Neil Diamond is not just a legend; he is an icon. He is one of those artists whose popularity seemed to cross over all musical lines, which allowed him to gather fans of all musical genres. If you don’t believe me just look around the bar when “Sweet Caroline” comes on the jukebox. This guy was making hits before I was making doo doo in my diapers so you better believe that when the opportunity presented itself to see him for the first time Ingrid and I were there.
His newest album was his 32nd album called Melody Road that was released the previous October but when you go to a Neil Diamond concert you are going to get the hits because he has 37 Top 40 hits from those 32 studio albums. He was everything you would expect him to be, which is a total professional. For roughly two hours he just kept playing hit after hit after hit with lots of banter and storytelling between songs. There were multiple times during the show I thought “oh yeah I forgot he sang that song!” His large backing band gave the show an orchestra/Vegas production feel and I was impressed how great his voice still sounded. All in all he shined bright like only a diamond could.
SETLIST: I’m a Believer, Thank the Lord for the Night Time, Love on the Rocks, Hello Again, Kentucky Woman, You Got to Me, Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon, Play Me, Red Red Wine, Beautiful Noise, If You Know What I Mean, Brooklyn Roads, Shilo, Nothing But a Heartache, In Better Days, The Art of Love, Forever in Blue Jeans, Cherry, Cherry, Crunchy Granola Suite, Morningside, Holly Holly, I Am…I Said, Cracklin’ Rosie, Sweet Caroline, America, Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show, Heartlight
PS – apologies for the shitty quality of my pictures and the only videos I could find out there. Clearly the people who took the videos had iPhones just like me…
For my third time seeing Local H I had the distinct pleasure of being able to revisit the Casbah. This place is just barely bigger than the other two places I saw Local H but much more well known. They had just released the killer new album Hey, Killer (like what I did there?) three weeks before this, which was the first to feature new drummer Ryan Harding. In the words of Scott Lucas, “The goal with this record was to trim the fat and just pile on the hooks. All killer, no filler is how the saying goes.” They ended up playing all but three tracks off the album and left room in their set for some of the older fan favorites. I still cannot get over how much sound these two guys can make but I love it. I would have paid much more than the $15 I paid to do it all over again.
SETLIST: The Last Picture Show in Zion, Creature Comforted, All the Kids Are Right, Gig Bag Road, Another February, Fritz’s Corner, City of Knives, Freshly Fucked, Hands on the Bible, Leon and the Game of Skin, The One With ‘Kid’, Deep Cut, Mansplainer, California Songs, John the Baptist Blues, The Misanthrope, Bound for the Floor, That’s What They All Say, High-Fivin MF
Helmet released the album Betty on June 21st, 1994. Marvin, Jack and I made a special trip to the mall that day to pick up a copy. Here I was at the Belly Up almost 21 years later to hear the whole album performed front to back to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Betty. I was not at all surprised to see this because during two of the other four times I saw Hemet they played about half of both Meantime and Aftertaste in sequence.
I never had the pleasure of seeing them tour Betty back when it was new, let alone hear most of these songs live at all. It had been almost exactly seven years since the last time I saw Helmet at Cane’s when I started chatting Page up after the show and told him that he should make his new band learn “Clean” and “Speechless” (for selfish reasons). Well he not only made them learn those two songs but the entire damn album and it was incredible. The band did a fine job of reproducing the album pretty much note for note. Seeing any band you love play such a small venue is awesome because the energy translates so well. I would have been satisfied had they left the stage after “Sam Hell” but instead we all got a bonus encore set of songs spanning the rest of Helmet’s career after that.
SETLIST: Wilma’s Rainbow, I Know, Biscuits for Smut, Milquetoast, Tic, Rollo, Street Crab, Clean, Vaccination, Beautiful Love, Speechless, The Silver Hawaiian, Overrated, Sam Hell +
The stars aligned when Faith No More reunited and scheduled a tour date in Portland because it was on a Saturday, I had never seen Faith No More and it had been about eight months since I had seen a concert with my brother-in-arms Joe. They were about to release the outstanding album Sol Invictus the following month (their first since 1997’s Album of the Year) so the only songs that were released by the time of this show were “Superhero” and “Motherfucker.”
Through a work friend I randomly obtained some LSD and sent it to Portland via USPS in a greeting card from “Raoul Duke” since I had to fly to Portland from San Diego and did not want to deal with all the possible ways that situation could go south.
I arrived in Portland the day of the show about noon. Joe and I tried to keep ourselves away from alcohol until much later since we had to be strategic on when to take the acid. After some back and forth we took the acid, smoked a bowl and picked up a couple guitars to keep ourselves busy and prevent us from thinking too much about the onset. Immediately after sticking the blotter paper on our tongues we both commented on the weird taste. Shortly after that both of our tongues stung a little. It had been quite some number of years since I had dropped acid so I reasoned that maybe this batch was just a little weird. Fast-forward about an hour and a half and neither of us were tripping but both of us felt a little weird. Not long after this we decided drinking was the best idea. After several drinks we realized that the acid was bunk and requested an Uber ride to get to our buddy Mason’s house to meet up with him and Jedd. This was interesting because Uber was in its infancy in Portland so there was literally only one driver anywhere remotely close to us. He picked us up and we immediately took over the stereo and put on “Lookaway” by Sepultura. Something between our look and banter prompted our driver to turn around and say, “Are you guys famous?” which sent us both into a fit of laughter. The acid was still not really acid but we were definitely having a good time.
After what seemed like a very long day Faith No More finally took to the stage that was bathed in purple lights and flower arrangements wearing all white, which made them appear somewhat saintly. They were simply fantastic. I unfortunately did not get to hear “Last Cup of Sorrow” but apparently this was the live debut of “Separation Anxiety.” I wish I could have appreciated the first time ever hearing “Sunny Side Up” more because that silly song ended up one of my favorites off Sol Invictus.
The fun did not end with the show ending as we decided to reconvene at Mason’s for an after party. On the way back we stopped off at a Plaid Pantry to get some beer and as we were waiting to pay all of sudden the cooler door behind us slammed very loudly. We turned around and a cholo type guy had a case of beer in his hands walking towards the door and announced “go ahead and follow me if you wanna get shot Holmes!” The best part about this is apparently something similar happened two other times THAT NIGHT. We were in the parking lot for quite awhile after this laughing about it and still no sign of the po-po. Stay classy Portland.
SETLIST: Motherfucker, Land of Sunshine, Caffeine, Epic, Sunny Side Up, Get Out, Midlife Crisis, Everything’s Ruined, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, Easy, Spirit, King for a Day, Ashes to Ashes, Superhero, Separation Anxiety, We Care A Lot, From the Dead
Happy early Birthday to me! This year’s Epicenter was moved to the legendary Forum in Inglewood where the Lakers used to play and was to feature Korn playing their eponymous first album in its entirety to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album. This was huge for me since I missed out on seeing Korn back in the day when all they had to play was that album. That in and of itself would have been enough reason to go but on top of that Limp Bizkit was playing along with Everlast, P.O.D. and Suicidal Tendencies AND it was a general admission concert which meant I could go down on the floor without having to sneak down there. The area near the Forum is fairly run down and that is putting it nicely. After Bob, Ken and I drove up from San Diego and checked into our hotel room we walked to a nearby Taco Bell to get some grub. It was the only Taco Bell I have ever been to that had the workers behind glass; bank teller style.
Suicidal Tendencies was up first but at the time that did not seem as important as pouring beer down our gullets so we passed. Once we arrived I realized the Forum architecturally reminded me of a larger version of the Sports Arena in San Diego which made perfect sense because they were both built in the mid-sixties.
I had seen P.O.D. for the first time exactly a year and a half before this at Aftershock and this performance was about the same. Not great but not bad. Their newest offering was SoCal Sessions, which was essentially an album of stripped down versions of their popular tracks and that shit was not about to fly at a show like this.
Next up was Everlast from House of Pain fame that legitimized himself as a solo artist after the release of Whitey Ford Sings the Blues back in 1998 after House of Pain disbanded. I grew up with “Jump Around” and it was pretty cool to see it live with DJ Lethal who just happened to be on hand for the upcoming Limp Bizkit set. He was good but I was very disappointed that he did not give “Shamrocks and Shenanigans” the rock treatment and “Hot To Death” was left out of his set. He had an opportunity to capitalize on the rock crowd at hand and just basically ignored that but good for him playing what he felt like playing.
I had not seen Limp Bizkit since their heyday back in the year 2000 but here they were playing with Korn just like back in the day. I knew what to expect since this was my fourth time seeing them but it had been so long that I really went into it with no expectations so resting on that laurel they fucking blew me away. Say what you will about Fred Durst but the dude has charisma and Wes Borland is not only an amazing guitarist but also a freak that likes to dress up in freaky outfits when the Bizkit plays. Their last album Gold Cobra was released almost a full four years before this but they wisely avoided the album altogether with their limited stage time. The setlist was not exactly what I would have hoped for but they did do a fantastic job of warming us up for the almighty Korn.
SETLIST: Thieves Intro, Hot Dog, My Generation, Livin’ It Up, My Way, Re-Arranged, Killing in the Name, Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle), Take a Look Around, Break Stuff
Korn’s self-titled album will always have a special place in my heart because I randomly discovered it back when the music chain Sam Goody used to have listening towers. Due to this I can claim responsibility for spreading the gospel of Korn throughout my group of friends. At the time and still to this day I have never really heard anything quite like it. It would be an understatement to say I was beside myself that I finally got the opportunity to see the whole thing live in concert, especially after how long I had to wait just to see Korn live at all. This was the sixth time I had seen them and the last time before this was at Aftershock a year and a half before this. The stage setup was a simple backdrop of the creepy album cover and Jonathan Davis was in full regalia with his signature early days Adidas track suit. One by one they played each of the songs on the album in order but my favorite section of the album are tracks eight, nine and ten, better known as “ Predictable,” “ Fake” and “Lies.” I would have paid whatever I paid just to see those three songs live. A-maze-ing.
SETLIST: Blind, Ball Tongue, Need To, Clown, Divine, Faget, Shoots and Ladders, Predictable, Fake, Lies, Helmet in the Bush, Daddy, Falling Away From Me, Freak on a Leash
