2004

Marilyn Manson 12/19/04

I had not seen Marilyn Manson since the previous summer at Ozzfest and had only been to Los Angeles one time since moving to San Diego eight months prior. I did not learn about this show until the 11^th hour, but never miss a chance to see one of my favorite bands, which was touring for their Lest We Forget – The Best Of album that had been released on September 28th. There was only one song on the album I did not already have, a cover of “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode, but I had to buy the album for it since I did not have a good computer to steal it. I hated when bands did that but at least this album came with a nice booklet and a DVD of several of their music videos.

I ended up being the winning bidder on a pair of tickets from eBay and lightly twisted Marvin’s arm into driving us up to L.A. for this, the second of a three night stand for Manson. The Wiltern is a cool little theater in the Koreatown area of L.A. that holds 2,300 people when it is configured for a standing room only crowd such as this show. I get really excited when concerts are general admission because of the freedom you have to move about where you want. One thing I was not excited about was the departure of guitarist John 5 since the last time I saw Marilyn Manson. Filling in was a guy named Mark Chaussee, who joined for this tour. I liked the experience of going to see Marilyn Manson in L.A. at the last minute but rank this as one of my least favorite times seeing the band and I think Mark had a lot to do with it. He is a great guitar player that played the songs well from a technical standpoint but his playing just seemed to lack that “it” factor. Maybe that had something to do with his departure from the band after this tour…

MMa

Helmet 10/29/04

Helmet came onto my radar via the song “Unsung” from the album Meantime. My friends and I loved Helmet from that point on and picked up copies of both Betty and Aftertaste the day they came out. Needless to say this was a very exciting show for me. My first time seeing Helmet and my first time at the Casbah. It is a quintessential small rock palace that I would estimate holds about 200 people tops. I think it was Marvin, Dee and I. I cannot remember exactly what Helmet played but they had just released the album Size Matters about a month and a half before this show. I want to say they divided up the setlist pretty evenly amongst the five albums out up to this point but I was drinking and smoking and am pretty far removed from this day at the time of this entry so who knows. I do know they rocked.

Helmet

Deftones 10/1/04

This was right about the time my relationship with the girlfriend I moved to San Diego with started to crumble. Our relationship was just not strong enough to survive Southern California. I will take the blame. I had been with her for about four and a half years and simply was not ready to take it to the next level, which she wanted and deserved.

I could not convince anyone to go with me so I flew solo downtown to another legendary small venue. James Brown always liked to play 4th & B when he was in town. I did not have a ticket but if there is one thing I have learned in life it is money talks. If you are a scalper then you either sell your tickets way beforehand or you take what you can get when the show begins or risk getting nothing at all. I hit up the ATM a block away and just took out $20, thinking I just would not go if I could not get a ticket for $20. Right as I walked up to the corner I saw my target and Deftones had just begun to play their first song. I said “I have $20, take it or leave it.” He took it. This intimate show had a ton of energy and Deftones were on point. They played almost all of Adrenaline, some songs from Around the Fur, a few from White Pony and a few new ones. The crowd was into it and the band clearly was as well.

Burden Brothers 9/29/04

I knew about the Burden Brothers because of my love of the Toadies. Burden Brothers debut album Buried In Your Black Heart was released in November of the previous year. It is not very often I go to a concert to see the opening band and could less about the headliner but this was one such occasion. Cane’s was a intimate venue right on the boardwalk in Mission Beach with hardwood floors (it caught fire, shut down and has since been rebranded). Burden Brothers played the entire album and tore through a cover of AC/DC’s “Walk All Over You,” which re-ignited my love of Bon Scott era AC/DC. I remember thinking drummer Taz Bentley was too large of a man to be behind the drum kit but he rocked. Seven Mary Three came out and that was my cue to bail.

Static-X 9/1/04

There is a Chili’s in the parking lot of the Sports Arena that neighbors Soma. Marvin and I decided to stop in to have some beers before the show since Soma is an all ages venue. We did not have tickets yet but checked with the box office earlier and they were far from sold out. As we were drinking Marvin said wouldn’t it be funny if we just snuck in. As more beers went down our throat we convinced ourselves that this would be a great idea. What’s the worst that could happen kind of scenario? As previously stated Soma is not a large venue. You can walk around the building and see where the bands are going in (not terribly hard to spot a tour bus). Anyway we approached the back door and there was only one guy “watching” it. We just put on our most confident faces and walked in like we owned the place. No problem. Once inside though we were a little lost and tried making a left turn. A guy stopped us and said “oh you want to go that way” and pointed us to the floor. I don’t know if this person knew what was going on but if he did he just did not give a fuck. Static X ripped as usual. Another funny moment was when the drummer threw a drumstick out into the crowd and I solidly got a hand on it. Someone else got a hand on it too but I used all of my strength to try to wrangle it from this other person until I realized it was Marvin. We laughed and I kept the drum stick. It would be less than six months from this show that the guitarist Tripp Eisen would be kicked out of the band for sexual assault charges. I asked someone inside for their ticket stub which is how I ended up with one.

Street Scene 8/28/04

Day Two of Street Scene. Randomly I remember having a Chipotle burrito here for the first time with guacamole. I’ve not had one without guacamole since. This was the day there was a fiasco because the trolley ran right through the parking lot where the event was and at some point there were so many people trying to get to one of the stages that the trolley was blocked. I remember watching Eek-A-Mouse because Dee is into reggae, which worked out nicely to stake a spot for Cypress Hill. For this performance they had lost the two guitarists I had previously seen them with and went back to just DJ Muggs, Sen Dog and B-Real. Lots of marijuana smoke in the air but if you know anything about Cypress Hill then you already knew that. I got my fill before the main attraction for me: Foo Fighters. I had only saw them once before and had not seen them since the release of One by One. The picture of Dave Grohl in the red shirt was taken around this time period but not at this show. I included it because it invokes the main moment that sticks out in my memory. He strapped on this tuned down Dale Earnhardt Jr. Budweiser guitar (apparently given to him by Dale Jr.) and ripped into “Stacked Actors.” Awesome. There was also a moment during their set where some guy jumped up on the stage and Dave said something along the lines of “you’ve got the balls to jump on the stage but do you have the balls to show the audience your balls?” The guy did it and Dave said “You’re awesome dude. Nice balls. Now get the fuck off my stage.” I think P.O.D. ended up not being at this show for some reason but I do remember seeing some of Jack Johnson’s set.

Street Scene 8/27/04

Street Scene was a San Diego institution held every summer since 1984 that I learned of through my new friend Dee. Before this it was set up in the streets of downtown San Diego but this year it was set up in the parking lot of the newly opened Petco Park where the Padres play. I was most interested in seeing Cypress Hill and Foo Fighters again but in hindsight there were quite a few artists I wish I would have tried harder to see. The problem with three stages going simultaneously is that you are forced to choose your favorite of the three.

On this particular day I do not remember seeing anyone’s full set. I think we were just cruising back and forth between stages. During A.F.I.’s set the barricade in front of the stage collapsed and caused some havoc but I think everyone escaped injury. I remember thinking that Jimmy Eat World had a lot of songs that sounded the same. I vaguely remember seeing some of Louis XIV’s and Ben Harper’s set but do not remember seeing The Black Eyed Peas, Ludacris or Patti Smith at all. Idiot!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs 6/10/04

It’s fitting that my first concert in San Diego was of a band I was seeing for the first time who I had originally heard about through my friend Aria, the first friend I made in Portland. This concert was roughly two months after I moved and I still felt like I was on vacation in what truly is “America’s Finest City.” We lived two blocks from the ocean and two blocks from the action of Newport Avenue in eclectic OB. Coming to the southern most point of California sight unseen would change my life forever but then again that was kind of the idea.

Soma is cool little venue that hides in a strip mall and feels like a high school gymnasium inside. The Killers opened up and were blowing up thanks to their song “Somebody Told Me” but I had no shits to give because they just don’t do it for me. Most people there were into it but I remember sitting down in the back with Marvin because we just weren’t into it and it was rather warm that evening inside of the Soma.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs were touring for their debut album Fever To Tell that had been released about a year earlier, but their popularity soared when they released the song “Maps” as a single about two months before this show. I bought the album after Aria turned me onto it and they played pretty much the entire album. I love watching three-piece bands. This one is unique because you have an intricate guitarist and a drummer pounding the shit out of the drums with a lovely female voice. I play guitar so I was enamored by the way the guitarist would play something and then loop it so he could play something over the loop. Amazing.

A Perfect Circle 4/10/04

This show happened five days before I packed up everything I owned and moved down to San Diego with Lucinda and Marvin. Los Angeles was always the plan but Marvin called me up one day and said something along the lines of “I know you want to move to L.A. but I’m going to San Diego and my parents are paying for the U-Haul. Why don’t you come with me, sign a six month lease and if you still want to move to L.A. then it’s much closer.” Made sense to me. I am not sure why Joe would not have come to this since he lived in Portland but apparently it was just Lucinda and I.

The Mars Volta opened the show and they went off. Their whole set seemed like one big jam session but I did recognize “Roulette Dares” from De-Loused in the Comatorium. They also picked up the stage lights at the end and played around with them.

Thirteenth Step had officially been released since the last time I saw A Perfect Circle at Lollapalooza and it was exactly what my ears craved. As I write this I am listening to the original version of “The Nurse Who Loved Me” by Failure and did not realize until now that the song was a cover. Idiot! This was a VERY different show than the last time I saw Maynard here with Tool but then again Tool is a very different band than A Perfect Circle. I understand why Maynard wants to be at the back of the stage but he is much more entertaining doing his thing in the front.

SETLIST: Vanishing, Pet, The Hollow, Magdalena, Weak and Powerless, Rose, Blue, Fred’s Got Slacks (Will Ferrell cover), Thinking of You, Breña, The Package, 3 Libras, The Nurse Who Loved Me (Failure cover), Thomas, The Outsider, The Noose, Judith

Melvins 3/6/04

I have known my friend Joe since middle school back in Washington but after we graduated he went to Washington State University in Pullman. I did not get to see him much after that until he moved to Portland a few months before this show. It was great being able to hang out with him but I was still dead set on moving to California and believe it was right around this time that I made the decision to pull the trigger and dropped the bomb on Joe. At least I was able to introduce Joe to Marcus before I left. They hit it off so well they began making music together and became roommates. I think it was just Joe and I at this one and it was the first time I was able to see the Melvins since I saw them open for White Zombie back in 1995. I really like the song “Queen” so that was a highlight for me. My strongest memory of this night was after the show when Joe and I were staggering around the streets of Portland waiting for a bus and decided to belt out an a capella version of “Rooster” by Alice In Chains at the top of our lungs (this would not be the last time we decided to stagger or belt out this tune a capella).

SETLIST: Let It All Be, Lovely Butterfly, Manky, Hooch, Youth of America, Night Goat, With Teeth, Tipping the Lion, Queen, Promise Me, Black Stooges, It’s Shoved, The Fool, the Meddling Idiot, Snake Appeal, Halo of Flies

Melvins

Rock N Roll Recollections

Fuzzy recollections of bands that rocked my world