2019

Slayer 11/30/19

It’s funny how life sometimes comes full circle. I saw the very first date of Slayer’s farewell tour in San Diego and here I was a year and a half later at the very last date of Slayer’s farewell tour in Los Angeles. Not just the last date of their tour but the last Slayer show EVER…or so they claim. I actually believe that these guys are done but time will tell. I was not sold on Slayer alone but when they announced Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals doing a set of only Pantera songs, Ministry and Primus as the openers on a Saturday that made for a pretty easy decision. I got Bob, Kyle and Larry interested but the problem as always was getting tickets so we ended up with shitty seats but when all was said and done we did not sit in our actual seats even once.

Usually the openers suck, which gives us time to suck down more beers at the hotel room but when the opener is Philip Anselmo & the Illegals playing an entire set of Pantera songs you get your ass to the venue. I had just seen them a month and a half earlier in Sacramento but this is the closest I am ever going to get to seeing Pantera again so better to strike while the iron is hot. They did play three songs that they did not play at Aftershock so that was the cherry on top, including “This Love” with a brief Jason Momoa appearance. This is about the time I started getting lit so it is not surprising that I have no pictures from this point forward in the night.

SETLIST: Mouth for War, Becoming, I’m Broken, Goddamn Electric, Strength Beyond Strength, Fucking Hostile, This Love, A New Level

Wait, there’s more after that kick in the nuts and the next band up is Ministry? Fuck yeah! This was the first time I got to see Ministry with ex-original Tool bassist Paul D’Amour and their choice of setlist was absolutely perfect. It was heavy as fuck and the songs seemed to have their edge back. Only much later did I find out that Joey Jordison was drumming for Ministry and now it all makes perfect sense.

SETLIST: The Missing, Deity, Stigmata, Supernaut, Just One Fix, N.W.O., Thieves, Jesus Built My Hotrod

Primus seemed slightly out of place in this lineup but then again Primus are kind of always out of place next to any other bands. Les and company brought it as usual and I especially enjoyed the songs they played from Sailing the Seas of Cheese and Pork Soda.

SETLIST: Those Damned Blue-Collared Tweekers, Too Many Puppies, Sgt. Baker, The Seven, Cygnus X-1, Southbound Pachyderm, Mr. Krinkle, Welcome To This World, Professor Nutbutter’s House of Treats, My Name Is Mud, Jerry Was A Race Car Driver

Ironically Slayer was the band I was least excited to see at this show but the crescendo was finally here and being Los Angeles it was a star-studded event. Slayer did not have any guest appearances during their set but the likes of Kirk Hammett, Robert Truillo, Post Mallone, King Diamond and others were sighted milling about. Slayer played a monster 20 song set and then after they were done a very emotional Tom Araya stood on the stage afterwards for quite awhile to soak it all in and thank everyone for being a part of his life. It was a very tender moment from someone who made such non-tender music and it was perfect.

SETLIST: South of Heaven, Repentless, Postmortem, World Painted Blood, Hate Worldwide, War Ensemble, Stain of Mind, Disciple, When the Stillness Comes, Born of Fire, Payback, Seasons in the Abyss, Jesus Saves, Chemical Warfare, Hell Awaits, Dead Skin Mask, Show No Mercy, Raining Blood, Mandatory Suicide, Angel of Death

Metal Injection Writeup

Blabbermouth Writeup

The Black Keys 11/17/19

On June 28^th in the year 2019 The Black Keys released their first album in over five years called “Let’s Rock.” The title was inspired by the last words uttered by convicted murderer Edmund Zagorski right before he was executed in an electric chair. The electric chair that appears on the cover of the album made an appearance out by the concessions (I wanted a picture but the line was too long) and later in the show a giant version appeared onstage. Both the album and ensuing tour was highly anticipated and thus allowed them to command a fairly pricy sum for a ticket. As a result Kyle and I were the only ones out of our group willing to fork over the dough.

The album “Let’s Rock” did not grab me at first but just kept getting better and better with every successive spin and only after many listens could I fully appreciate the greatness and genius of the album. I love albums that creep up on you like that. Even without this album I would have gone to see them again but my love of this album turned the show into an absolute must-see.

This show was a far cry from the only other time I had seen them across the parking lot at Soma over nine years before this. For starters the Sports Arena is roughly five times the size of Soma as far as seating capacity. This was also not the two-piece band that I saw all those years ago. As the stage grew larger so too did the size of the touring band in order to fill out the sound of the more intricate songwriting. Don’t get me wrong, by and large these songs could survive with the band as a two-piece but dammit people paid good money to see this show and one could tell that the band intended on giving the people their money’s worth. This equated to a bass player and two additional guitarists as well as a proper projection and light show.

These guys totally aced the songs that they chose to play. I was floored from the get go when they opened with “I Got Mine” and they never really let up after that. Much to my delight they played a good number of songs from the new album including two of my favorites “Fire Walk With Me” and “Walk Across the Water.” These guys have a very timeless sound that would be hard to place in an era if I was listening to them for the first time but thankfully they live in this era.

SETLIST: I Got Mine, Eagle Birds, Tell Me Lies, Gold on the Ceiling, Fever, Next Girl, Fire Walk With Me, Walk Across the Water, Everlasting Light, Howlin’ for You, Your Touch, Strange Times, Tighten Up, Thickfreakness, Ten Cent Pistol, Little Black Submarines, Lonely Boy, Lo/Hi, Go, She’s Long Gone

Aftershock 10/13/19

Since Bob and I played Fantasy Football (nerd shit) against each other this week we sat around our hotel room watching football all morning until it was time to go (I ended up winning). Our M.O. for Sundays at Aftershock is usually to find a Buffalo Wild Wings to watch football and get sauced before heading over to the show but B-Dubs was packed. This lead us next door to a restaurant that served up the biggest burrito I have ever seen. I almost took it all down before we headed over to the show to catch Gojira. Joe loves Gojira but I was indifferent about them. Maybe it would have helped if I already knew the songs.

Chevelle was the next band I wanted to see but unfortunately it seemed like they “phoned it in” a little. I cannot explain it exactly but after seeing them as many times as I have it is easy to distinguish a performance that is off. It could have been because they had a shortened set in the daytime while it was still light outside. Then again that exact scenario is how I saw them in the early days when they used to play the second stage or really early on the main stage at Ozzfest.

Young Wicked, The Clincher, Get Some, An Island, Door to Door Cannibals, Face to the Floor, Vitamin R (Leading Us Along), Send the Pain Below, The Red, Still Running, I Get It

Korn have been on a tear the last few times I have seen them and tonight was no different. This time they were touring for their new album The Nothing that was released exactly a month before this. The Aftershock lineup for this year was incredible but Korn was some next level shit compared to most of the other bands that had played up to this point. The first four songs they played set a tone that never wavered from then on out. The set as a whole reminded you why these guys have been able to sustain a career for as long as they have. Still got it.

Blind, Clown, Faget. Here to Stay, Rotting in Vain, You’ll Never Find Me, Shoots and Ladders (with Metallica’s “One” outro), Got the Life, Twist, Freak on a Leash, Coming Undone, Falling Away From Me

It had been over two years since I last saw Tool and the big news since then was that there was finally a new album! Fear Inoculum was released only two weeks before this and was worth the wait. Seeing Tool live never gets old but merely having a chance to see a new song performed live was probably enticing enough by itself to get me to Sacramento. Lucky for me they ended up playing two new songs on the album and equally exciting was when they played “Part of Me” because I am almost certain that in all the times I have seen Tool that I have never seen them play that song. I was also lucky that Ken of all people had procured a doobie from someone since I was out of gummy rings. Musically they were absolutely incredible and somehow their stage show continues to keep evolving to greater heights. The lasers alone were more impressive than the entire stage show of most bands I see.

Fear Inoculum (live debut), AEnema, The Pot, Invincible, Part of Me, Parabola, Jambi, Forty Six & 2, Stinkfist, Pneuma (live debut)

The group as a whole made it through one more day together without separating so we all walked back but on the way realized we were staying right across the street from Old Town Sacramento. After a chiliburger and completely unnecessary beer we wrapped up another Aftershock. Until next year…which we already bought tickets for since it was announced Metallica is going to be headlining on two of the three nights with completely different sets for each night!

Aftershock 10/12/19

Larry departed first thing this morning and the rest of us woke up still a little buzzed from the day before. I wanted to get something in me before the hangover set in and sometimes beer does not always go down easy in this situation so when Ken said he was going to the store I requested a bottle of Jager or Fireball but because Ken is Ken we ended up with a bottle of both.

H09909 was the first band on the bill for the day that I wanted to check out based on me seeing the end of their set a few years back when they opened for Ministry. They were alright but for some reason we just were not feeling it.

Stone Temple Pilots was up next. The last time I saw Stone Temple Pilots was at this very festival four years ago with Chester Bennington singing. Fast forward to 2019 and now sadly both Chester and Scott Weiland are dead but the other guys in the band wanted to move on so I was naturally curious to see how well STP Version 3.0 would sound with the new singer Jeff Gutt. It turns out not so bad. Gutt’s voice is more suited to these songs than Chester’s ever was and he never seemed to try to imitate the massive personality that Scott was.

SETLIST: Down, Wicked Garden, Vasoline, Big Bang Baby, Big Empty, Plush, Interstate Love Song, Roll Me Under, Dead & Bloated, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart, Sex Type Thing

Had it really been three years since I last saw Marilyn Manson? Yes and ironically enough it was when they opened for Slipknot. Since that last time they released the album Heaven Upside Down and dismissed Twiggy from the band due to rape allegations but even that was two years ago. This time Marilyn Manson himself seemed like he may have been a little drunk but that certainly did not stop him from tearing up the stage with a good mix of super aggressive songs like “Irresponsible Hate Anthem” and “Antichrist Superstar” with more accessible staples like “The Dope Show” and “The Beautiful People.”

SETLIST: Irresponsible Hate Anthem, This Is The New Shit, Rock Is Dead, The Dope Show, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Say10 (preceded by “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”), Antichrist Superstar, The Beautiful People

It was funny that Rob Zombie was billed as the headliner for the night right after Marilyn Manson since Zombie now has John5 playing guitar and Ginger Fish playing drums. I have seen Zombie several times and noticed that having these two guys as a part of his band seemed to rejuvenate Zombie to the level of energy he used to display when he was still in White Zombie and the early days of his solo records. “Electric Head, Part 2” was just the swift kick in the ass I needed and besides that familiar crushing riff in “Thunder Kiss ‘65” was easily my favorite moment of the set and possibly even day. Unlike the day before we all managed to stay together this time and get back to our hotel with enough time to shut it down so we could do it all over again one more time.

SETLIST: Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown, Superbeast, Living Dead Girl, More Human Than Human, Get Your Boots On! That’s the End of Rock and Roll, Electric Head, Part 2: The Ecstacy, In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High, Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O., Pussy Liquor, Ddd, Thunder Kiss ’65, Helter Skelter, Dragula

Aftershock 10/11/19

Having previously always taken at least a year off between attending Aftershock festivals we had no intention of making 2019 our first back-to-back year… but then the lineup was released and it was too insanely good to pass up. Bob, Larry and I all flew in together and met up with Joe, who flew in from Portland within minutes of our flight landing. We then made our way over to the Embassy Suites where much to nobody’s surprise our room was not ready as this was only about 9:30 in the morning. We were not, however, too early to grab some beers at a nearby convenience store to go along with our omelet and potatoes that we snagged from the still open breakfast buffet at the Embassy Suites. A short while after refusing to pay $100 for a BS early check-in fee we were approached by the guy working the front desk who told us our room was suddenly ready. This is about the time Ken showed up to join in on the action so I am convinced management just did not want five degenerates sitting around getting wasted in their lobby at 10 am.

It is about this time that Larry started to question if he should stay the whole weekend because of surprise work that was doled out to him. He found out a massive project was going to be due Monday morning when he checked his email as soon as we landed in Sacramento. At first he thought he could slough it off but as the morning went on reality sunk in that he simply could not so he made the decision to stay only the first day and catch a plane back to San Diego on Saturday morning. It sucked that we were going to lose him for two of the three days but one less body was not completely unwelcome as our room turned out to have two double beds and a pull out couch instead of two queen beds as originally thought.

First up for the festival and the day was Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals. It was announced that these lads would be opening on the final leg of Slayer’s farewell tour and playing nothing but Pantera songs so it seemed reasonable that we may get nothing but Pantera songs for this set as well. That turned out to be the case and jeezus it was awesome! They played eight choice songs that whipped everyone into a frenzy and left my voice raw from screaming along. Why the festival organizers put these guys on so early I will never know.

SETLIST: Mouth For War, Strength Beyond Strength, Becoming, Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit, I’m Broken, Walk, Domination/Hollow, Fucking Hostile

After climaxing so early in the day it was a welcome respite to have some time to burn before Clutch, which was the next band I really cared about. In the meantime we checked out Motionless in White, which I can only describe as Marilyn Manson Jr., and I Prevail, which basically followed the Linkin Park template but with far worse results.

While I am always pumped to see Clutch unfortunately they never play the old shit that I really want to hear, which is material from the first few albums. This occasion was no different but it was a solid overall set with newer staples “Earth Rocker” and “X-Ray Visions” as well as a couple songs from Blast Tyrant and one from Jam Room.

SETLIST: The Mob Goes Wild, X-Ray Visions, Evil, Cypress Grove, In Walks Barbarella, Earth Rocker, Gimme the Keys, Willie Nelson, Electric Worry, One Eye Dollar

A wildcard for the festival was Staind because they had been on hiatus off and on since about 2012 when Aaron Lewis decided to do a solo country thing. I had not personally seen them for 16 years but did get a chance to see them five times before this in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. They sounded great and Aaron Lewis was moving around much more than he used to back in the day. I am sure this was in no small part due to his diversion into country music.

SETLIST: Eyes Wide Open, Paper Jesus, Not Again, Fade, For You, Crawl, Right Here, Outside, So Far Away, Raw. It’s Been Awhile, Mudshovel

It is about this time I passed out the gummy rings I had brought to everyone but Larry because I wanted them to kick in right as the night’s headliner Slipknot was going on. Besides Philip H. Alselmo and the Illegals today was all about Slipknot for me. It had been three years since I last saw them and now they had a new album under their belt, the outstanding We Are Not Your Kind that was released two months prior to this show, which was just enough time to digest it before witnessing the juggernaut that is Slipknot. Less than an hour after eating the gummy rings everyone in our group got separated from each other and phones do not do a bit of good in densely packed situations such as this so unfortunately I found myself watching Slipknot by myself…unless you count the other 49,995 people that were there. No matter how many times I see Slipknot I am astounded by the energy projected from nine guys going crazy on a stage. It is almost like a giant fireball getting as close as it can to burning you without actually burning you. “Solway Firth” killed live and I was just about dead after they played “The Heretic Anthem” right after but this was only halfway through their set.

SETLIST: People = Shit, (sic), Get This, Unsainted, Before I Forget, Solway Firth, The Heretic Anthem, Psychosocial, The Devil In I, Prostetics, Vermillion, Wait and Bleed, Sulfur, All Out Life, Duality, Spit It Out, Surfacing

It does not surprise me that everyone got separated after the weed kicked in because we had been drinking since 10 am but it did surprise me that I found Larry before I left. We decided to avoid the craziness of catching an Uber and walked along the river all the way back to the hotel to find our compadres waiting for us with a cold one.

Roy Orbison/Buddy Holly 10/1/19

After being shuttered for 10 years and going through a multi-million dollar renovation, the East County Performing Arts Center in El Cajon was transformed into The Magnolia. With this grand re-opening came heavy promotion of its upcoming events beginning in September and the third show to occur was this one. When I saw the advertisement the show was dubbed “Roy Orbison & Buddy Holly: Rock ‘N’ Roll Dream Tour” and went on to describe the show as a “cutting edge holographic performance – Roy & Buddy’s remastered vocals accompanied by a live band.” Intriguing to say the least and a no-brainer as it was the closest thing I would ever come to seeing a live performance of these two legends.

Since I stumbled across this show before tickets went on sale I was afforded the opportunity to buy tickets right when they went on sale, which ended up yielding 7^th row seats for Ingrid and I. The first thing I noticed as we walked into the 1,200-seat venue was the overall age of the crowd. This was definitely an “Alaska cruise” of shows and I was relatively sure someone in this crowd might break a hip before the night was over.

I had seen this same technology in action at a Nine Inch Nails show previously but they used it for atmosphere instead of the re-creation of a single person. Essentially there was a super thin see-through screen across the front of the stage that the hologram was projected onto and a live band played behind the screen that consisted of a traditional rock ensemble of two guitar players, a bassist, and a drummer that were accompanied by two female backup singers and a keyboardist. The musicianship was off the charts as the timing had to be spot on to match the hologram versions of both Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly.

As soon as Roy Orbison appeared as if he had just been hoisted onto the stage from below I was mesmerized. It was very easy to suspend disbelief because of the level of detail in the hologram itself as well as the fantastic musicianship. Until this production I had forgotten what a gem of a voice Roy had but quickly remembered as his holographic doppelganger ran through some of his greatest hits like “Only the Lonely,” “You Got It” and “Oh Pretty Woman.”

Just like that Roy turned to dust and out came Buddy Holly. His hologram captured his happy essence as a performer doing songs such as “Peggy Sue,” “Oh, Boy!,” “That’ll be the Day” and my favorite Buddy song “Everyday.” It is very sad to think that he was only 22 years old when he died and begs the question of how much the musical landscape would have been different if that plane had not crashed.

After each legend had his turn in the spotlight there was a short intermission followed by another mini-set from each. Each set was interlaced with movie type footage of interviews with prominent people that knew these two and pictures aplenty. The most memorable of these interviews was Tom Petty who said that he was recording with Roy within 30 minutes of meeting him and they came to be really good friends. Then he shared a moment where Roy leaned over to him and said, “hey I brought in a couple Cherry Cokes” like they were some kind of contraband.

There is no substitute for a great live performance but damn did this come close. Bravo to the producers of this production for putting together something really special.

Cheap Trick/ZZ Top 8/28/19

This was a rare concert of not just one but two bands I had never seen before. Cheap Trick had opened at one or two concerts I had been to but for some reason (most likely drinking in the parking lot) I had not actually seen them. Besides the fact that the concert was on a Wednesday, drinking did not even sound remotely appealing to Kyle or I since we were both still fried from a boys trip to Austin, Texas with 12 of our buddies the weekend before.

There was a bit of synchronicity going on this particular evening since some of our friends were across town watching the Smashing Pumpkins, which happened to the band I was watching at this very venue the only time I had been busted smoking a joint. I also thought it was pretty cool that some badasses from Texas were coming to me right after I had gone to Texas.

For me Cheap Trick was the equivalent of the appetizer for this concert. For the life of me (probably due to still being fried from the weekend before and eating scraps of gummies before coming in) the only songs I could recall knowing I liked were “I Want You to Want Me,” “The Flame” and “Surrender,” but besides their cover of “Don’t Be Cruel” I knew there was one more song I just could not think of. After playing a bunch of songs I did not know they finally rolled out a 1, 2, 3 punch of the aforementioned songs plus the one I was forgetting, “Dream Police” to end their set. Ironically “Dream Police” is my favorite song of theirs. Robin Zander sounded pretty fucking amazing (especially considering he’s 66 years old) and the whole crowd got a kick out of Rick Nielsen’s crazy guitars, especially his guitar with five necks. Not to be outdone, the bass player was creating out-of-this-world sounds with a 12 string bass which I did not even know existed.

If Cheap Trick was the appetizer then main entrée was ZZ Top. My first memories of ZZ Top are courtesy of MTV with the beards (before it was a cool hipster thing), the cool cars, the fuzzy guitars and of course the music. I did not realize that they were on their 50^thanniversary tour until I bought the tickets. 50! As in five zero. Equally impressive is that the lineup of Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard (ironically the only member without a beard) never changed during 50 years.

They opened with my favorite song off of Eliminator “Got Me Under Pressure” and from then on kept the boogie going. Billy and Dusty came out playing a matching custom fender bass and telecaster with a wild paintjob that was blacklight friendly and were in sync not only musically, but with a movement that I can only describe as a strut. They slithered around the stage in unison as they reeled off some of their biggest hits and even busted out the fuzzy guitars for “Legs.” I thought the encore of “La Grange” and “Tush” replete with matching shiny jackets was a fitting end but for some reason they came back after leaving the stage for a double encore of Elvis’ “Jailhouse Rock.”

Even though I am certain they could have played for much longer if they wanted to these guys came out and took care of business for about an hour and 20 minutes and then they were out. This was ample time to give the crowd a taste of why ZZ Top has endured 50 years together and why Jimi Hendrix once cited Billy Gibbons as one of his favorite guitar players.

SETLIST: Got Me Under Pressure, I Thank You, Waitin’ for the Bus, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Gimme All Your Lovin’, Pearl Necklace, I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide, I Gotsta Get Paid, My Head’s in Mississippi, Sixteen Tons, Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers, Just Got Paid, Sharp Dressed Man, Legs, La Grange, Tush, Jailhouse Rock

Downtown Throwdown 8/3/19

In the summer of 1990 I was about to go into seventh grade and was still living on Guns N’ Roses, Poison, Def Leppard and Motley Crue because “grunge” was not a thing yet. Along comes this dude rapping over the bassline to a Queen song and I just could not help but to gravitate towards it and proceed to learn every word. Looking back on this time I cannot help but laugh which is exactly why I thought it would be funny to go to a “90’s” package concert dubbed Downtown Throwdown with Vanilla Ice headlining.

This event represented “music for the masses” more so than every other concert I ever go to but that brought more people than usual out on a Saturday to hang out and have a good time. After Ingrid and I had sushi and many rounds of sake and beer at the nearby Sushi Deli we moseyed on over to Petco Park to meet up with our friends Easton, Jules, Parker, Janelle, Sam, Pearl, Calvin and Jane at the now permanent stage built for “smaller” acts on the other side of centerfield.

After grabbing a few overpriced beers first up was Young MC. His allotted amount of time on stage was literally only 15 minutes, which in all fairness was plenty of time to “Bust A Move.” In all seriousness he was actually a very impressive rapper. I had also completely forgotten that Flea was the one who had put down the bassline in “Bust A Move” until someone brought it up.

I was familiar with Color Me Badd because of the songs “I Wanna Sex You Up,” “All 4 Love” and “I Adore Mi Amor” but I would not say I was a fan. You just simply could not grow up when I did and avoid them much like Taylor Swift in this day and age. Their 20-minute set was more than ample time for them.

Next up was All-4-One who I could also give zero fucks about but the crowd really seemed to enjoy their biggest hit “I Swear“ during their 20-minute set.

When I think of Coolio I think of the video to “Fantastic Voyage” where an endless amount of people come out of the trunk of an Impala and his reworking of Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise” into “Gangsta’s Paradise.” His 20-minute set was also ample time.

I remember looking at the set times for all these artists beforehand and realizing each of them was only given 20 minutes or less except Vanilla Ice who was given a full hour. At first I thought okay he’s the headliner but then I thought this whole crowd (myself included) probably only knew one of his songs. I know he went through a phase after he became a superstar where he started experimenting with heavy metal and other genres of music but I had never heard it and honestly never cared to. By the time he came out I was pretty sauced but remember that he was actually entertaining and performed with confidence. My favorite part was the fact that he brought out all manner of character on the stage with him including all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers to dance around in the background while he performed. It’s not every day you get to see someone who had some sort of impact on your life almost 30 years later but today was that day.

The Raconteurs 7/21/19

Portland, Oregon is beautiful in the summer so when I saw The Raconteurs were playing at the Edgefield I thought this would be a better place to see them then the scheduled stop in San Diego a week later. Not only would I get to see my family and friends but finally get to see a concert at the Edgefield since I vacated the city in 2004 and concerts did not start there in earnest until 2006.

Touted as “Portland’s Premiere Outdoor Venue” the venue is part of a greater 74 acre McMenamins property with an interesting history that now also includes restaurants, bars, a winery, a brewery, a distillery, golf courses, a movie theater, gardens, a spa & pool and over 100 guestrooms for lodging. Due to all this, tickets are usually in short supply and by the time I pulled the trigger on plane tickets the concert was sold out. There were overpriced tickets on StubHub as usual but I figured I would just wing it this time because worst case scenario if I did not get in I would still be able to hang out on the property drinking my favorite “Rubinator” beer.

Once Marvin caught wind of me making the trip up he decided to extend his weekend trip to Hood River for a bachelor party by hitchhiking to join Joe and I (Marvin is the guy who never has a ticket and somehow always gets into the concert by paying a very small amount of money for a ticket or just ends up getting in for free). Even though he could give two shits about The Raconteurs Joe already had a ticket because he was supposed to go with a gal he knew and since he only lives a couple miles from the Edgefield the plan was to meet at his place and leave earlier than usual to give us time to score tickets…but then we started drinking. We were having a good time at Joe’s and tickets came down to about $50 on StubHub later in the day so I just decided to get one so we could stay at Joe’s a little longer and not have to mess with it. Marvin on the other hand showed up to Joe’s semi-wasted without a ticket so we still ended up leaving a little early.

Once on the property we headed to the bar downstairs in the main building because apparently that is how Marvin occasionally meets people with extra tickets to unload. We succeeded in finding extra tickets but the guy wanted $40 and Marvin decided that was too rich for his blood. We also succeeded in downing a couple more unnecessary beers before Joe and I left Marvin to sort out his ticket situation. Long story short Joe and I ended up walking right into the venue through a curiously unguarded entryway without even showing our tickets to anyone. So much for all that crap trying to buy a ticket! I immediately sent Marvin a text about our revelation so he could do the same. Back to the beer line and toward the stage we went.

The Raconteurs were touring for their newest album Help Us Stranger that had just been released exactly a month earlier and ripped it up as per usual. The venue lived up the hype as the stage setup being enclosed by trees made for a vey intimate feel. Just as I was about to take a couple pictures for posterity I realized that since this was an event with Jack White on stage everyone who actually went in the way they were supposed to was forced to lock their phones in a bag the same way I had to the last time I saw Jack White solo. Knowing this would be a red flag to any security I wisely chose not to pull out my phone, which to Jack White’s credit actually created a better overall environment for the concert. We all predictably lost each other at some point and speaking of red flags I essentially got cut off from buying more beer since I kept asking for Terminator each time even though they had told me each successive time that they did not sell Terminator at the venue.

Marvin and I ended up finding each other right after the show and showed up back at Joe’s house before he did. Joe has a roommate so we rang the doorbell and after a minute the roommate answered the door with a gun in his hand as he thought we were randoms and did not want to be too careful! Joe showed up shortly after and we all had a laugh about almost getting shot. Good times!

SETLIST: Bored and Razed, Level, Old Enough, You Don’t Understand Me, Don’t Bother Me, Many Shades of Black, Thoughts and Prayers, Broken Boy Soldier, Now That You’re Gone, Hands, Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying), What’s Yours Is Mine, Sunday Driver, Consoler of the Lonely, Help Me Stranger, Blue Veins, Only Child, Carolina Drama, Steady, As She Goes

The Claypool Lennon Delirium 7/19/19

When Primus mastermind Les Claypool and the only son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono decided to form a band the results were out of this world. Being a Primus fan I already worshipped the bass playing of Les Claypool but was completely unfamiliar with Sean Lennon except in namesake. I do not remember exactly how I came to hear about this collaboration but do remember talking with Wayne about them to which he stated Sean sounds exactly like John did. I missed the duo’s last San Diego appearance in late December so when I caught wind of them rolling back through to promote their second album South of Reality and play the Music Box on a Friday I was ecstatic. It is not very often that I get to see a band that I have not previously seen and I had only been to the Music Box one other time way back when it was called Anthology.

After having a couple beers with Wayne and his friend at the nearby Crack Shack I ate the couple gummies I brought with me as we walked over to the venue. Once inside we grabbed a beer and headed upstairs to watch the opener Particle Kid from the side of the stage. The singer/guitar player had good energy but the music was completely foreign to me. To be fair it is rare that an opening band knocks my socks off which is why I am always trying to time my appearance to purposely miss the opener altogether.

As soon as Particle Kid went off we made our way down to stake a claim on the floor in front of the stage so we could get the full effect of the Lennon Claypool Delirium. We thought we were in good position but the crowd was filled with GIANTS and by the time we realized their existence all around us the floor was too full to move somewhere else without blatantly bulldozing people. I am 6’1” and there were several people in the crowd that had to be at least 6’8”. Ridiculous. This happened to be the weekend of Comic Con but save for a guy that looked like he was wearing a giant fork and a guy with lightning bolt glasses a la Aladdin Sane Bowie this did not appear to be the same crowd as Comic Con. All in all it was a good, respectful crowd as hardly anyone was on their phones. A novel idea I know, right? Come to a concert to actually watch the concert?!?

The Claypool Lennon Delirium achieved something that not every band can: presence. The four piece played in front of a trippy moving background of outer space, which was very fitting for the music they were playing. Backed by a hard hitting, top hat-wearing drummer that rocked Lemmy’s facial hair motif and a top hat wearing keyboardist, the chemistry between Sean and Les was undeniable. There was good banter between “Shiner” and “Kernel” and it was really special when they were both singing and acting the part of co-frontman. Sean wore a dark yacht captain style hat and demonstrated monster guitar wizardry on the same chrome Jaguar-type guitar throughout. Les was being Les and makes me question everything I think I know about how a bass guitar can sound each time I see him. Playing some kind of electric stand up bass with a violin bow at one point did not do much to change this.

The Music Box only holds about 700 people and those in attendance would probably all agree on how fantastic the show was. Les made a comment at one point about how great the sound was for them up on stage and about how this set was longer than usual for them – clocking in at 1 hour 45 minutes+, which explains why they laced their set with covers. From the opening cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” I thought that this is what it would sound like if John Lennon had been the singer of Pink Floyd. Sean’s voice did sound eerily similar to John, which was on full display during the closing cover of the Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” despite his vocals being bathed in effects. It was at this point at midnight that I turned into a pumpkin so I could get home to wake at 5:30 for a 7:20 flight and missed the encore of Primus’ “Southbound Pachyderm.” Damn!

SETLIST: Astronomy Domine, Cricket and the Genie (Movement I, The Delirium), Cricket and the Genie (Movement II, Oratorio Di Cricket), Little Fishes, Blood and Rockets: Movement I, Saga of Jack Parsons – Movement II, Too the Moon, South of Reality, The Court of the Crimson King, Breath of a Salesman, Boriska, Easily Charmed by Fools, Cosmic Highway, Boris the Spider, Cricket Chronicles Revisited: Part 1, Ask Your Doctor – Part 2, Psyde Effects, Like Fleas, Tomorrow Never Knows, Southbound Pachyderm

Rock N Roll Recollections

Fuzzy recollections of bands that rocked my world