2013

Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare 11/2/13

Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare was billed as the ultimate Halloween music and horror event that was set to run every Thursday through Sunday from October 10^th to November 2^nd at the Fairplex (redubbed FEARplex) in Pomona. Each night featured music performances and the grand finale on closing night was Rob Zombie headlining with Powerman 5000 and Eagles of Death Metal opening. Each ticket also came with access to three haunted house attractions based on Zombie’s films.

Bob drove Marvin, Ken, and I to meet up with Jason at the shithole Pomona motel fairly close to the Fairplex grounds that we were staying at. This was one of those classy places where the person checking us in was behind bulletproof glass. They must have had party problems in the past because we were grilled about partying and there were prominent “No Parties” signs everywhere. We argued a loophole since were technically just pre-gaming…

Immediately upon entry we were spit out into The Great American Nightmare’s “Blood Boulevard” that lead to the haunted houses and was laced with food and beverage vendors, a DJ, classic horror films being played and freak show characters roaming about. It was nice that the haunted houses were included with admission but the lines were so long that we would have had to miss one of the bands to enter.

A few beers later and we were in to see Powerman 5000. This was only my third time seeing them and the last time ironically enough was on Halloween of 2003. Spider was the only band member left from those days, which definitely contributed to me not seeing them since 2003. They were good and thankfully for the most part stuck to “older” stuff since I was unfamiliar with anything after Transform.

It was about four songs deep into Powerman’s set that Jason and Ken got into a scuffle. We were hugged up against a wall to our right and the next thing I know some chaos started to my left. I did not think twice about it until five minutes later I looked over and saw Ken flying through the air with fists of fury. Everything quickly dissipated but another five minutes after that Ken came up to me and said, “Dude Jason got popped good. They kicked him out, won’t let him back in and he possibly needs medical attention.” I walked to the back of the venue to see Jason pleading his case to be let back in even though he had this look about him like he did not quite know where he was. Apparently someone was fucking with Marvin so Ken grabbed a guy by the neck and Jason was in the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter the amount of pleading they were not letting Jason back in so Ken joined him outside since he felt partially responsible.

Eagles of Death Metal were on next. I was excited to see them again because the only other time I saw them was the partial set I saw at Street Scene in 2008. Still no Homme on the drums but these guys were a perfect in-between for Powerman 5000 and Rob Zombie because they are more of a feel good brand of rock and roll.

Before this concert I saw Rob Zombie twice with White Zombie and three times after he went solo, but the last time had been 11 years prior to this at Ozzfest 2002 so this was my first time seeing with John 5. John 5 is one of my favorite guitarists from his stint in Marilyn Manson so I was pretty excited for this. Irony struck again because Ginger Fish also used to play with John 5 in Marilyn Manson but was now the full-time drummer for Zombie. Rob Zombie was the only one out of the night’s lineup that actually had newer music to pedal, having released the excellent Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor album six months before this. Getting to see “I, Zombie” live again was the shit. After we somehow all made it out alive and un-arrested we reconvened at a nearby 24-hour breakfast joint to celebrate another “successful” outing.

SETLIST: Teenage Nosferatu Pussy, Superbeast, Meet the Creeper, I, Zombie, Living Dead Girl, The Star-Spangled Banner, We’re An American Band, More Human Than Human, Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown, House of 1000 Corpses, American Witch, Scum of the Earth, Enter Sandman, Thunder Kiss ’65, The Lords of Salem, Dragula

Aftershock 9/15/13

This day started off with some NFL action at Buffalo Wild Wings. After the wings weren’t the only things that were sauced we headed over to the park for Marvin to pull his ticket shenanigans and get in for only $20. I was not really interested in anyone on this day except for Volbeat since I had not seen them before. Filter was scheduled to play but cancelled at the last minute and who can blame them since they were slated to play the dreaded third stage. Then again after witnessing the version of Filter that opened for Bush and Chevelle just a couple years before this it was not hard to understand why they were scheduled for the third stage.

After checking out god knows which bands that did not impress me at all Volbeat finally played. They were good but not great.

Somehow it was Avenged Sevenfold that closed out the entire festival. I seriously just don’t get what the appeal is to this band. They suck big hairy balls. At least we had beer and each other to keep us occupied!

Aftershock 9/14/13

The Aftershock Festival started in 2012 as a one-day rock festival but now in year two became an annual two-day rock festival held in Sacramento, California. Bob, Ken and I thought this was a good reason to take a road trip and since we decided to make the roughly eight hour drive each way we thought we would get our money’s worth and drive up the day before to stay a night in San Francisco.

As DRIVING from San Diego to San Francisco would imply we were trying to save a little money and thus we booked a hostel beforehand, but when we got there we were turned away. The front desk guy said they were full even though I am fairly sure we were just too old to be staying in a hostel. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we were able to secure a room in a really nice hotel through a last minute booking website. “Room with a view” was an understatement. We could see nearly all of San Francisco and Alcatraz from our window.

After the room fiasco we were all ready for a drink. We walked to the closest bar and the moment we walked in I heard someone yell “Gary!” I looked around and didn’t see anyone so we continued toward the bar when I heard it again. I still didn’t see anyone so I turned to my two compadres to ask if they heard it. About this time a third “Gary” was yelled. I looked upstairs to the source of this yelling and who do I see? Fucking Marvin! He coordinated with Bob’s wife to figure out where we were and drove down from Washington to surprise us. The even more random part of this moment that is worthy of a sidenote is that this happened to be the same exact bar I had taken mushrooms at years earlier. Lots of drinking and laughing later we made it to bed just long enough to get a few hours of shuteye.

After a quick hour and a half drive with a stop at Denny’s thrown in for good measure we made it to the Residence Inn, which borders Discovery Park. We purposely booked this hotel so we could walk back and forth and not have to rely on getting cabs. Discovery Park is a beautiful natural setting and a little more freeing than seeing a concert in a traditional venue or cookie cutter amphitheater. There is also something magical about watching bands outdoors with lots of trees and grass around.

This festival was all about Day One for me. We caught a glimpse of the vixen fronted In This Moment but only because they were on right before the first band that anyone cared about which was Steel Panther. I had seen them a couple times in San Diego when they were still known as Metal Shop and then again as Steel Panther about three and a half years before this. They were still touring the 2011 album Balls Out at this point but for this crew it was all about their older song “Death to All But Metal.” It had become a running favorite among us and was even more of a treat since one of the bands they blasted in the song was Papa Roach, who was playing later that day.

SETLIST: Eyes of a Panther, Tomorrow Night, Asian Hooker, Just Like Tiger Woods, Community Property, Death To All But Metal

Despite P.O.D. being from San Diego and having been around forever I somehow never saw them until now. I cannot claim to be a big fan of theirs but they do have a handful of songs I like. They were touring for the album Murdered Love that was just over a year old at this point. No frills rock representing San Diego.

It was at this point I got very sleepy and decided to take a little nap in the grass. I guess staying up all night drinking and not getting very much sleep will have the effect of making one tired. During this time the terrible Butcher Babies played so I can’t say I “missed” anything.

Buckcherry gained popularity in the 90’s and hit it big again in 2006 with “Crazy Bitch.” It was never my flavor but they were the first band on after I woke up and since I had never seen them I thought why not? They had all the talent one would expect from a one hit wonder (even though they had a few hits).

Papa Roach was next. This is a band I never really liked but also never really disliked. I had seen them at various festivals three times before this and the guitar player blew me away that first time. After being dissed by Steel Panther earlier in the day they proved why the two bands should have been in each other’s time slot. I am pretty sure we as a consensus decided this was a great time to go get beers to prepare for Megadeth.

I had only seen Megadeth one other time about five years before this so I was pretty jazzed to see them again. They were now touring for the album Super Collider, which was only released three months before this gig. Dave and Company tore it up. With the exception of “Kingmaker” from the new album they did not play anything newer than “She-Wolf” from Cryptic Writings (so many better songs they could have chosen from that album). The one/two punch of “Symphony of Destruction” and “Peace Sells” was the stuff that boners are made of.

SETLIST: Hangar 18, Wake Up Dead, In My Darkest Hour, She-Wolf, Sweating Bullets, Kingmaker, Tornado of Souls, Symphony of Destruction, Peace Sells, Holy Wars… The Punishment Due

For the grand finale of the day we got to see Korn, which was the number one reason I actually wanted to make this trip. This was only my fourth time seeing them and I had not seen them since the end of 2002. Much of this was due to the fact that I all but lost interest when Head left the band after Take a Look in the Mirror. Korn has some good material after this but the band was never the same once Head left. Well now Head was back and a new album called The Paradigm Shift was about to be released on 10/8/13. Head and Munky go together like peanut butter and jelly so for me this was pretty much akin to the whole band breaking up in 2003 and finally reuniting. I saw Ray Luzier drum for Army of Anyone but this was my first time seeing him drum for Korn even though he had been Korn’s full time drummer for over four years by this point. One of the first things I noticed when Korn came out was that Jonathan Davis looked healthy and like he was in a good place. This was confirmed by the performance he and the rest of the band put on. They played tight and I think a big part of that was Ray playing the shit out of the drums. Since the new album was still a few weeks away from release we got to witness the first time they ever played “Love & Meth” and “Never Never” in concert. Korn was definitely back.

SETLIST: Blind, Twist, Falling Away From Me, Love & Meth, Narcissistic Cannibal, Coming Undone, Did My Time, Shoots and Ladders, Here to Stay, Never Never, Y’All Want a Single, Get Up!, Got the Life, Freak on a Leash

311 8/3/13

Bob, Tom, Jared and I went to pick up some chocolate weed edibles before this concert and ate our way through two chocolate bars on the way to the amphitheater in Chula Vista. I would say I usually have a pretty high tolerance for marijuana in general but edibles are a whole different ballgame. This was the strongest edible I had ever had and by the time we arrived I was flying! So much so that I found myself overly appreciating the perfect weather and our surroundings in the parking lot beforehand that I had to consciously slow down on the beer in the parking lot as a result.

I want to say 311 actually went before Sublime with Rome but like I mentioned earlier I was stoned to the bone. Sublime headlining in their heyday yes, Sublime with Rome now no. Even though 311 are true road warriors this was only the second time I saw them, with the first time being way back in late 1997. These guys sound REALLY good live. Nick Hexum has a “clean” voice that sounds even better live than on recordings and the rest of the band is tight.

SETLIST: Beautiful Disaster, Freak Out, All Mixed Up, Hive, You Wouldn’t Believe, Sunset in July, Amber, Don’t Stay Home, Applied Science, Do You Right, Who’s Got the Herb?, Come Original, Sick Tight, Down, Jackpot, Creatures (For A While)

The remaining two members of Sublime began touring in early 2009 with new singer Rome Ramirez under the name Sublime until Bradley Nowell’s estate slapped a lawsuit on them, forcing a name change to Sublime with Rome. Rome filled in admirably for Bradley Nowell but Bradley Nowell he was not. It was nice just to hear Sublime songs live as I never had the opportunity to see Sublime back when Bradley was still alive.

Corey Taylor 7/20/13

As I was hung-over on a Saturday morning I was scrolling through Facebook and saw the words “Free,” “Acoustic Performance” and “Corey Taylor” together. After I felt a stirring in my loins I realized that the event was that night. Comic-Con was in town and Corey Fucking Taylor was there to promote the House of Gold & Bones comic series from Dark Horse Comics and give a solo acoustic performance at the DVD release party for “Evil Dead.”

A Saturday night in the Gaslamp during Comic-Con was an easy sell to Bob, Ken, Ingrid, Emma, Josh and Josh’s friend because downtown is a fun place just to people watch during Comic-Con. We arrived early enough to not be too far back in the line because entry was first come, first served and not guaranteed but when we got to the front the bouncer told us no dice and tried to give us some load of shit as to why we were not going to get in. After turning on the charm (having two beautiful women with us did not hurt) and a little sweet talk we were in. Not only were we about to see Corey Taylor play a solo acoustic set…for FREE…but it was also an open bar in a place that held maybe 120 people on a good day!

Corey came out and said, “Alright. What do you guys want to hear?” A guy yelled “Spit It Out” which made Corey laugh. He said, “Haha on acoustic? Shit. What would that sound like?” And then he actually played it, which made me laugh because it was such a riot. He also did a cover of “Blister in the Sun” by the Violent Femmes and a couple other songs then he was out the back door. The whole thing was very light-hearted and fun. He was pretty much there for a payday and who can blame him? “I’m playing my four songs that I am contractually obligated to play and I’m out.” It was fucking awesome.

Steve Miller Band 6/15/13

Despite hearing a lot of Steve Miller Band around my household while growing up, I passed up my opportunity to see them in the Tri-Cities back in the 90’s and instead bought two tickets for my parents as a gift. Due to being spoiled with the explosion of music in the 90’s I would not truly come to appreciate the greatness of Steve Miller Band until one time I watched the sun come up as I was coming down off of LSD listening to the Greatest Hits 1974-78 album.

Fast-forward to the part of Steve Miller’s career where he starts playing county fairs and I was now presented with an opportunity to see him play the Del Mar Fair. Since we somewhat recently became friends with a limo driver and wanted to drink but not drive Ingrid, Tom, Jeremy, Jeremy’s flavor of the week and I packed into a limo and cruised up to Del Mar for a day of sun, drinking, fair rides and Steve Miller Band.

Right before show time Jeremy and I basically broke into an area we were not supposed to be to smoke a joint. After almost getting caught we made our way to our seats to join up with the rest of the group. It was one of those weird shows that began when it was still light outside even though there was only one band playing. Nonetheless Steve Miller played a hit filled set and still had it. His guitar wizardry was impressive and his voice in particular sounded great but for me the prominent background vocals that were added detracted from the performance. He simply did not need the background singers.

SETLIST: Jungle Love, Take the Money and Run, The Stake, Abracadabra, Farther Up the Road, Ooh Poo Pah Doo, Sugar Babe, Mary Lou, Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma, Wild Mountain Honey, Gangster of Love, Dance Dance Dance, Fly Like an Eagle, Jet Airliner, Space Cowboy, Rock ’N Me, Serenade, Swingtown, The Joker

Marilyn Manson 5/29/13

I Just saw Marilyn Manson back on February 20th but these guys are pretty up there for me so there is no way I was not going to walk out my back door to see them play in my yard. I will go see this band as many times as I possibly can. Apparently this show was only two nights before they officially joined up with Alice Cooper for a co-headlining tour deemed the Masters of Madness/Shock Therapy Tour, which is a bummer because it would have been cool to see Alice Cooper. Woe is me…

Marilyn Manson always opens their albums and shows with a strong song and tonight was no exception when they opened with “Angel With the Scabbed Wings.” Killer. The majority of the setlist was the same as back in February but the addition of “Angel With the Scabbed Wings,” “Little Horn,” “Great Big White World” and “This Is the New Shit” completely changed the dynamics of this performance. This time we got the impassioned intensity and grit the previous show fell slightly short on.

SETLIST: Angel With the Scabbed Wings, Disposable Teens, No Reflection, Little Horn, The Dope Show, Rock Is Dead, Great Big White World, Personal Jesus, mOBSCENE, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Hey, Cruel World, This Is the New Shit, Irresponsible Hate Anthem, The Beautiful People

The Rolling Stones 5/3/13

Legendary comedian Bill Hicks was joking about Keith Richards and cockroaches being the only ones to survive a nuclear war as early as 1990. Here we were 23 years later and despite all the hard living, the indestructible Keith was still touring with The Rolling Stones to celebrate their 50^th Anniversary. That was not a typo. 50 years! As in five-oh. Of course The Rolling Stones cemented their place in rock and roll history long before Keith Richards became the punch line of jokes and I was not about to miss my opportunity to see them. I was a late bloomer when it came to the Stones as I did not really start getting into them and appreciating them until Lucinda introduced me to the Hot Rocks double CD with some of their early hits.

Through many online attempts I was able to secure a ticket for Ingrid, her dad, her youngest sister and I to the closest date of the tour in Los Angeles, which also happened to be the opening night of the tour.

The show started with the UCLA Marching Band walking around the perimeter of the floor section while performing “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” then the legendary band took the stage for “Get Off of My Cloud” and never let up. Mick Jagger was bouncing around the custom stage that resembled the famous tongue logo with the space just under the upper lip acting as a video screen and the middle of the tongue housing some very lucky guests. In all the concerts I have seen I have seriously never seen a singer with more energy than Mick and here he was pushing 70! He was there to make sure you had a good time and did a damn good job doing it. These guys were giving everything that was left in the tank and apparently that tank was not even close to empty.

There were different special guests slated for each stop of the tour. Our first guest was when Gwen Stefani came out and joined the performance of “Wild Horses.” Keith Urban was next when he joined the band for “Respectable.” I am not a fan of Keith Urban’s music but he shredded on the guitar. Later in the show Keith Richards took over vocal duties for “Before They Make Me Run” and “Happy” before they brought out the guitar player from the Exile on Main St. era Mick Taylor for a raucous/extended version of “Midnight Rambler.”

I read somewhere that this was the first time they ever performed “Emotional Rescue.” I fell in love with that song the first time I ever heard it so first time for the Stones performing it or not I was loving Mick’s falsetto. They came full circle to close out the show with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and I left feeling like I had just been run over by a freight train. Younger bands could learn a thing or two million from this band.

SETLIST: Get Off of My Cloud, The Last Time, It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It), Paint It Black, Gimme Shelter, Wild Horses, Factory Girl, Emotional Rescue, Respectable, Doom and Gloom, One More Shot, Honky Tonk Women, Before They Make Me Run, Happy, Midnight Rambler, Miss You, Start Me Up, Tumbling Dice, Brown Sugar, Sympathy for the Devil, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Local H 4/9/13

I was sold on Local H the first time I heard “Bound for the Floor” back in 1996. So much so that I went and bought the As Good As Dead album not having heard any of the other songs. My hunch paid off as this band rocked. I was even more floored to find out that all that sound was coming from just two people. Somehow I had never seen Local H so when I saw they were coming to play a little dive called Soda Bar for $10 I convinced Bob and Tom to come see what I knew would be a great show. They were touring for the Hallelujah! I’m a Bum album released about six months before this.

Soda Bar’s capacity is listed at 230 but feels much smaller if you are in front of the stage in the corner because the bar in the middle basically splits the whole place. I was mesmerized by Scott effectively playing bass and guitar at the same time through his custom rigged Stratocaster and Brian was wailing on the drums the whole time. My favorite moment was at the end when they played “High-Fiving MF” followed by what I can only describe as “Tape Man” where Scott taped the microphone to his face with duct tape and played some dissonance right before he jumped off the stage to walk to the back of the place to man the T-Shirt sales.

Marilyn Manson 2/20/13

It had been about three and a half years since I last saw Marilyn Manson in San Bernardino at the Mayhem Festival so I was pretty giddy to see them again. I convinced Bob to go with me to see them at City National Grove of Anaheim, which is adjacent to Angel Stadium.

After a sandwich from Subway and a quick toke it was in to see the opener Butcher Babies, which sounded interesting on paper because they have two singers and both are ex-Playmates. They were not the worst looking women I have ever seen and there is something hot about a woman that likes rock and roll but this just did not work for me. They kept doing this synchronized head twirl thing and it was just too much cheese.

Marilyn Manson was touring for the superb album Born Villain that was released about 10 months before this. I was floored from the start when they decided to open with my favorite track off the album “Hey, Cruel World.” Another highlight for me was “Coma White.” Marilyn seemed to put the most vocal effort into that song and the fake snow falling was a nice touch. This band is always reinventing the music and the live show so each time really is a different experience. There were all the typical costume changes that come with a Marilyn Manson show and overall this show was awesome but just not as intense as some of the other times I have seen them.

SETLIST: Hey, Cruel World, Disposable Teens, The Love Song, No Reflection, mOBSCENE, The Dope Show, Slo-Mo-Tion, Rock Is Dead, Personal Jesus, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Coma White, King Kill 33, Antichrist Superstar, The Beautiful People, Irresponsible Hate Anthem

Rock N Roll Recollections

Fuzzy recollections of bands that rocked my world