The one and only Temple of the Dog album was made 25 years before this and because they never toured for the album they thought it would be cool to do a five city/seven date “tour.” Seven dates!!! Well one of them was L.A. so this was one of those rare moments that you would look back on and either say “I was there” or “I wish I would have gone.” I thought I would end up in the latter category when I tried to buy tickets only to find they were “sold out”…even though I was online right when the presale started. Bob to the rescue. I’m not sure whose balls he tickled to get tickets but he got two and I was the lucky recipient of ticket #2. The show was on a Monday but I guess you can’t have everything go your way.
After making the drive from San Diego, checking into our hotel and walking a short distance from a local bar we were once again at the Forum (see Epicenter 3/14/15). We immediately hit up the atrocious drink line and of course right as we were near the front of the line we started hearing the piano intro of “Man of Golden Words,” the Mother Love Bone song that the name “Temple of the Dog” was lifted from. Just as we escaped the drink line and began to find our way to our seats we were bathed in the familiar sounds of the arpeggio riff that opens “Say Hello 2 Heaven.” After that we were treated to all other nine songs from the eponymous album along with 15 cover songs, five of which were Mother Love Bone songs. The stage setup was simple and stark without so much as a backdrop. It was clear that the band wanted to focus on the music and pay tribute to their friend Andrew Wood. They succeeded in spades and ended up paying tribute to what were surely some of the band members’ favorite artists as well. It is not often that I get to see a band from my teenage years for the first time 25 years later. This was worth the wait.
SETLIST: Say Hello 2 Heaven, Wooden Jesus, Call Me a Dog, Your Saviour, Stardog Champion (Mother Love Bone), Stargazer (Mother Love Bone), Seasons (Chris Cornell), Jump Into the Fire (Harry Nilsson), Four Walled World, I’m a Mover (Free), Pushin Forward Back, Hunger Strike, Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)-(Jimi Hendrix), Heartshine (Mother Love Bone), River of Deceit (Mad Season), Holy Roller (Mother Love Bone), Reach Down, Man of Golden Words (Mother Love Bone), Baby Lemonade (Syd Barrett), Times of Trouble, Achilles Last Stand (Led Zeppelin), Holy Holy (David Bowie), Fascination Street (The Cure), War Pigs (Black Sabbath), All Night Thing
Temple of the Dog performs at the Forum on Monday. ///ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 11/14/16 – templeofthedog_review.1115 – KELLY A. SWIFT, – CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Temple of the Dog performs at the Forum on Monday. ///ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 11/14/16 – templeofthedog_review.1115 – KELLY A. SWIFT, – CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Mike McCready and Chris Cornell of Temple of the Dog perform at the Forum on Monday. ///ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 11/14/16 – templeofthedog_review.1115 – KELLY A. SWIFT, – CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Temple of the Dog performs at the Forum on Monday. ///ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 11/14/16 – templeofthedog_review.1115 – KELLY A. SWIFT, – CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
I lived with my buddy Jack when I was 18 years old and he is the reason I first heard the album Roots. It was and still is one of the heaviest/grooviest albums I have ever heard. Max and Igor Cavalera decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Sepultura album Roots by getting back together to play the entire album. I never got to see Sepultura when Max was with them so I REALLY wanted to cash in on this once-in-a -lifetime chance at redemption. I ended up going to this show because I was not able to go see them at Aftershock 2016 like I originally intended. At first they were just going to play a number of festivals but thankfully decided to add more dates. Phoenix was one of those dates, which worked out great since that date was on a Friday, Phoenix is within driving distance from San Diego and our good friend Ken had moved back out there at the beginning of the year. One of Ingrid’s best friends also lives in the Phoenix area so we decided to make a weekend trip out of it. Bob somehow got a hall pass for the weekend and joined our little road trip as well.
Oh yeah did I mention that Max was pulling double duty for this show by playing a set with Soulfly before playing the entire Roots album? Even better since I had never gotten to see Soulfly either. There were actually seven other bands as well as this date was sort of a mini-festival but all we cared about was Soulfly and “Sepultura.”
Club Red is tucked into an unsuspecting strip mall in Mesa and holds about 750 people. It was actually fairly nice inside and had an ample bar area to get drinks. Ken, Bob and I arrived with just enough time to grab a drink before Soulfly went on. About half of the Soulfly set was from the albums Primitive and Prophecy. Killer.
Up next and certainly last was the almighty Roots album not only being played in full, but in order! I thought I would hang at the back part of the pit area so I could control the mosh a little more but immediately caught a stray arm to the mouth so I quickly switched gears and went through the pit up to very front where I stayed for the entirety of the set. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the bearded wonder Johny Chow from Stone Sour was filling in on bass for this tour. These songs took on even more life being played live in a small venue and bodies never stopped moving. Life is good.
It seems I am destined to see Rage Against the Machine every 10 years in one form or another. I was lucky enough to see them at the Gorge in 1997 before they broke up the first time, in San Francisco in 2007 during a short-lived reunion/one-off show and now as Prophets of Rage with the instrumental core intact plus B-Real from Cypress Hill and Chuck D from Public Enemy filling in on vocal duties for Zack de la Rocha. Essentially this was as close as I was going to get to see Rage again for the foreseeable future so Bob and I got a ticket. This was one of those shows that tickets went on sale for way in advance of the show so by the time the show came around Bob had to bow out. Since most of the people that are down to go to concerts with me no longer live in San Diego, finding someone to take the vacant ticket presented more of a challenge than I originally anticipated even though the original date was changed from Sunday to Saturday night. After much effort I ended up convincing my beautiful not-so-into-metal wife to go with me because AWOLNATION was opening and I agreed to drive so she could drink.
After drinking premade Costco margaritas (deceptively strong) in the parking lot we started to hear a band playing inside the amphitheater. It was a band named Wakrat and as we made our way to our seat I realized that this three piece band was being led on vocals and bass by none other than the bass player from Rage, Tim Commerford. I also quickly realized that the entire lawn section of the amphitheater had been completely closed due to low attendance, which I have never seen before. It was cool for anyone that bought a lawn ticket because they were upgraded to the 300 level for free. It was not cool for us since we basically overpaid for the 300 level seats we already had. The highlight of Wakrat was during the finale when Tim Commerford dove into drums and wrestled with the drummer.
Next up was AWOLNATION. I am a casual fan that had never seen them but this was especially cool since I learned the drummer was Isaac Carpenter, who I went to high school with back in the Tri-Cities. He was a year younger but still to this day was one of the best guitar players I ever saw at the ripe age of about 15 shredding with Oil Can Boy before he turned drummer for Loudermilk/Gosling.
After a short intermission DJ Lord came onto the stage by himself and worked his way through about a 15 minute mashup of several popular songs before the rest of Prophets came on. B-Real was dressed up like a sheik with sunglasses and the band ripped into Public Enemy’s “Prophets of Rage.” All in all it was kind of like seeing three bands at once with the set being fairly balanced between songs from Public Enemy, Cypress Hill and Rage Against the Machine. I was impressed with how well the dual vocals worked on the Rage songs in place of Zack. “(Rock) Superstar” was killer with the instrumentation of Rage backing it up. Since this was the last stop of the tour they also had a surprise up their sleeve: they brought out Sen Dog for two Cypress Hill songs! At one point the members of Rage left Chuck D, B-Real and DJ Lord to do a mashup of Cypress Hill and Public Enemy songs before the “rock” came back to kick our asses back where they came from with songs like “Bullet in the Head” and “Killing in the Name.” Good shit.
SETLIST: DJ Lord Intro, Prophets of Rage, Guerilla Radio, Cochise/She Watch Channel Zero, Bombtrack, Miuzi Weighs a Ton, (Rock) Superstar, Know Your Enemy, Bombtrack, How I Could Just Kill a Man, Testify, Sleep Now in the Fire, Bullet in the Head, Cypress Hill/Public Enemy Mashup: By the Time I Get to Arizona/Hand on the Pump/Can’t Truss It/Insane in the Brain/Bring the Noise/I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That/Welcome to the Terrordome/Jump Around, Take the Power Back, People of the Sun, No Sleep Til Brooklyn/Fight the Power/The Party’s Over, Bulls on Parade, Killing in the Name
Kaaboo is billed as an arts and entertainment “mix-perience” that combines art, bands and comedians rather than just a music festival. It is a three day festival held at the Del Mar racetrack/fairgrounds and this was its second year. I think organizers set out to have the event be an upscale Coachella with gourmet food options and craft beer. Single day passes were $119 and for that you get a fancy wristband that is sent to you in an even fancier custom box. Saturday was the only day I was interested in going because Lenny Kravitz was playing and he was one of the few musicians I wanted to see that I had not yet seen. As a bonus Aerosmith was also playing and I had not seen them for 15 years.
Ingrid and I, Ingrid’s two friends Emma and Jenna, Larry and his two Swedish friends all met at Calvin and his wife Jane’s place for a little pre-party since they are about a 10-15 minute walk from the fairgrounds. We then met up with Kyle and his friend who I had never met (cannot remember her name) at the venue. The first band Ingrid wanted to see was the Gin Blossoms so we left just in time to catch the last half of their set. Not really my cup of tea but I was amazed at how good the singer’s voice still sounded. After this I wanted to see what The Struts were all about just because the lead singer looks a little like Freddy Mercury but they were playing at the stage farthest from where we already were and majority won so I ended up staying at the stage we were at to see Flo Rida. This was REALLY not my cup of tea but it was entertaining and I somehow actually recognized almost all the songs he played. I remember thinking this was kind of like a hip-hop version of Slipknot in the sense that he had so many damn people on stage at the same time. After this we made our way over to see the end of Third Eye Blind (meh). The next band up I had half an interest in was Collective Soul because I like their songs “Gel” and “The World I Know.” Watching them was short lived since Lenny Kravitz was set to take another stage before Collective Soul was to leave this stage so I did not get to see them perform either song.
After much ado out came Lenny. At this point I may or may not have had a few drags off an e-cigarette filled with something other than tobacco concentrate…but I swear Lenny Kravitz only played about six songs during his hour and a half set. Alright I’m exaggerating but there were several times/songs where there was a lot of extended jamming going on. I guess I am just more a fan of the super tight set during the limited time on stage with festivals so more songs can be fit in, especially when you have a catalog as large as Lenny’s. Highlights for me were “Believe” and “Are You Gonna Go My Way.” Slowly but surely every person I was with left me until I was finally by myself watching Lenny. Ingrid and Emma were the last to leave to catch a little of the Goo Goo Dolls (meh). There was about 45 minutes after Lenny finished before Aerosmith would be performing on the same stage. I went to get a beer and then got a message that Ingrid wanted to meet back up with me to see a little of Aerosmith before going to see The Chainsmokers, who were playing on another stage at the exact same time as Aerosmith. I have to give it up for those old fuckers. They rocked! Their choice of songs spanned their 4+ decade career so there was a little something for everyone from the casual to more hardcore fan. They sounded great but should fire their sound guy. He kept turning down Steven Tyler’s vocals and Joe Perry’s guitar at different points where they should have been soaring. Some of my favorite moments were when they played “Love in an Elevator,” “Rag Doll,” Walk This Way,” and “Sweet Emotion” although it was pretty badass when they rolled a grand piano out on the stage for a performance of “Dream On” that brought down the house.
Aerosmith finished up promptly at 9:55 pm. There is a 10 pm noise curfew in effect due to the whiny ass snobs that live nearby… even though it was a Saturday night…even though the closest residences are not that close at all. Due to said noise curfew every performance after 10 pm was moved into one of the indoor buildings on the property. Just one problem: these two venues housing performances of Ludacris and Sarah Silverman respectively could only handle a small percentage of concertgoers in attendance, leaving a large number of attendees (myself included) unable to watch any of the remaining performances. This combined with extremely poor organization caused quite a chaotic scene outside of the venue where Ludacris was to perform. People were packed like sardines trying to force their way in and eventually about nine police vehicles had to storm in to break up the madness. Everyone I had come with was able to get in but me and they were my ride so I decided to just start drinking heavily…on $12 beer night! Not long after I grabbed a beer I ran into another friend I had yet to see that day and we decided to walk down the street to the Hilton that has a lobby bar to get a little better deal. After about an hour of drinking there I got a text that I could walk right into where everyone else was, where Steve Aoki was now doing a set. So I walked back and after some minor resistance from the guys manning the entrance I got in, found everyone and saw the end of Steve Aoki’s set.
I heard about the Ohana Festival but save for Eddie Vedder really had no interest in going…until Bob’s wife text to ask if Ingrid and I wanted to go with her and Bob. I looked up tickets before I called her and they were $110 each. A little steep for just Eddie so I called to tell her “pass” but then she proceeded to tell me that two of her other friends were supposed to go with them and had to bail. They apparently rented a hotel within walking distance to the festival overlooking the ocean and were just looking to recoup some of the damage. I said money was tight and it just was not in the cards but then she called me back 10 minutes later to tell me that her friends said they would let go of their two tickets and the hotel for $100 total! It was too good of a deal to turn down so next thing you know Ingrid and I were picking up Bob and Jasmine and on our way to Dana Point. The organizers essentially turned Doheny State Beach into a makeshift concert venue for the weekend but we only went for Saturday. It was pretty cool being right on the beach but our backs were to the ocean when we were watching a band. There was one main stage and one smaller stage set up right next to the main stage.
The first band we were interested in checking out was Mudhoney. I’ve never been a fan but they were a part of the Seattle scene so I figured they were worth checking out. They are very good musicians but the music is just not my cup of tea. Next was Jack Irons on the small stage and Eddie Vedder came out to “jam” with him for a song or two. Then came Band of Horses. This is a band I have heard of but do not really know any of their music. This is about the time that Ingrid and I took off to go get beer for the group. We left Bob and Jasmine behind because the first song they danced to at their wedding is a Band of Horses song. The lines for beer by this time were insane and let’s just say that by the time we got four beers we had to pee. We were done drinking all four beers by the time it was our turn for the bathroom, which I guess says as much about how quickly we drink beer as it does about how long we had to wait in line. I’m pretty sure a good portion of the beer would have been spilled wading through the crowd back to Bob and Jasmine anyway so I guess we didn’t think that one through too well.
After this I needed food. I get hangry like the people in Snickers commercials but low and behold the food lines were predictably out of control as well. After a near meltdown and some free beef jerky samples Ingrid convinced me to have another beer and chill the hell out, which I reluctantly did. We caught a little of Elvis Costello who is another I obviously know of, but really don’t know any of his music. He was very talented and seemed to enjoy performing.
Then the moment we came for: Eddie Vedder. Up to this point the only time I had ever seen him was when I saw Pearl Jam almost exactly 10 years before this in 2006. He had the audience (myself included) completely captivated the entire time. He is not only a great storyteller, but a much more amazing guitar player than I ever realized. “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” and “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” sounded beautiful and the crowd was heavily participating in “Better Man.” I kept expecting someone else to join him onstage – a drummer, another guitarist – but it was just Ed switching between a few guitars and a ukulele except when he played “Indifference” with Kelly Slater and when he played “Rockin’ in the Free World” at the end with Kelly Slater, members of X and Band of Horses. I don’t know that a single person’s performance ever moved me the way that Ed’s performance did that night. Guess you had to be there.
SETLIST: Can’t Keep, Sleeping by Myself, Without You, Soon Forget, Trouble, Dead Man, Sometimes, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, No Ceiling, Far Behind, Guaranteed, Out of Sand, Good Woman, Better Man, Parting Ways, Unthought Known, Indifference, Porch, Hard Sun, Rockin’ in the Free World
My first memory of Guns N’ Roses is listening to Appetite for Destruction in my fifth grade class. Our teacher used to let us kids bring in a cassette to listen to on Fridays and a kid named Ken brought it in (I think he borrowed it from his older sister). Back around the same time my parents used to take advantage of deals through companies BMG or Columbia House where they would buy one album and get twelve for free. They ended up ordering Appetite for Destruction and I ended up stealing it from their collection. Before Nirvana came along GNR was one of only a handful of bands I even cared about and they were pretty much at the top of that small handful.
Fast forward to my freshman year in high school right about the time the Use Your Illusion albums came out when GNR was touring with Faith No More and Metallica. I remember this being the first concert ever wanting to see but I was still too young to drive and did not really have any older friends that could drive or money for that matter. One of the hottest girls in our school was a senior when I was a freshman and I can still see her walking down the hall in the t-shirt she had gotten from wherever she saw the tour. Within a few years GNR as the world knew them broke up and long story short I never got to see GNR…until now. So after many years of feuding Axl, Slash and Duff set aside their differences to do a tour…a very lucrative tour.
So it was announced that GNR was to play Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego as the last stop of a very limited tour. Even though the show was on a Monday this was still super convenient to me since I live within walking distance of Qualcomm Stadium. So I randomly get a text from my buddy one Saturday letting me know that there is a presale for tickets but you must purchase a fan club membership for $49 to get in on that action. All telling it ended up being $250 for two tickets that I thought at the time were actually fairly good seats on the floor level. Once my friend Larry living abroad caught wind he shot me a message saying something along the lines of “get me a ticket or I’ll fucking kill you.” I thought worst-case scenario I could sell the other ticket if I needed to but it ended up being a nightmare. Since I thought both my tickets were spoken for I had Bob purchase two tickets as well. Larry ended up not coming and now we had two extra tickets to get rid of in a very saturated market. At the end of the day we ended up selling Bob’s two tickets to friends of ours for $40 each and kept mine to use as they were the better of two pairs…but they turned out to be Club level, not floor.
After waiting for what seemed like forever Bob and I walked out of the nearby Liquor Store with a sandwich in hand and headed over to the parking lot to tailgate. There were a handful of people we were supposed to meet up with but I had went swimming with my non-waterproof phone the weekend before so…we just finished our beer and sandwiches and went in to see openers The Cult. We sat down and after a minute I realized that we had accidentally gotten into the Plaza level seating. About this time we saw several people walking over a gate to get onto the field level so we figured why not? Now we only had one security guard to get through to get onto the floor. Easier said than done. Even if we could figure out a way down to the floor everyone down there was wearing a bright yellow plastic wristband. Right about this time a guy just went right over the port-o-potty roof and onto the floor. We thought this was going to be our only way down but all the lights were still bright so we decided to wait until GNR actually started playing. We did not need to wait long. About three songs in the security guard at the end of our row abandoned post and we booked it. We tried to just blend in at the back of everyone standing on the floor and apparently were successful because we never got kicked out. Some of my favorites were “It’s So Easy,” “Double Talkin’ Jive,” “Civil War,” “Coma,” and “November Rain.” Axl’s near constant wardrobe changes were comical but GNR was firing on all cylinders and clocked in at just under three hours, which officially makes this the longest performance I have ever seen. Badass.
This show was originally supposed to be on June 15th but it was rescheduled to August 17th due to Corey Taylor recovering from surgery on his broken neck. Due to the rescheduling I went from going with potentially four or five other people to going by myself. Not the first time I’ve went to a concert by myself and I’m sure it will not be the last. Sure it is way cooler to go with people that you know and share an awesome moment together but when the band hits the stage I’m on another planet regardless of who if anyone is around me. Of Mice & Men opened the show but I was really going to see Marilyn Manson and Slipknot, even though I had just seen the two bands on the same bill at Aftershock back in October. I ended up arriving about 10 minutes prior to Marilyn Manson going on.
Due to multiple reasons I had not only a rare solo concert outing but also a rare sober concert outing. No beer, no green stuff. It was fitting that the moon was full on this particular night. The lawn was sparsely populated and the entire 3rd Level Seating Section just below was virtually empty. Even so, because the show was not general admission no specific seat ticket = no seat.
Marilyn Manson came out with a furious version of “Angel With The Scabbed Wings.” I love that song. Marilyn Manson’s stage was relatively stripped down with essentially just a fixed backdrop and a lit up stained glass window sort of thing on both sides of the stage. This was the first time I have ever seen Marilyn Manson with two guitarists. It sounded great but still not as great as when John5 was guitarist (I am still bummed he left the band but am happy that I still get to watch him when I see Rob Zombie live). This set had its moments but it was not one of those fierce sets that I have been lucky enough to witness a few times. There was a comical moment where some of the ladies in the crowd threw bras on the stage to Twiggy, which he proudly hung from his mic stand.
About halfway through their set I did notice something that would change the course of my evening. There is a wide walkway that separates the lawn and the 300 section. To enter the 300 section you must present your ticket stub to the security guard manning the stairway. What I witnessed was a drunk guy going halfway between the nearest two guards and jumping over the rail to get into the section. He got away with it and I thought it was genius so after thinking it over for a minute and rationalizing it by telling myself the worst that could happen is getting kicked out and robbed of seeing a few bands I have seen many times before I stole his move. The upside outweighed the downside. So right after the band started playing “Sweet Dreams” I made my way down to the walkway and after a quick look around to make sure no security was near (you can see them coming a mile away in their bright red t-shirts) I was up and over in a flash and went down to the front of the section and grabbed a seat. It probably helped that I was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans (a trick I learned from unsuccessfully trying to sneak into Soma wearing a bright white t-shirt). “Hey a guy just jumped over! He has brown hair and was wearing a black shirt and jeans.” Gee thanks guy you just described nearly everyone here…I digress. Marilyn Manson is always awesome but it was a little weird seeing them open for someone. I’ve seen them on festivals where they were not the headliner but this was different. Different but still awesome. Marilyn did his stilt-walking during “Sweet Dreams,” they played “Coma White” which I have only seen them play one other time and they played a ferocious version of “Antichrist Superstar.”
MARILYN MANSON SETLIST: “Angel With The Scabbed Wings,” “Disposable Teens,” “No Reflection,” “mOBSCENE,” “ Cupid Carries A Gun,” “Irresponsible Hate Anthem,” “The Dope Show,” “Sweet Dreams,” Antichrist Superstar,” “Coma White,” “The Beautiful People”
When Slipknot came out they quickly made me realize why Marilyn Manson was the opener. Slipknot is so goddamn loud and full of frenetic energy that you cannot help but go as nuts as the NINE dudes on stage. After “Be Prepared for Hell” played through the speakers the band hit the stage for an absolutely intense version of “The Negative One.” Hell of an entrance and they never let up the relentlessness of their attack the entire time. Corey Taylor is a great salesman. He is always telling the crowd how much they are appreciated. You cannot help but like a guy that keeps telling you how much he likes you. “Eyeless” was fantastic, “Killpop” lost some of its mysterious power and “Psychosocial” was played way faster than on the album. “Left Behind” was also another personal favorite. This band has come back in a HUGE way with the newest album and like they used to say in McDonald’s commercials “I’m lovin’ it.”
SLIPKNOT SETLIST: “The Negative One,” “ Disasterpiece,” “ Eyeless,” “Skeptic,” “Before I Forget,” “Killpop,” “Dead Memories,” “The Heretic Anthem,” “Psychosocial,” “Pulse of the Maggots,” “Left Behind,” “The Devil In I,” “Wait and Bleed,” “(sic),” “Surfacing,” “Duality,” “Spit It Out”
P.S…As evidenced by the video I saw, apparently after Marilyn Manson performed he found a karaoke bar in downtown San Diego and sang “I’m 18” by Alice Cooper and “Holy Grail” by Jay Z. Lucky bastards in that bar. Watch Here
I went to see Hellyeah two nights in a row? Not so fast. Remember how Bob had to end up bailing on Local H due to a family vacation? Well this concert was also affected and he was the only one slated to go with me. He wanted to see Hellyeah so bad that he bought us tickets and accommodations for the Riverside show since he was scheduled to get back Saturday afternoon. I tried selling the San Diego tickets for basement pricing but got no bites. I felt guilty for letting the tickets go to waste but I had nobody to go with me and am not that huge of a Hellyeah fan.
I had seen Hellyeah on the second stage of the Uproar Festival back in 2010 mostly because I love Pantera and Mudvayne so I had to see what Vinnie Paul and Chad Gray were up to. This was my first concert in Riverside and the venue itself was pretty cool. There were three opening bands but Bob and I decided to drink ourselves into oblivion instead. After a six-pack each of some potent IPA we headed off into what seemed like the downtown area. It was a good turnout, especially after the experience I had earlier in the week. Hellyeah was touring for the new album Unden!able that ironically was released on June 3rd (day of the San Diego show). All I can really say is Hellyeah was much improved over the last time I had seen them. They were tight as a band and seemed to be firing on all cylinders. There were only a handful of songs I recognized as a casual fan but as a fan of heavy metal in general I appreciated their performance.
This was the fourth time I had the pleasure of seeing Local H. Their live show is always fantastic and very lively and thus worthy of going out on a weeknight, especially since this tour had them celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the As Good As Dead album (which I love) by playing it in its entirety. Bob originally bought me a ticket as a birthday present and was set to go with me until he figured out that he booked a week long family vacation during the same week. Whoops! I recruited Calvin to go with me, which worked out nicely since he does not live too far away from the venue. I picked Calvin up and he immediately pulled out a fat pre-rolled. A couple miles and puffs later we were walking into the Belly Up to Local H who had just started. I could not believe how few people were there. I would estimate the place was about half-full. What a crime.
This show was unlike any of the previous times I had seen them. There was a drum kit set up on the left and right hand side of the stage with plenty of room in the middle for Scott Lucas to play. Instead of just playing the entire As Good As Dead album they opened with a full hour set of songs from their latest album Hey, Killer and crowd favorites like “Hands on the Bible” and “California Songs.” The “new” drummer Ryan Harding was the drummer for this set. Let me just say this guy is a machine. He was the drummer the last two times I saw Local H but this time he was especially awesome and crushed the drums non-stop. Scott was going off as well. They were feeling it. This is the first time I have seen Local H that Scott seemed happy. He was not scowling at the audience like he had the previous times I had seen them and was cracking jokes. After a brief intermission Scott came back with Joe Daniels, the original drummer on As Good As Dead and thanked the opening band Local H. “Those guys are pretty good.” I had only seen Joe in the liner notes of the album and he looked like a skinny black dude with dreads. Now he is ripped sans dreads. They started off with “Manifest Destiny Pt. 1” but then went right into “Bound For The Floor,” saving “High-Fiving MF” for later in the set. Some of my favorite moments were “I Saw What You Did And I Know Who You Are,” “Nothing Special,” “Back In The Day,” “Fritz’s Corner” and when Scott did his best Jimmy Page imitation by tacking the solo from “Heartbreaker” onto the end of one of the songs. Up to this point Scott had switched between a custom Strat and Tele but for the last two songs he played a Gibson ES 335. This is the first time I have seen him play a guitar without the bass pickups. He was able to do so because Ryan came back out to play bass for the last two songs. Pretty cool.
Joe was a good drummer but not as hard hitting as Ryan so it was interesting to see both in one night. The first time I saw Local H was before second drummer Brian St. Clair departed and after seeing Local H with all drummers it seems like Scott keeps finding drummers who hit harder than the last, which is fine by me. Go see this band if you have a chance!
So this show had been on my radar largely because Orgy was opening up for Filter. I had only seen Orgy once (see Big Stink 4 8/8/99) and just missed them play a headlining show at the end of January. I was on the fence for this show since it was on a “school night” but decided against going once I learned that the only original member of Orgy was the singer Jay Gordon. I guess if you’re going to have only one original member the singer is the best person to have because the voice/emotion is not as easy to replicate as guitar tones. Ultimately I was just scared of tarnishing the memory of the first time I saw Orgy since it was so great. That is until I won four tickets on a lark from entering a contest from a Facebook ad. I never win anything so that was pretty cool. I got Tom and Bob on board but Tom flaked out at the last minute. I ended up selling one of the tickets for $10 to a guy that met us at the venue. There were two other bands (Death Valley High and Vampires Everywhere) but Orgy was already playing when we walked in. We got to see them play “Octagon,” “Fiction (Dreams in Digital),” “Suckerface,” “Stitches,” “Blue Monday” and a few new songs that did not sound bad. It was fantastic. Not as good as the first time I saw them but still fantastic (though apparently they could not afford to buy their own backdrop (see picture). For “Blue Monday” Jay walked around the floor and was going up to people having them sing verses of the song.
Filter headlined the show and were touring for their new album Crazy Eyes. I love Filter and saw them about five times prior to this but I have just not been able to get into any of the albums after The Amalgamat. Lucky for me roughly half the songs they played were from the first three albums including “(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do,” “You Walk Away,” “Jurassitol,” “Take A Picture,” “Welcome to the Fold,” “American Cliche’,” “The Best Things,” and “Hey Man Nice Shot.” Richard Patrick had an entirely new touring band that seemed to click a little better than the last time I saw Filter open up for Chevelle and Bush. Rich bore a slight resemblance to Hitler partially because of the lighting, partially because of my beer consumption and mostly because of his haircut. If he decided to grow that stupid little mustache he could get cast for the role of Hitler no problem. My faith has been restored in seeing Filter live. Now I just need to get into albums four through seven…
I would be remiss if I did not share the story about the Uber we caught after the show. Guy picks us up I say how’s it going? He says alright but my transmission is shitty. I say “you know what’s good for a shitty transmission? Pantera.” He says I don’t have that but fuck yeah! Then he puts on Metallica’s And Justice for All album (my favorite Metallica album) at full volume and we proceed to rock the fuck out the entire drive home but halfway through the ride he reaches for his glovebox and says “You guys wanna smoke some weed?” Best. Uber. Ever.
