Epicenter 9/22/12

Epicenter 2012

What started in 2009 became “Southern California’s Rock Festival” that took place annually at various venues around Los Angeles. I had not attended since that inaugural date but this year’s lineup piqued my interest because it had been four to five years since I had seen Scars on Broadway, Deftones and Stone Temple Pilots. As far as I’m concerned the other bands were a nice bonus. Bob drove Tom and I up to Irvine with just enough time to make a beer run, check into our hotel and get over to the Irvine Amphitheater. The trouble began with a toothache that turned our beer run into a beer and whiskey run. My tooth had been bothering me for a couple days but I did not have time to go to the dentist so I figured whiskey would act as a redneck remedy. Unfortunately for anyone in my path it also acted as a gateway to a very intoxicated me.

I remember wandering around the grounds and seeing a little bit of bands on the second stage like Hollywood Undead but Dead Sara was the first band we really gave any shits about. It had been five months since we saw them open for Chevelle and blow them off the stage, which was just a couple weeks removed from the release of their self-titled debut album. They put on a hell of a show this time too but the music just did not seem to translate as well to a bigger stage.

Chevelle made good on the opportunity at redemption by cranking it up to the level of performance we had come to expect over the years. It was weird to see them play in the daylight again since we had grown accustomed to the headlining shows.

Four years had elapsed since I was introduced to Scars on Broadway right here at this very same venue during the KROQ Weenie Roast. It was fun the way it went down that original time but now I had a solid four years of digesting the eponymous album, which made this show so much more fun to watch. Thanks to YouTuber “Gun Dink” you can also watch:

Bush was up next. It had been almost a year to the day since we had last seen them open for Chevelle. It was essentially the same show as that occasion with Gavin coming out through the crowd again.

I had not gotten the chance to see any songs from the excellent Diamond Eyes album performed since my last Deftones concert was about five years before this so I was beyond elated when they started their set with my two favorite songs off the album. They were still a couple months away from releasing Koi No Yokan but they still played two songs from the album. Deftones rocked but it must be said that right about this time I was getting really ornery and ended up breaking the seat in front of me if that is any indication of what planet I was on. I also found a number of shitty 5-10 second videos on my phone afterwards of really good shots of the ground and pretty much anything but the stage with me screaming along for audio.

SETLIST: Rocket Skates, Diamond Eyes, Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), My Own Summer (Shove It), Digital Bath, You’ve Seen the Butcher, Bloody Cape, Leathers, Rosemary, Change (In the House of Flies), 7 Words

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STP had released their eponymous album since I had last seen them about four years before this so I excited to see them again. I was pretty lit for their performance but do remember Scott Weiland was a dancing machine and seemed to be very present for this performance as he provided a lot of banter in between songs. I also remember that Dean’s guitar playing was on fire. We did not know it at the time but sadly this would be the last time we would see Scott Weiland front Stone Temple Pilots as the very next night would be his final performance ever with the band.

SETLIST: Crackerman, Vaseline, Hickory Dichotomy, Meatplow, Big Empty, Between the Lines, Interstate Love Song, Plush, Tumble in the Rough, Big Bang Baby, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart, Unglued, Sex Type Thing

After the show we took a bus to our hotel and I almost immediately got kicked out of our hotel bar because I basically fell forward into the bar. This lead to all three of us smoking weed in Bob’s car in the parking lot. Neither Tom nor Bob ever smoke weed so that was a fitting end to such an eventful day.

 

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