San Diego’s Alternative radio station FM 94.9 used to put on an annual concert called the Holiday Hootenanny. There were a bunch of bands that played including hometown boys Louis XIV and Pinback (both excellent) but I was really there to see Queens of the Stone Age who was headlining the event and touring behind their stellar album Era Vulgaris that had just come out in June. I had only seen them once before when they opened for Nine Inch Nails and I was pretty excited to see them again. I don’t know which band members were different from the first time around but this incarnation seemed to be tighter and the overall vibe was way more energy. That could have been mostly due to the setlist but who knows? They melted the face off Donna and I that night.
I was making good money at the time and I love Tool so I decided to fly up to Spokane to hang out with a couple friends and see Tool for the third time in the last seven months. I was already cutting it close by flying into Spokane just a couple hours before the show started but that margin shrank even more when JetBlue delayed the flight. Lucky for me Ryno was able to pick me up at the airport and we hightailed it directly to the arena. Even luckier for me – once we started wading through the floor towards the stage (I love general admission) I ran into Roscoe who immediately smoked me out. Two minutes later Tool was on the stage. Whirlwind. It was pretty much the same stage show as the last two shows I saw but this was one of the only times I have ever seen them play “Flood.” I lost my shit when they played that. Epic.
SETLIST: Jambi, Stinkfist, Forty-Six & 2, Schism, Rosetta Stoned, Flood, Wings for Marie (Part 1), 10,000 Days (Wings Part 2), Lateralus, Vicarious
Van Fucking Halen!?! Not Van Hagar, Van Halen! This is another one of those bands I never thought I would get to see because these guys could never seem to keep their shit together, but shortly after Van Halen was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in January of 2007 it was officially announced that after 20+ years David Lee Roth was reuniting with Van Halen and going on tour. Thankfully one of the stops of the fall 2007 tour was San Diego. Sixteen-year-old me had an instant hard on when hearing this news because every kid learning to play guitar knows about Eddie Van Halen. Twenty-nine year old me was impressed to learn that Eddie’s sixteen-year-old son Wolfgang was going to be filling in on bass duties for Michael Anthony. Not sure what the rift with Michael was but like I mentioned earlier these guys could never seem to keep their shit together.
Van Halen was a band that I subconsciously absorbed from just being around it. The single greatest gift my father ever gave me was exposure to good music. That and back when I was a child MTV used to play music videos. What a novel concept! I specifically remember taking a liking to “Hot For Teacher” and the accompanying video.
The concert happened to be on a Sunday when the Chargers had a home game against the Baltimore Ravens that I attended with Donna, Marvin and Marvin’s dad G Money. Looking back I am amazed that I remember going to the concert at all because I get pretty sauced when I go to a Chargers game. I was in good spirits due to a Chargers win and bid adieu to the other three as I once again found myself flying solo. San Diego State University was just a short trolley ride away and since the show was still not for a couple of hours I found myself a pizza joint that served pitchers of beer to keep me company during my wait.
Showtime! They were everything I hoped they would be – loud, loose and into it. They genuinely seemed like they were having a good time. Was this Van Halen at their peak? No, but slightly aged Van Halen was better than no Van Halen. Like a true guitar god Eddie shredded and made it look effortless. David Lee Roth got a little lazy at times not singing all the words but for the most part sounded great (still hit some of those high notes) and was still flying around the stage doing karate kicks and shit. Lots of energy, lots of f-bombs, lots of smiles and lots of rocking. Very happy me.
SETLIST: You Really Got Me (The Kinks), I’m the One, Runnin’ With the Devil, Romeo Delight, Somebody Get Me a Doctor, Beautiful Girls, Dance the Night Away, Atomic Punk, Everybody Wants Some!!, So This Is Love?, Mean Street, Oh, Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison), Unchained, I’ll Wait, And the Cradle Will Rock…, Hot for Teacher, Little Dreamer, Little Guitars, Jamie’s Cryin’, Ice Cream Man (John Brim), Panama, Eruption, Ain’t Talkin’ “Bout Love, 1984, Jump
I had only seen Down one other time and that was in the summer of 2002 on the second stage at Ozzfest. Since then they had released two more albums. They were on tour for the latter, Down III: Over the Under, which had been released just about two months before this show. Not sure why but I remember this being another show I went stag to. I do not remember the exact setlist but know they played damn near the entire first album with an even amount of songs from the other two albums mixed in and they rucking focked. Lucky for us someone in the crowd was more concerned with filming the show than being present in the moment (keep in mind smart phones were still in their infancy in late 2007)…
I got into Silverchair at the age of 17 not long after Frogstomp was released in 1995 when the band members were only 15 years old. In the following years I consumed each of their albums released but somehow never had the chance to see them in concert. Fast forward 12 years from Frogstomp to Friday the 13th (gasp!) in July of 2007 and Silverchair was set to begin their first US tour in five years in San Diego to support Young Modern, their fifth (and at the time of this writing final) album that had just come out earlier in the year. Well it turns out the curse of Friday the 13th came to fruition as my first time seeing Silverchair would be delayed to November 16th thanks to a bout of laryngitis in frontman Daniel Johns.
It was worth the wait. The band was tight and demonstrated a level of virtuosity that is rare. There was one point in the show where a fight had broken out so Daniel stopped playing and said something along the lines of “We’re lovers not fighters mate, now turn to the person next to you and give them a hug” then the band picked up right where they left off. I was impressed with the vocal range that Daniel Johns displayed and especially enjoyed the epic “Emotion Sickness,” gut wrenchingly beautiful “Ana’s Song,” and heavy “Freak” but the new stuff sounded great as well. According to Silverchair’s Fan Club the band and long time road crew regard this show as one of the best five they have ever done. Did I already say it was worth the wait?
SETLIST: Young Modern Station, Emotion Sickness, Israel’s Son, Reflections of a Sound, Insomnia, Ana’s Song (Open Fire), Those Thieving Birds, Part 1/Strange Behaviour/Those Thieving Birds, Part 2, The Greatest View, Straight Lines, The Door, Mind Reader, If You Keep Losing Sleep, Freak
This was to be my third time seeing Chevelle, who was now touring for the excellent album Vena Sera that had come out about six months before this, but unfortunately Mother Nature had other ideas. Wildfires had gone out of control from the border of Mexico all the way up to Los Angeles, causing this concert to be cancelled…
I had not seen the Smashing Pumpkins since the first time I saw them back in 2000 for free not long before they broke up. After one side project (Zwan), one Billy Corgan solo album (TheFutureEmbrace) and seven years Billy wanted his old band back. The only original member he brought back into the fold was drummer Jimmy Chamberlain and the reunion resulted in the album Zeitgeist that was released less than two months before this show. This was my first concert at the Open Air Theatre at SDSU, a nifty little concrete amphitheater built outside the library on campus.
Shortly after Donna and I arrived Macy’s best friend Esther spotted me, started running towards me from about 20 feet away and jumped into the air, making me catch her. The collective feeling of “what the fuck” from Esther’s husband Carlos, Donna and myself was palpable (Carlos and Esther’s marriage would sadly last less than a year). After that awkward exchange Donna and I found our way to the great seats we had in the lower section of the venue. As per my M O, I sparked up a joint as soon as Smashing Pumpkins hit the stage and as per unspoken rules I puff puff gave the joint to Donna. The problem with having good seats closer to the stage is that you are also closer to multiple security personnel. I apparently had not accounted for all of the security and was immediately caught as the handoff was occurring. Donna was trying to play it cool when the security guard had his flashlight in her face denying that she had anything. After what seemed like an eternity I convinced her to hand it over knowing that if his intention was to kick us out we would already be walking. At least SOMEONE got to smoke the joint that night…
The Pumpkins were good but to be fair I had seen them in what is essentially a bar prior to this and I never really got into Zeitgeist like I had all the previous material. “Tarantula” seemed to be the song that the band was most in sync with each other on so that was quite enjoyable when they all locked into the groove. All in all Billy Corgan is a badass and I will always remember the ONE time I got busted with my joint.
SETLIST: Superchrist, Doomsday Clock, Hummer, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Drown, Bring the Light, That’s the Way (My Love Is), Tonight, Tonight, Tarantula, Glass and the Ghost Children, 1979, To Sheila, United States, Today, Ava Adore, Starla, Heavy Metal Machine/White Rabbit/On the Road Again, Silverfuck/The End, Muzzle
After seeing greatness at Street Scene almost exactly two years earlier you could not take my money fast enough to see The White Stripes again. Unfortunately this show never happened… The timeline is as follows:
July 15th, 2007 – Icky Thump is released
July 31st, 2007 – what ended up being The White Stripes last full-length live performance
September 11th, 2007 – the band announced the cancellation of 18 tour dates due to Meg’s struggle with acute anxiety. One of those tour dates was the show I was supposed to attend on September 18th.
February 20th, 2009 – Jack and Meg come out of hiatus to play “We’re Going To Be Friends” on the final episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which also turns out to be their final live performance ever.
I did not hear about this show until about a month after tickets had gone on sale but somehow was still able to score general admission floor tickets directly through Ticketmaster. Being a fan of Guns N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots obviously made Velvet Revolver exciting on paper but this excitement was cemented the first time I heard Contraband. For some reason unbeknownst to me I missed out on seeing Velvet Revolver when they came to San Diego to support that album so I was not about to miss out again when they came back to support their new album Libertad that had been released just a couple months before this show. This was about as close as I was ever going to get to seeing Guns N’ Roses since I had never seen them and as a bonus a reunited Alice In Chains opened.
William DuVall had gotten even better in his lead singer role in the year that had passed since I last saw Alice In Chains. We were still two years away from Black Gives Way to Blue so we were treated to a very Dirt heavy setlist. Apparently I was not the only one ecstatic to hear these songs again live as evidenced by the entire crowd singing along to every word.
ALICE IN CHAINS SETLIST: Again, Grind, We Die Young, Them Bones, Dam That River, Rain When I Die, Down in a Hole, No Excuses, Angry Chair, Man in the Box, Would?, Rooster
Velvet Revolver was absolutely fantastic. There was a moment when Slash came about 10 feet in front of me and just ripped off the most effortless badass minute and a half solo I may have ever seen. The Velvet Revolver songs were amazing but seeing them perform three of my favorite GNR songs and three STP songs was equally amazing. A full on sitting on stools performance of “Patience” was goosebump inducing.
VELVET REVOLVER SETLIST: Let It Roll, She Mine, Sucker Train Blues, Do It For the Kids, Superhuman, Big Machine, Pills, Demons, Etc., Vaseline, The Last Fight, Interstate Love Song, Patience, Gravedancer, It’s So Easy, Get Out the Door, Fall to Pieces, She Builds Quick Machines, Set Me Free, Mr. Brownstone, Sex Type Thing, Slither
Just a typical spontaneous moment. I’m thumbing through the San Diego weekly Reader and see that Helmet is playing tomorrow night at the Casbah. This is funny because I have only visited the Casbah once in my life and the other time was when I watched Helmet for the first time. I called Marvin and asked if he would like to go with me via voicemail. He texts me back at three in the morning (he works in a restaurant) with an enthusiastic “Helmet deep.” It’s 7 p.m. the night of the show now and I’m on my way to pick up Marvin and fucking hungry. We decide to eat at Gordon Bierch but find that there is a wait for a table when we arrive. “Fuck this.” We strolled over to Bev Mo across the parking lot and each picked up a 22 of Stone. Then we continued to IN N OUT to eat delicious hamburgers and wash them down with our Bev Mo purchases in my topless Jeep in the parking lot. We arrive at the venue about 9 pm only to find out Helmet will not be coming on until 11:30. Nothing left to do but start drinking (more). I wanted to have “a drink” at the nearby Airport Lounge because my ex-coworker Kristin was going to be there supporting her friend’s event. The doors were locked so we continued on to The Waterfront (a bar). We proceeded to drink two pitchers of beer before Donna arrived. Then we drank one more. It was now 11 and I was paranoid that the door guy at the Casbah didn’t know what he was talking about so we parted ways with Donna and walked back over to the Casbah. Turns out the door guy was right. This gave us enough time to try to hit up Airport Lounge again. This time we were in and I saw Kristin. She had just been laid off that day but was in good spirits (severance package). One beer and back to the Casbah, but not before stopping by the Jeep to take a hit from my sneak-a-toke. We walked in and Helmet was on stage but were still setting up. They didn’t start playing for about 10 minutes but when they did it was amazing. They started off with “Pure” from Aftertaste and did not let up from that album until they had played the first six songs consecutively in sequence. This blew my mind because I had never seen any band play in that fashion. Page Hamilton’s supporting lineup this time was completely different than the last time I had seen Helmet. The next two songs were “Street Crab” from Betty and “Repetition” from Strap It On. I was pretty sauced by this point since Marvin had bought me two more tall beers upon our arrival and I was still tripping out about them playing the first six songs from Aftertaste in sequence when all of a sudden they bust out “In the Meantime” from Meantime. They did it again only this time with Meantime! They played the first seven songs on that album IN SEQUENCE! They followed with “Bad Mood” and then a song from the newest album Monochrome. It turned out being the only song played from their two most recent albums. Cool with me because I had only heard Monochrome once and Size Matters was definitely not one of my favorite Helmet albums. They closed their set with two more from Betty: “Wilma’s Rainbow” and “Milquetoast.” We shook Page’s hand and went home. I probably should have not been driving but everything turned out fine. I thought my night was over but when I got home I found that Donna had started something without me but was happy to have me finish what she started…
