1999

Snowball 12/8/99

Apparently Filter and Bush played but I only really remember the Foo Fighters because I had never seen them before. I became an immediate fan simply based on Dave Grohl being in Nirvana but actually liked the music too. Dave Grohl is a badass and he kicked a lot of ass that night. They were on tour for the recently released There Is Nothing Left to Lose album. One memorable moment was when Dave said “I’m gonna sing this next song to Taylor” and played whatever song it was just facing Taylor Hawkins but the highlight was when Dave got behind the drum kit himself. He just went nuts and reminded everyone just how talented he is.

This was an interesting show for me because of my love life. I was hired on for the holiday season at a retail store called Meier & Frank. Working in a four level retail store at the mall was a wonderful way to meet women. The problem was that I was not interested in any of the girls that outwardly showed interest in me. I worked as a “floater,” which meant I didn’t know what department I was going to work in until I showed up for work. One day I was assigned to Men’s Sportswear and that’s when I saw her. An angelic, sweet, and innocent looking girl named Lucinda. I couldn’t stop looking at her but she wanted nothing to do with me. A day shortly after I was assigned to a department that was right next to Men’s Sportswear and I happened to work with a girl named Robin, who happened to be Lucinda’s best friend. Turns out Lucinda had a boyfriend. Not that long after she broke up with him and invited me to her birthday party. It was at Robin’s apartment, which happened to be in the same building as Lucinda’s apartment. You get where I’m going with this. I previously agreed to go to this concert with Rose but had since fallen for Lucinda harder than any girl I had ever fallen for. Rose’s friend Tyler worked at the Memorial Coliseum and I remember not really wanting him to see me there with another girl because I really wasn’t trying to be with Rose at that point.

SETLIST: Stacked Actors, My Poor Brain, Breakout, Learn to Fly, Up in Arms, Ain’t it the Life, Monkey Wrench, Alone + Easy Target, Everlong, Aurora, This is a Call, I’ll Stick Around

Oleander 10/30/99

The Crystal Ballroom is a very cool place to see a concert because the floor is the only sprung or “floating” floor in the United States and the sound is decent. It is in a building run by McMenamins in downtown Portland that consists of four floors. McMenamins owns several bars in Portland and a few in Seattle that feature beers they brew themselves that are flat out delicious. The Paranormal Party is something that KUFO put on every year either near or on Halloween. Oleander played this year. I decided to go because I liked Oleander and I wanted to meet people. I dressed in my devil priest costume (see picture) because I thought and still do think it’s funny. One highlight for me was being pulled into the ladies restroom. The girl who pulled me in apparently thought I would be someone her friend would like but instead the friend looked at me and said, “that’s disgusting.” Hopefully she was referring to my costume… I met another girl in the bar downstairs and ended up hanging out with her for a while until I saw a cougar dressed in a skintight pleather mini-dress I couldn’t resist. The first girl got kind of upset with me when she realized I was hanging out with my new slutty looking friend. I ended up going home with her but nothing really happened. Oleander put on a good show but obviously on this night my mind was on beer and girls.

The Family Values Tour 10/16/99

I know there were other bands at this show but the only ones I remember or probably cared about were Staind, Primus, Filter and Limp Bizkit. They all performed great sets but I was especially stoked to see Filter for the third time because they had just released Title of Record a few months prior. It had also been a few years since I had seen Filter, as compared to the other bands that I saw earlier in the year. It was still a nice treat and good bang for the buck. The only person who went with me was Roscoe and this was one of the first concerts that I didn’t have to drive three hours to get to because on October 1st I decided to move to Portland, OR (even after I had promised myself years earlier I would not) with the assistance of my sister and Roscoe.

Portland was a funny choice for me because I knew people in Seattle and I was already a Washington resident. I didn’t know a soul in Portland, which was part of the appeal, and it was only an hour and a half to Corvallis where Rose was (we were still talking). I also got a callback from John Casablancas. They basically told me that I won a scholarship to attend 10 weeks of “modeling classes.” Looking back on it now makes me laugh my head off but I figured it was something in a place where I had nothing. I somehow fit all my stuff in a bedroom that I rented out of a house. The owner lived downstairs and rented out the entire upstairs that consisted of 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. The problem was that the actual refrigerator portion of the fridge/freezer combo didn’t work and there was no oven or stove in the kitchen. This lead to me eat many a meal from the nearby Jack In The Box, which to this day I can’t eat very often. Beyond this the guy that I shared a wall with would buy a five pound bucket of pork chitterlings and boil them on a hotplate. I had never even heard of pork chitterlings but I now know that they have one of the most awful aromas I have ever smelled.

Ministry 8/20/99

I started liking Ministry thanks to Claude because of the album Psalm 69. We made the trip to Seattle again to see Ministry for the first time. This was also my first experience at the Paramount Theatre. We stayed with T-Bone and I remember that Claude and I got super stoned and were running a little late and then halfway to the venue Claude realized he forgot his ticket! All worked out well and we rocked the fuck out in the floor section of the Paramount. Ministry was on tour for Dark Side of the Spoon, which had come out just a few months prior.

Besides this show I still couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with myself. I had missed the deadline to get into any school for the fall and since I still couldn’t get a full time job in the Tri-Cities I decided to move. I didn’t know where I wanted to move but knew that I had to leave the Tri-Cities. I was a big fish in a little pond and it was just too conservative for me. About the time of this show I had all but decided to sell everything I own and move to NYC and then got a little freaked out at the last minute about the possibility of being that far away from everything I’d ever known without a cent to my name. The idea was that the modeling agency was going to put me up in an apartment with other guys working for the agency. All I had to do was get there and presumably work. Ultimately I decided against it mostly because the agency had only been around for about six months and the risk/reward equation didn’t seem to add up. About a year later I ended up finding out that the agency went out of business shortly after this but it’s still fun to pose the question “what if?”

Big Stink 4 8/8/99

Remember that other rock station in Portland I told you about? This was their summer rock festival. This was my second concert at the Portland Meadows and Roscoe and I drove down from Kennewick. The first band that I wanted to see was Zebrahead. I liked them based on their album Waste of Mind. They played on the second stage and with a very high amount of energy. They touted themselves as “mutherfuckinzebraheadbitch” which was also pretty damn funny. I distinctly remember using the time that Blink 182 was on to get food and chill since I didn’t and still don’t give a shit about them. After they left we were on to the highlight of the show for me, Orgy. They are the darkest band I have ever seen in the daylight. They just had a very powerful stage presence. They were on tour for their debut album Candyass and this turned out to be the only time I saw them which sucks because I like their unreleased-at-the-time next album Vapor Transmission even better. The next band I wanted to see was Oleander. I started liking them thanks to their song “Why I’m Here.” They were on tour for their first album February Son and they rocked. After they were done the next band up were hometown boys Everclear. This was the second time I saw them but the first since they became huge MTV staples. I think they put on an extra special show since they were in Portland or maybe the stars just aligned but they put on a great show. The headlining band was Deftones. This was the fourth time I saw them and they were only getting better every time I saw them. You have to give them credit for touring their ass off and they still were for Around the Fur.

An interesting sidenote of this show was that I was approached by John Casablancas’ people about modeling. I was semi-interested because at this point I did not know what the hell I was going to do with my life, I knew that the possibility of travel existed and getting paid for hanging around with attractive women didn’t sound that bad either. It’s not that I’m incredible to look at, it’s just that my body type fits the mold and I don’t look like everybody else. This summer I had taken pictures and sent them off to modeling agencies in New York and Los Angeles. I heard back from 2 of the agencies that I sent pictures to, one in NY and one in L.A.

Ozzfest 7/18/99

Main Stage: Black Sabbath, Rob Zombie, Deftones, Slayer, Primus, Godsmack, System of a Down

Second Stage: Fear Factory, Static-X, Slipknot, Puya, Drain STH, hed (pe), Apartment 26, Flashpoint

This was the first Ozzfest that had come in my proximity. Ozzfest had been going since 1996 and kind of filled the summer void that Lollapalooza had left. I was pretty excited about this show because every band on the main stage was a band I wanted to see even though I had already seen some of the bands before. A girl in one of my classes named Tawni turned me onto System of a Down. I was lucky enough to sit next to her in my math class and we had similar musical musings. My cousin Earl really liked them too and gave me their first album on CD for my 21^st birthday. They were the first band on the main stage and touring for their eponymous album. Claude strikes again though. Bless his soul but the guy’s just not all there sometimes and this time he didn’t quite comprehend the importance of leaving at a specified time. Long story short we arrived just in time to see the last 3 songs of System of a Down’s set. By we I mean Earl and I only because we ran all the way down to the floor from the moment we arrived inside the Pearly Gates. I believe Roscoe was also with us? The next band up was Godsmack who was also touring for their eponymous album. They were on it. They played pretty much their whole first album. Primus was next and let me just say that Les Claypool is a badass. They were still a few months away from releasing Antipop so they technically touring for their EP of cover songs Rhinoplasty. This is probably about the time in the show we started shifting from the first stage to the second stage all the way up on the hill. We saw Static-X up there, who was on tour for their new album Wisconsin Death Trip! We also saw Slipknot who had just unleashed their debut eponymous album on the world a few short weeks earlier. I wasn’t really into them at the time but did find it quite entertaining to see nine guys dressed up in fucked up masks rocking their ass off and just flat out going crazy onstage. Back to the mainstage was Slayer whose newest effort at the time was Diabolus in Musica. I love their fat ass guitar riffs but at the time just could not get with Tom Araya’s voice. Next up was Deftones. This was the third time I was lucky enough to see them and they were nothing short of amazing. Deftones are a hard act to follow but Rob Zombie somehow managed. It had only been three months since the last time I saw him but I think this performance was much better. Maybe it was just because I knew Korn wasn’t following him this time. The closing band was none other than Black Sabbath! I’m not talking about that shit with Dio, I’m talking about the real Black Sabbath with Ozzy. I was as excited about this as any other band of the day. Never in a million years did I think I would ever get the opportunity to see a band that was huge in the 1970’s. I really got into Black Sabbath when I was about 16. It started with the album Paranoid and then I bought the whole catalog one album at a time. They did not disappoint me. Ozzy was still as crazy as he was made out to be, Tony Iommi was razor sharp on his riffs, and the rhythm section was holding down the groove. Little did I know that this would not be the last time I would see them.

Limp Bizkit 6/23/99

By the time of this concert three pretty major things happened in my life: I graduated from Columbia Basin Community College with my AA, the transmission in my Mustang blew up, and Rose decided to move back to Corvallis for good, which ultimately made it an easier decision to end our relationship for good. After receiving my AA the plan was to pursue a Bachelor’s degree at one of the state schools in Washington, Oregon, or California. The problem was that I didn’t yet know what I wanted to pursue and didn’t want to waste time and money until I figured it out. This was probably the one thing I would change if I could go back in time. The only thing that I was remotely interested in was film school but for some reason convinced myself that it was not realistic. School would’ve pretty much been paid for by Financial Aid due to my mother being deceased and my father working under the table. Rose moved out in June and I was only working part time at UPS , which was not really enough to live on but I had saved a little money and used my credit card to get me through the summer. The place was a loft that was set up really well. After my Mustang blew up, my cousin helped me get a Geo Metro. It was the worst possible chick magnet and teal in color but was cheap, had low mileage, got good gas mileage, and was a 2-door.

Roscoe drove Earl and I to this show. The opener was Staind. We liked them a lot at the time based on their album Dysfunction, which is what they were on tour for. They rocked. Next up was Kid Rock who was touring for his breakthrough album Devil Without a Cause. I was never a fan of his but he does have some decent stuff in pieces and I respect him as a musician. He was on his first major tour and Jo C was with him. I remember thinking it was pretty funny to have this midget walking around the stage saying “show me ya titties!” in a funny voice. R.I.P. Then Limp Bizkit was up. Their star was on the rise due to the new album Significant Other. This was the second stop on this tour but the bass player Sam Rivers had already managed to mess up his hand in Seattle on opening night. He played through the pain and the show was great. They played all the songs I wanted to hear. The highlight though was a moment with Roscoe. He was wearing a neck brace and made his way to the front of the stage. Fred Durst said “and you with neckbrace, you need to get the fuck out of the mosh pit.” Classic.

Korn/Rob Zombie 4/10/99

So I finally got to see Korn! If you’ve been paying attention then you should remember how important this was. Roscoe and I drove down to Portland to meet up with Rose and her brother Jason. I remember being kind of drunk on Rum 151 going into this show. We had floor tickets and Rob Zombie opened with his newly reassembled band, after having divorced his bandmates in White Zombie, going solo and releasing Hellbilly Deluxe. All I remember about Zombie is his pyrotechnics were insane and he had a huge robot come on stage with him at some point. Korn came out and ripped me a new one. The thrill of finally seeing them for the first time and being drunk turned out to be the perfect mixture. They were still on tour for the album that finally broke through to the mainstream, Follow the Leader.

KORN SETLIST: Blind, Need To (Alive), Twist/Chi, Freak on a Leash, A.D.I.D.A.S., Lowrider/Shoots & Ladders, Shot Liver Medley (featuring Justin, Engine No. 9, Ball Tongue, Divine, Proud), Kill You, It’s On, Got the Life, Dead Bodies Everywhere, My Gift to You, Faget, Earache My Eye

Sunny Day Real Estate 3/2/99

Lucky me, I got to see two concerts within a week of each other. It was random that they both happened in Spokane. Rose was the person responsible for getting me into Sunny Day Real Estate and she was the only one that came to the show with me. I also went to the show with her because I was still driving the Mustang and didn’t trust it to go out of town. They had released the album What It Feels to be Something On about 6 months prior to this. This marked their comeback after temporarily disbanding when Jeremy Enigk found God and the rhythm section decided to join Dave Grohl ‘s Foo Fighters. The Met was a really cool place to see a show because it was a real theater and from our seats in the balcony we could see the show perfectly. It didn’t sound too bad either. They played a good mix of songs from all three albums they had up to that point. It turned out to be my only visit to the Met and the only time I saw Sunny Day Real Estate.

SDRE

Marilyn Manson 2/28/99

Back in the day there were CD clubs like BMG and Columbia House where you could buy 1 CD and get 10 free. I was in the midst of doing one of these deals with Columbia House when I came across Marilyn Manson. The only album they had out was Portrait of an American Family. I noticed that it was produced by Trent Reznor and since I was a fan of Nine Inch Nails I figured it couldn’t be that bad. I got the album and it rocked. The band looks semi-freakish in the CD sleeve but nothing that would make one think twice, after all they are a rock band. Sometime after this is when the Smells Like Children EP came out and “Sweet Dreams” was getting played on MTV. Everyone freaked out because he cut himself, dressed weird, etc. The only thing that mattered to me was the music and it rocked. I bought Antichrist Superstar the day it came out and I only became a bigger fan after reading “The Long Hard Road Out of Hell.” For some reason I never got to see Marilyn Manson on the Antichrist Superstar tour, so when Mechanical Animals came out I knew I would get another chance when they went on tour for the album. That chance came on the opening night of the “Beautiful Monsters” tour in Spokane, Washington. Spokane is about a two hour drive from the Tri-Cities and I made the trip with Marvin, Roscoe, and Jason. We arrived in Spokane a few hours early and were bored so Marvin suggested we go get makeup just for the hell of it. I’m always in for costume time so I basically blacked out my eyes and had Roscoe draw a shock symbol on my forehead. It was still pretty cold outside but we braved the line in T-shirts, knowing how hot it would get inside. Outside of the arena had plenty of religious types protesting the show, which I thought was funny since all they really ended up doing was giving it more publicity. This tour featured Monster Magnet and Hole as the opening bands. I am not a fan of Monster Magnet so they were pretty much just filler with pyrotechnics. Then Hole came out really late. Courtney Love was in typical form – she showed us her tits and gave away a guitar to a female in the crowd. Besides that she would not shut the fuck up. She just kept talking and talking and eventually got hit in the head with a flying shoe, which caused her to break down in tears. I’m pretty sure all of her antics kept Marilyn Manson from going on stage until after midnight. The delay may have been a blessing in disguise because when they finally did take the stage they were fierce. I smoked a joint right before Manson came on and couldn’t move for the first two songs in. Their whole show was a spectacle and to this day sits as my #2 favorite concert of all time. Manson came out on the stage hoisted up on a cross made of TV’s which later burst into flames at the peak of “Rock Is Dead.” I was at the front of the stage during that song and when he sang the lyrics “shock is all in your head” he was looking right at me, which I thought was cool since I had the shock symbol on my forehead but it also weirded me out. Marilyn got onto giant stilts and creeped around the stage when they performed “Mechanical Animals.” During “Speed of Pain” massive confetti combined with proper lighting gave a great effect. During “I Don’t Like the Drugs” a huge Vegas style sign dropped down with the word “Drugs” lit up. I believe they closed with “Coma White” and Manson strapped on a flying V guitar, which is the only time I’ve ever actually seen him play guitar. By the end my mind was blown, my shirt was ripped, and we had a long drive ahead of us in the middle of the Washington night…

Sidenote: the tour only lasted eight more dates after this until Hole dropped off the tour…

Another perspective: http://articles.latimes.com/1999/mar/02/entertainment/ca-13021