3D glasses at a rock show? For my first time to the Balboa Theatre and the first time I had seen Primus since the Family Values Tour in 1999 the answer is yes yes and more yes. This is what they had to say about the tour: “Primus is excited to announce a unique 3D tour this fall, featuring two sets per evening. Being that this is the first-ever traveling 3D enhanced live musical performance, this groundbreaking tour is sure to provide a one-of-a-kind psychedelic experience, further enhanced by the fact that every show will also feature Quad Surround Sound.”
The newest album that they were touring for was Green Naugahyde and the initial limited date run was such a success that they booked more dates that included San Diego. It sounded awesome to me but partially due to being two days after Christmas I could not find anyone to go with so I bought a ticket at the last minute. The only thing left was a discounted ticket in the front row…with obstructed view. It really was not that bad but then about eight people in my row inexplicably left about halfway through so I just slid over and all of a sudden my discounted ticket became a legit front row seat! The stage setup consisted of two giant astronauts on each side of a giant projection screen. A face was projected into the astronaut helmets, which made for an interesting/creepy kind of vibe. I love the intimacy of watching bands in a proper theater but the 3D element made this a very unique experience. At times the band seemed to float through the 3D landscape along with the astronauts. My favorite part was the faithful cover of Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral.”
SETLIST: Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers, Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread, Last Salmon Man, Glass Sandwich, Jilly’s on Smack, The Heckler, Moron TV, Jerry Was a Race Car Driver, Over the Electric Grapevine, American Life, HOINFODAMAN, Here Come the Bastards, Electric Funeral, Over the Falls, Lee Van Cleef, Hamburger Train, Del Davis Tree Farm, Harold of the Rocks, Groundhog’s Day, Too Many Puppies
Laser light show! Pyrotechnics! Christmas Music? Outside of “Blue Christmas” by Elvis I am not much of a Christmas music guy. However, just as adding cheese to nearly any food makes that food better so too does adding heavily distorted guitars and rock drums to Christmas music. This was in-fucking-credible. A full on rock and roll orchestra of virtuoso musicians playing “A Mad Russian’s Christmas,” “Wizards in Winter,” and “Christmas/Sarajevo 12/24” made the Christmas season for Ingrid and I just a little more rocking.
I wouldn’t say I’m a big Bob Dylan fan but when your future father-in-law buys you a ticket to go see a legend you do not say no. He sprung for the fancy seats on the floor with our ladies. Mark Knopfler was opening which was cool since one of the first bands I can remember liking as a young boy was Dire Straits with songs like “Sultans of Swing” and the mega MTV smash “Money For Nothing.” The only Dire Straits song he played was “So Far Away” but it was still cool to see.
Bob Dylan was every bit the legend he earned the right to be. He came off like an old coot but only because he was not much of a talker. It was all business and the business he delivered. This guy has been around the block so many times that he is basically the NASCAR race of music which affords him the right to do anything he damn well pleases. In this case that meant playing all the songs he has played 1 million times over in a completely almost unrecognizable version.
SETLIST: You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, It Ain’t Me, Babe, Things Have Changed, Tangled Up in Blue, Cry a While, Joey, Summer Days, Visions of Johanna, Highway 61 Revisited, Forgetful Heart, Thunder on the Mountain, Ballad of a Thin Man, Like A Rolling Stone, All Along the Watchtower, Blowin’ in the Wind
The moment I realized how many Hall & Oates songs I actually knew and liked happened at a random party I went to when I lived in Portland. The only person I knew at the party was the person I came with but all of a sudden whoever was controlling the music put on Hall & Oates Greatest Hits and everyone was friends. It was a revelation. This is timeless music that does not really fall into any particular category of music even though it was primarily from the 80’s. All it took was to hear that sticky bass line in “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” and my subconscious gave me a high five wondering why it had taken so long to board this train.
Fast forward to a Sunday at the end of summer the night after I poured one to the coals and here I am with Ingrid to witness this duo in person. They brought along quite a few band members to the point where it was damn near an orchestra. Nonetheless John Hall and a mustacheless John Oates took full control of the mostly older crowd and ripped through all the hits at Harrah’s Rincon Casino in the far northern reaches of San Diego County known as Valley Center.
What started in 2009 became “Southern California’s Rock Festival” that took place annually at various venues around Los Angeles. I had not attended since that inaugural date but this year’s lineup piqued my interest because it had been four to five years since I had seen Scars on Broadway, Deftones and Stone Temple Pilots. As far as I’m concerned the other bands were a nice bonus. Bob drove Tom and I up to Irvine with just enough time to make a beer run, check into our hotel and get over to the Irvine Amphitheater. The trouble began with a toothache that turned our beer run into a beer and whiskey run. My tooth had been bothering me for a couple days but I did not have time to go to the dentist so I figured whiskey would act as a redneck remedy. Unfortunately for anyone in my path it also acted as a gateway to a very intoxicated me.
I remember wandering around the grounds and seeing a little bit of bands on the second stage like Hollywood Undead but Dead Sara was the first band we really gave any shits about. It had been five months since we saw them open for Chevelle and blow them off the stage, which was just a couple weeks removed from the release of their self-titled debut album. They put on a hell of a show this time too but the music just did not seem to translate as well to a bigger stage.
Chevelle made good on the opportunity at redemption by cranking it up to the level of performance we had come to expect over the years. It was weird to see them play in the daylight again since we had grown accustomed to the headlining shows.
Four years had elapsed since I was introduced to Scars on Broadway right here at this very same venue during the KROQ Weenie Roast. It was fun the way it went down that original time but now I had a solid four years of digesting the eponymous album, which made this show so much more fun to watch. Thanks to YouTuber “Gun Dink” you can also watch:
Bush was up next. It had been almost a year to the day since we had last seen them open for Chevelle. It was essentially the same show as that occasion with Gavin coming out through the crowd again.
I had not gotten the chance to see any songs from the excellent Diamond Eyes album performed since my last Deftones concert was about five years before this so I was beyond elated when they started their set with my two favorite songs off the album. They were still a couple months away from releasing Koi No Yokan but they still played two songs from the album. Deftones rocked but it must be said that right about this time I was getting really ornery and ended up breaking the seat in front of me if that is any indication of what planet I was on. I also found a number of shitty 5-10 second videos on my phone afterwards of really good shots of the ground and pretty much anything but the stage with me screaming along for audio.
SETLIST: Rocket Skates, Diamond Eyes, Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), My Own Summer (Shove It), Digital Bath, You’ve Seen the Butcher, Bloody Cape, Leathers, Rosemary, Change (In the House of Flies), 7 Words
STP had released their eponymous album since I had last seen them about four years before this so I excited to see them again. I was pretty lit for their performance but do remember Scott Weiland was a dancing machine and seemed to be very present for this performance as he provided a lot of banter in between songs. I also remember that Dean’s guitar playing was on fire. We did not know it at the time but sadly this would be the last time we would see Scott Weiland front Stone Temple Pilots as the very next night would be his final performance ever with the band.
SETLIST: Crackerman, Vaseline, Hickory Dichotomy, Meatplow, Big Empty, Between the Lines, Interstate Love Song, Plush, Tumble in the Rough, Big Bang Baby, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart, Unglued, Sex Type Thing
After the show we took a bus to our hotel and I almost immediately got kicked out of our hotel bar because I basically fell forward into the bar. This lead to all three of us smoking weed in Bob’s car in the parking lot. Neither Tom nor Bob ever smoke weed so that was a fitting end to such an eventful day.
On August 10th in the year 2012 Ken, Tom and Jason joined me in Del Mar for some horse racing, beer drinking and The Offspring. They were touring for the album Days Go By that was just released about a month and a half before this and the only song I knew on the album was the re-recorded version of “Dirty Magic.” Upon first listening all I could think was “why would they do this?” The original version is so much better and is one of my favorite tracks on Ignition. Humble opinions aside I remember a tight set in which one song rolled into another without much banter between songs. The crowds have always been raucous each time I have seen The Offspring but this time the band actually had to temporarily pause the show after a couple songs in because the barricade in front of the stage had come down. Whoops!
SETLIST: All I Want, Come Out and Play, Days Go By, Have You Ever, Staring at the Sun, Dividing by Zero, Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and Rides the Bomb to Hell, Bad Habit, Gotta Get Away, You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid, Hit That, Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?, Why Don’t You Get a Job?, Americana, Want You Bad, Pretty Fly (For a White Guy), The Kid’s Aren’t Alright, (Can’t Get My) Head Around You, Self Esteem
Al Jourgensen broke up Ministry in 2008 and said that a reunion would never happen…well apparently four years later he changed his mind, decided to record an album called Relapse and then tour behind it. The only North American dates for the tour were to take place in Denver, Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago so my buddy Joe from Portland decided to meet me in L.A. with his girlfriend at the time Shaina. After all, this was kind of the rock equivalent of Jesus rising from the dead.
Once the dust settled I learned that Joe’s flight would be coming into L.A. early in the morning. The plan was for me to meet up late afternoon in downtown L.A. at the roach coach of a motel that was secured fairly close to the venue. There was nothing inherently wrong with this plan except Joe with nothing in particular to do all day on vacation equals drinking. I warned him to just stay away from hard liquor if he intended on drinking all day. He decided to not heed the warning and was pretty sauced by the time I showed up. This ultimately resulted in Joe being denied entry into the concert…after he flew all the way down from Portland to see Ministry! This put Shaina (who I literally had known for about two hours) and I into an awkward predicament. I felt bad for Joe but still wanted to see the show. Joe insisted that we go in without him but then kept texting Shaina once we were inside which made her feel like she should go meet up with him. I was not going to let her walk through downtown L.A. in the middle of the night by herself so if she had decided to leave I would have left too. Thankfully she decided to stay.
Opening band Blackburner looked like two of the bunny character from Donnie Darko and put on a pretty good show but everyone was there to see Al. I had not seen Ministry since the C U LaTour four years before this and I am glad I got to see this because they kicked ass as per usual. It was a very balanced setlist from the “newer” Ministry albums and the brand new songs fit right in. Shaina did not really know their music so that was interesting hanging out with a complete stranger that was not really a fan. Nothing a little alcohol could not cure.
SETLIST: Ghouldiggers, No W, Rio Grande Blood, Senor Peligro, LiesLiesLies, 99 Percenters, Watch Yourself, Life Is Good, Waiting, Worthless, Relapse, The Last Sucker, Khyber Pass, Psalm 69, N.W.O., Just One Fix, Thieves
Bob, Tom and I just saw Chevelle seven months earlier when the speaker caught fire during the show but we all decided to make the jaunt to L.A. to see them again at Club Nokia, which is part of the Staples Center complex. No hotel plus a “school night” meant somebody had to say sober to drive us home in the rain and on this night that lucky person was me. Hats Off to the Bull was now officially out but on this particular night Chevelle was blown off stage by the opening band Dead Sara. I had never even heard of Dead Sara but they brought their A game. Bob and Tom felt the exact same way and apparently we were not the only faction in attendance that felt this way as evidenced by this write up:
SETLIST: The Clincher, Letter From a Thief, Another Know It All, Vitamin R (Leading Us Along), Hats Off to the Bull, Same Old Trip, Sleep Apnea, Closure, Jars, The Meddler, Still Running, I Get It, Envy, Send the Pain Below, The Red, Face to the Floor
