2022

Foreign Air 9/14/22

Going to watch a band I’ve never heard of on a school night? Yep. I had not seen my buddy Calvin for a while so when he randomly text me to see if I would be willing to go with him to check out Foreign Air I said why the hell not? The show was at Soda Bar, which I had been to exactly once when I saw Local H for the first time back in 2013.

When we walked up, there were a few people out front and one of them turned out to be the opener Anna Shoemaker. She went on about 10 minutes after we got there and it was just her and a drummer. Anna explained that she was from Philadelphia and that she had never been to California then went on to sing, bounce around and even play a little guitar on her pop flavored brand of music. She was very talented and I could see her being very successful if given the right exposure. There was a lot of sound coming from the stage because the drummer kept triggering background music from a nearby laptop before each song, which was effing with me because it was very produced (and my gummy had kicked in) so it made it easier for her to sound good. This is not a knock on her at all but rather a complement to the drummer because if he were to mess up then the whole song would have fallen apart as the background track kept playing at the right pace.

Foreign Air was up next and Calvin had mentioned to me that he could not believe they were playing a place this small. This place is indeed small but was still a lot bigger than it needed to be for the 30 or so people that were in attendance. After witnessing this band I feel special to have been one of those 30 because they were great. They are listed as a duo (Jesse Clasen and Jacob Michael) but live it was these two plus a drummer. Jesse was posted up behind a keyboard/sampler rig while he played guitar and sang while Jacob switched from bass to keyboard/samples. When my Uber driver asked me what kind of music Foreign Air played it was hard to pinpoint but Billboard Magazine once described the music as “Transcendent Indie-Rock-Meets-Electronica with a penchant for forceful guitars and haunting vocals.” Let’s go with that. Jesse was a talker and relayed that despite releasing both an LP and EP in the last couple years that this was only their fifth show since those releases due to the pandemic. One thing I know for sure is that both these artists deserve more recognition and it would not surprise me in the least if at some point they get it.

Tenacious D 6/26/22

It had been awhile since I had a double header with a concert two nights in a row but here I was. I was a casual fan of “The D” from my Portland days when one of my co-workers showed me “Fuck Her Gently” from the first album and I doubled over with laughter. Here was my chance to see this “Comedy Rock” duo akin to the Blues Brothers but by the time I convinced myself to go out on a “school night” and convinced Wayne to go with me tickets were over $100 a pop because much to my surprise the concert was damn near sold out. It was the final date of the tour but OUCH. I wanted to see The D but not that badly. Long story short I found “Standing Room” tickets a couple days beforehand that would at least get us in the venue for only $30 each, which seemed much more reasonable.

First up was “Puddles Pity Party,” which is a six foot eight inch giant clown whose real name is Michael Geier. He came out and did an entire set of revamped versions of cover songs in his beautiful baritone whilst keeping in the character of a depressed clown. Very strange but I understand why The D would covet Puddles as an opener.

Next up was none other than Mr. Jack Black and Mr. Kyle Gass. They were both armed with acoustic guitars and flanked by an extremely talented guy playing electric guitar, an extremely talented guy playing bass and an alright drummer (most drummers have a hard time impressing me). It took me quite awhile to realize that Jack Black kept referring to Kyle as “Cage” because his initials are K.G. but it did not take long after The D went on before Wayne and I waded into the seating section to see if we could find a couple vacant seats. After nearly getting to the walkway between sections where all the security guards were we came upon about eight empty seats together in the second row and made ourselves at home. Good thing because this is right about the time the gummies I ate kicked in. Even better – nobody ever came to kick us out. As for the show itself there were a number of songs that I had forgotten about like “Kielbasa” that were amazing. It makes me laugh every time Jack Black sings “Your butt cheeks is warm.” His overall operatic delivery was also quite impressive as was “Fuck Her Gently” as the closer but I think what was most impressive is the rabid fan base I was not expecting. No matter where we were there were people all around that knew every word and were really getting into it. In a time where there is no shortage of serious shit going down it was easy to figure out why everyone including myself was enjoying the moment so much.

SETLIST: Post-Apocalypto Theme, B JR Rap, Woman Time, Save the World, Post-Apocalypto Theme (Reprise), Rize of the Fenix, Low Hangin’ Fruit, To Be the Best, They Fucked Our Asses, Sax-a-Boom, Roadie, Kickapoo, The Metal, Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown), Dude (I Totally Miss You), Friendship, Kielbasa, Tribute, Double Team, Explosivo, Master Exploder, Fuck Her Gently

Slipknot 6/18/22

This show had been on my radar ever since I learned about it but I figured it may be hard to get others to join in so held off on pulling the trigger since I knew it would not sell out and I could always pick up a cheap lawn ticket at the last minute. Enter Larry: he purchased four tickets to take the whole family then decided to be in Greece on show day so sold me the lot for $120. Bob and Kyle were supposed to join for the rare Saturday concert but had to back out so that left just Wayne and I plus two extra tickets that I had to dump on StubHub and probably still have not been paid for.

By the time we entered the cookie cutter amphitheater we had missed Ho99o9 and Cypress Hill had just taken the stage. We were supposed to be in the Lawn section but when we walked in there was no one guarding the 300 level so we just walked into that section and made ourselves at home in a couple empty seats, where we would end up staying for the remainder of the show. There was no Sen Dog as he apparently was dealing with the aftermath of a medial procedure. Considering they were down a key member and sandwiched in between a couple heavy metal bands they performed admirably. It certainly helped that every song they played was a banger. 

This was my eighth time seeing Slipknot but I had not seen them since Aftershock, which was almost three years prior to this. My first thought as the stage curtain disappeared was that they have not changed their stage setup for years but that thought quickly disappeared as I was getting pummeled with “Disasterpiece.” The songs and performance were as fierce as ever. Thankfully they are still putting out excellent new music that excites me. As the show went on I could not help but wonder why Mick’s hair is perpetually wet and just then he emptied a water bottle on his head. Speaking of hair I also noticed that Jim does way more exaggerated hair twirls than I remember him doing. This was Wayne’s first time seeing Slipknot and he just kept saying “This is dope!” Dope indeed. For my money the 1-2-3 punch of “Vermillion,” “Duality” and “Spit It Out” would have been worth it alone but then at the end of the show Corey Taylor announced the greatest encore of all as he promised new Slipknot music in a month…

SETLIST: Disasterpiece, Wait and Bleed, All Out Life, Sulfur, Before I Forget, The Chapeltown Rag, Dead Memories, Unsainted, The Heretic Anthem, Psychosocial, The Devil in I, Snuff, Vermillion, Duality, Spit It Out, People = Shit, Surfacing

Royal Blood 5/8/22

I love me a two piece band and Royal Blood’s frontman Mike Kerr plays a bass that is also rigged to sound like an electric guitar at the same time with one of the best sounding distortion tones I have ever heard. Bob was originally set to go with me but the show ended up falling on Mother’s Day so Calvin took his place. We arrived at the Observatory with just enough time to grab a beverage and relieve ourselves before the opener Cleopatrick came out. Cleopatrick is also a two piece with a frontman that had a unique way of playing guitar most of the time but then again they are from Canada…they were ok and I did recognize the songs “Family Van,” ” Hometown” and “The Drake.” 


Royal Blood’s third album Typhoons was released on 4/30/21. With this album came the addition of keys and therefore a keyboard player was added to the live show for a number of tracks. The newer songs were great and having another entire album to choose from really helped round out their set. This also allowed them to save and build up to favorites “Loose Change,” “Figure It Out” and “Out of the Black.” At one point Mike said something like “I have 18 effects pedals. Do you want to hear what all of them sound like at once?” I think my mind popped right out of my head. At another point during the show Mike told a story about being in a walking boot for awhile and then held an auction for the boot as it appeared from the ceiling on a wire. Proceeds were to go to charity and the winning bidder got to go backstage for a meet and greet with the band. The winning bid was $3k to some gal standing in the VIP section. My other favorite moments were when Mike performed “All We Have Is Now” by himself on piano and when Ben teased the crowd before using the gong behind him. This band is all killer no filler.


SETLIST: Typhoons, Boilermaker, Lights Out, Come On Over, Trouble’s Coming, Hook, Line & Sinker, Honeybrains, Little Monster, How Did We Get So Dark?, Blood Hands, Million and One, Limbo, Loose Change, Figure It Out, All We Have Is Now, Ten Tonne Skeleton, Out of the Black

The Darkness 3/9/22

MY 300TH POST!!!

The Darkness were originally set to stop in San Diego on 4/24/20 to promote the Easter Is Cancelled album but that whole pandemic thing happened…so in a way this was a make-up date for that show. It sucked the original show was cancelled but the fact that they were playing at one of my favorite places to see a concert in San Diego, they now had an even newer album less than four months old to promote (Motorheart) and this was the first date of the tour more than made it up for the delay. I had only seen them one other time back in 2015 so what was two more years anyway?  

Bob and I entered the venue in time to see most of opening set from The Dead Deads, a no-frills band of three ladies that rocked. The super snarling guitar tone didn’t hurt anything as far as I’m concerned. 

For whatever reason this show was not overly crowded so after the Dead Deads, Bob and I posted up fairly close to the stage right in the center and had plenty of breathing room. The Darkness were simply fantastic. These guys ARE rock and roll – the look, the swagger, the chops. Though I was bummed they only played one song from the Easter Is Cancelled album that I grew very fond of I have to respect the fact that they went full steam ahead with four tracks from the newer album. Even more impressively they ended up playing seven of the 10 songs from their debut Permission to Land.  

Bob made the comment that every song felt like a grand finale and I think that is part of what makes this band so special. They are built to rock large stadiums but put in the same effort even for a smaller venue like this. Justin Hawkins and his three full costume changes (if you can call his last outfit of hat and undies an outfit) kept jumping off the drum riser at the end of nearly every song but I was never prepared to take the perfect picture of him doing so while doing the splits ala vintage Steven Tyler or David Lee Roth. Rock ‘N’ Roll is supposed to be dangerous and loud but these guys remind you that when the right band comes along it can also be a hell of a lot of fun. 

SETLIST: Welcome Tae Glasgae, One Way Ticket, Growing On Me, Motorheart, Open Fire, Sticky Situations, Givin’ Up, It’s Love Jim, Black Shuck, Heart Explodes, Friday Night, Love Is Only A Feeling, Japanese Prisoner Of Love, Solid Gold, Barbarian, Get Your Hands Off My Woman, I Believe In A Thing Called Love