2020

Coronavirus Concert Casualties

Gatherings of 250 people became officially banned in San Diego as of March 13th, 2020. Nationwide lockdown followed shortly after. The list of concerts below are the ones I intended to attend that have been impacted (so far):

3/13/20 Local H @ Belly Up – RESCHEDULED to 10/10/20 – Local H was set to open for Soul Asylum in support of their album Lifers that was about to drop on 4/10/20

UPDATE 4/24: Local H decided to let fans on their Facebook page vote on an entire album from their catalog for them to play live from their “bunker” in Chicago. The album that received the most votes was Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles? and they livestreamed their performance on both Facebook and YouTube. I would have paid good money to see this live so this was quite a treat as the first livestream concert I ever watched. The picture quality was better on Facebook but the sound was better on YouTube. HHH

3/28/20 Rage Against the Machine @ Pan American Center, Las Cruces, NM – POSTPONED – Before Rage announced a full tour there were originally only five shows scheduled: El Paso, TX, Las Cruces, NM, Phoenix, AZ and as the headliner for both weekends of Coachella. I had no interest in going to Coachella due to the expense and “scene” that I am very much not a part of so Phoenix was the logical choice due knowing people that live there and distance but New Mexico was on a Saturday. That was enough reason for a group of us to decide that a trip was in order.

UPDATE 5/1: The rescheduled tour dates have arrived and it looks like I will not be seeing Rage Against the Machine until May 2021!

4/4/20 Loudermilk @ The Uptown Theatre, Richland, WA – POSTPONED – This was to be the first time I had been “home” in over nine years and with The Ladybird Unition set to open it was going to be like I was 17 years old all over again.

4/13/20 Pearl Jam @ Viejas Arena (SDSU) – POSTPONED – Pearl Jam was one of the first bands that decided to halt their tour. This was to be only my second time seeing Pearl Jam and ironically at the same place that I saw them the first time. This tour was slated in support of the new album Gigaton released on 3/27/20.

4/24/20 The Darkness @ Observatory – POSTPONED – The Darkness was set to tour for their newest effort Easter Is Cancelled, which turned out to be a prophetic title.

UPDATE 5/15: CANCELLED – Well Poop2

5/8/20 The Rolling Stones @SDCCU Stadium – POSTPONED – This was to be the second time I had the pleasure of seeing the Stones. As a bonus this was going to be the opening night of the tour within walking distance of my place on a Friday…

5/22/20 System of a Down, Korn, Faith No More and Helmet @ Banc of California Stadium – POSTPONED – This was a one-off concert in L.A. that had such high demand that a second show was added.

SOAD

UPDATE 5/22: RESCHEDULED – This event will now happen on the same date in 2021 as if this year never happened at all. SKFH

6/10 Styx @ San Diego County Fair – CANCELLED – This was set to be my second time seeing Styx but the show and better yet the entire county fair for 2020 was cancelled.

7/12 The Black Keys @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – This was to be my third time seeing these Ohio natives. Good thing I was able to see the beginning of the “Let’s Rock” tour back in November.
7/19 Incubus and 311 @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – Two bands that I like on the same bill is always a treat. I guess this would instead fall under the category of trick.
7/23 Motley Crue @ Petco Park – ??? – On May 1st Motley Crue released a statement saying “Our goal is to have an official update to everyone by June 1 outlining exactly how we will proceed.” All signs are pointing towards an inevitable postponement/cancellation.

UPDATE 6/1: POSTPONED – Shocking! Motley

7/24 Weezer/Green Day @ Petco Park – POSTPONED – What was to be a rare concert on a Friday night is no more…until 2021
7/30 Ministry @ House of Blues San Diego – RESCHEDULED – There is a website called bandsintown.com that I am on the email list for and this was how I learned that the Ministry show got rescheduled to April 29, 2021. Hopefully Uncle Al is still around.
8/1 Primus and Wolfmother @ Open Air Theatre – POSTPONED – This was going to be a unique show with Primus undertaking the task of replicating Rush’s 1977 classic album A Farewell To Kings. I was also looking forward to seeing the entire Wolfmother performance after the last one got cut short.
8/8 Guns N’ Roses @ Sofi Stadium – POSTPONED – This was going to be my second time seeing GNR and first time visiting the new gazillion dollar monolith stadium in L.A. where the Rams and Chargers will play.
9/1 Disturbed @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – POSTPONED – This tour was to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the debut album The Sickness, which now seems like an even more apt title.
10/9-10/11 Aftershock Festival @ Discovery Park, Sacramento – CANCELLED – See you in 2021!

11/1 Aaron Lewis and Sully Erna @ Del Mar Fairgrounds – CANCELLED – Just when I thought I was going to get some sort of live music even this got cancelled…

Static-X 3/12/20

I was fortunate enough to see Static-X five times in the early part of their career but the possibility of seeing them again live disappeared when Wayne Static passed away on November 1, 2014. Then in 2019 it was announced that the original members minus Wayne were getting together with a masked mystery singer/guitarist to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Wisconsin Death Trip in honor of Wayne. I was conflicted about seeing this since Wayne was so unique and I was able to see the real thing so many times but then I remembered how great it was to hear STP songs live again with singers other than Scott Weiland. None of my feelings mattered since there were no San Diego dates…until the tour resumed in 2020 with San Diego as the first date.

When I started thinking about how much I love Wisconsin Death Trip and received an email from Brick By Brick announcing there were less than 50 tickets left something finally clicked in my brain and I came around. Unfortunately this being on a Thursday did not make it very easy to find anyone else willing to accompany me so I ended up going alone.

Static-X aside this was an interesting time because I had not had any weed or alcohol in over 30 days after taking a self-imposed break and because Coronavirus panic was taking hold of the world. Bands started cancelling shows and elected officials were putting orders in place to prevent gatherings of more than 250 people, then 50 people and finally 10 people. This show was in question up to the last hours before showtime. Ultimately these gathering restrictions went into place midnight of this night, making this the last show I was going to be able to attend for the foreseeable future.

After returning to my gummy taking ways I arrived at Brick By Brick with exactly enough time to grab a tall boy Modelo and situate myself at the familiar back end of the floor area before Static-X came out. The mystery man, who was later revealed to be Edsel Dope, wore a semi-creepy mask that has X’s through the eyes and on the forehead and must have not had enough time to re-create Wayne’s famous hairdo since he wore a hoodie the whole time. He did an admirable job filling in for Wayne and I thought it was pretty cool of “Xer0” to address the crowd basically saying, “I am not trying to replace anyone. I was friends with Wayne and love these songs as much as you guys so I’m thankful that you are allowing me to be a part of bringing these songs back to life for all of us to enjoy.”

It took all of two songs for them to get to the title track of Wisconsin Death Trip for me to feel really great about my decision to attend. After a fantastic “The Trance is the Motion” they hit the highlight reel of rippers from Machine then hot selections from the rest of the catalog before coming back around to “I’m With Stupid” and “Push It” and then they were gone. All in all the show was badass but they need to fire the sound guy because the performance was great but the actual sound was inconsistent.

Next up in the Static-X orbit is Project Regeneration, which will be new music featuring Wayne’s voice from recordings before his death set to be released later in 2020.

SETLIST: Bled for Days, Wisconsin Death Trip, Sweat of the Bud, Love Dump. I Am, Otsegolation, The Trance is the Motion, Get to the Gone, Black and White, This Is Not, Destroy All, Start a War, Behemoth, Cold, I’m With Stupid, Push It

Tool 1/12/20

Bob was the one that was able to secure tickets for the show two nights prior to this and when he did was also able to get two tickets for the Sunday show. His wife expressed interest in possibly going so in the name of spreading joy to the world I agreed to forgo my ticket for her if she chose to go but in the end she passed. Unbeknownst to me he had not even told her that he bought tickets for the Sunday show so he did not know if he was going to make it until the last minute. By the time we figured it all out we were walking in just as “Fear Inoculum” was starting and had to kick someone out of our seats. We did have slightly better seats for this show but they could not be classified as premium seats by any stretch of the imagination so it was funny to walk in on someone trying to snake our seats.

Since it was a Sunday we decided not to drink at all for this show (don’t fret dear reader I still had a couple gummies) so I was able to notice a few more details than I recalled from the Friday show. The first thing I noticed is that people get really cranky about standing in their seat space instead of sitting down in their seat. For some reason people think you cannot hear them when they are talking right behind you but then again maybe they were talking louder than normal to make sure they were being heard. Bottom line this is not your fucking living room so if you don’t want to stand then maybe you should pony up extra dough to sit somewhere else or shut up and deal with it.

The next thing I noticed is that Maynard seems to be coming out of his shell a little more lately. Two nights ago he had come down from his platform but tonight Maynard hung out on the drum riser for a moment then was later seen on top of a speaker cabinet being pushed across the front of the stage and finally briskly walking from one side of the front of the stage to the other at the very end as he was saying farewell. I was also attuned enough to notice that he embellished some of his vocal lines throughout the night.

Tonight I noticed the exact moment that the “fishing wire curtains” peeled back was during “Parabola” to reveal a naked band – not naked in the sense that they were not wearing clothes but just more exposed. This was met with a roar of approval from the crowd. Those same “fishing wire curtains” closed them back in for an INTERMISSION of about 12 minutes with a projected countdown timer and all right after “Forty Six & 2 (this happened at the Friday show as well but I had forgotten).

The only difference in the setlist from two nights prior was the inclusion of “The Pot” and “Part of Me.” At this point anything from Opiate seems otherworldly since it is a short blast of pure rock fury vs. a crazy extended musical journey. People were not as cool on this night with keeping their phones out of their hands but despite this Maynard once again proclaimed that it was ok to openly carry during “Stinkfist,” which turned into an extended jam near the end right when you thought they were mere seconds from being done. This to me was a good summation of Tool: right when you think they are about to disappear they remind the world that they were never really gone. They also remind the world that we need them more than ever.

SETLIST: Fear Inoculum, AEnema, The Pot, Parabol, Parabola, Pneuma, Schism, Jambi, Vicarious, Part of Me, Forty Six & 2, Chocolate Chip Trip, Invincible, Stinkfist

Tool 1/10/20

I guess it was only fitting that the first concert for me of the new decade was Tool. It was also fitting that a couple days before this show I randomly ended up driving behind a car with a custom license plate that said “Schism” as I was listening to Tool.

Schism

After going through hell to get tickets right when they went on sale (eff you Ticketmaster) Bob was able to secure four seats together not far behind the mixer board. After Bob and I met up with Kyle and Chris for a quick beer at Eureka! we met up with Wayne to make our way in (Chris had a seat on the floor) after I had a couple “cookies” for dessert.

I had just seen Tool at Aftershock less than three months before this but was excited at the possibility of them stretching out a little more since this was their own headlining show. It ended up being a very similar setlist as Aftershock but they threw in a partial cover of Rush’s “A Passage to Bangkok” due to the sad announcement earlier in the day that Rush’s legendary drum god Neil Peart had passed away from brain cancer at the age of 67. After a particularly vicious “Forty Six & 2” and intermission they paid tribute again by projecting a picture of Danny and Neil behind the drum kit as Danny was performing “Chocolate Chip Trip.” Finally as they walked off the stage “2112” blasted through the sound system. R.I.P. Doctor.

No Tool show would be complete without crazy visuals and this show utilized what I can only call fishing wire curtains in front of the band for a majority of the show to project trippy landscapes onto. Maynard uncharacteristically came down towards the front at one point and seemed to be in a good mood. Right before AEnema he quipped “San Diego is pretty close to L.A.” before a round of “boos” quickly came back at him. Tool has a very strict no phone policy and threatened removal if caught using your phone but everyone seemed to be ok with being in the moment. Possibly since everyone behaved Maynard then announced right before “Stinkfist” that it was now ok to get out your phones for the last song.

SETLIST: Fear Inoculum, AEnema, Parabol, Parabola, Pneuma, Schism, A Passage to Bangkok, Jambi, Vicarious, Descending, Forty Six & 2, Chocolate Chip Trip, Invincible, Stinkfist

Rock N Roll Recollections

Fuzzy recollections of bands that rocked my world

2020

Coronavirus Concert Casualties

Static-X 3/12/20

Tool 1/12/20

Tool 1/10/20