could say was “cool” in the way of lighting, but we had a great time and loved Cedric’s set!
Then came the intermission. We grabbed a drink, hit the head, and I really wanted to make sure that I was ready for when Samantha came on stage. I had my Meta glasses and my camera ready to go. While we were waiting I do need to acknowledge how great of a venue the Brooklyn Bowl is. There’s plenty to do around there, the staff is great, there really isn’t a bad spot to stand in the house, you can bowl while a legit band is playing, it’s just a great place.
She was a little late coming down the stairs but once she hit the stage and hit that first note on her guitar, man. It was like an electric shock rippling through every person in the room. What’s funny is every show I’ve seen Samantha Fish at, all four of them, inevitably i hear a variation of the following line: “I didn’t know who this girl was but she rocks.” That’s a fan for life. It also just shows that more people should be consuming Samantha Fish content and music. You’re missing out, bro!
Samantha did spend a good amount of set time playing songs from her newest album, Paper Doll, as she should because it’s easily her best album yet (Grammy-nominated), but it’s always great to hear her go back and play some older hits like Bulletproof when she straps on her cigar box guitar (which is, for lack of a better phrase, fucking insane that a CIGAR BOX can produce that kind of sound. I smoke cigars and even though I know cigar box guitars were a thing, when I buy a box the last thing on my mind is how to turn it into a guitar. It’s easily one of her best songs to perform live, particularly in a room like that Saturday because, honestly, I feel like it’s the moment that new fans are solidified.
The whole set ripped. We love Samantha Fish around these parts, so get use to it. I’m sure she’ll come back through again and when she does we’ll be ready to capture it.
