Seether: 20 years, 20 songs? When I agreed to purchase this stream I was under the impression that I would be seeing Seether perform 20 songs. Based on the comments in the sidebar I was not alone. The promo said, “On November 11, we’ll have 3 different digital performances of this filmed show at 3 different time zones…” I thought this to mean it would be the same stream starting a three different times depending on your location. What is really meant is there were three edits, each including ten of the twenty tracks played live in concert instead of just streaming the whole two hour performance. The move is baffling because I would have gladly paid a little more to watch the whole thing and I am sure many that purchased the stream felt the same way. It was a letdown for sure but at least the ten songs that were played kicked ass, especially “Fake It” and “Remedy.”
SETLIST: Gasoline, Fine Again, Fake It, Rise Above This, Nobody Praying for Me, Dangerous, Words Are Weapons, Same Damn Life, Country Song, Remedy
Gatherings of 250 people became officially banned in San Diego as of March 13th, 2020. Nationwide lockdown followed shortly after. The list of concerts below are the ones I intended to attend that have been impacted (so far):
3/13/20 Local H @ Belly Up – RESCHEDULED to 10/10/20 – Local H was set to open for Soul Asylum in support of their album Lifers that was about to drop on 4/10/20
UPDATE 4/24: Local H decided to let fans on their Facebook page vote on an entire album from their catalog for them to play live from their “bunker” in Chicago. The album that received the most votes was Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles? and they livestreamed their performance on both Facebook and YouTube. I would have paid good money to see this live so this was quite a treat as the first livestream concert I ever watched. The picture quality was better on Facebook but the sound was better on YouTube.
3/28/20 Rage Against the Machine @ Pan American Center, Las Cruces, NM – POSTPONED – Before Rage announced a full tour there were originally only five shows scheduled: El Paso, TX, Las Cruces, NM, Phoenix, AZ and as the headliner for both weekends of Coachella. I had no interest in going to Coachella due to the expense and “scene” that I am very much not a part of so Phoenix was the logical choice due knowing people that live there and distance but New Mexico was on a Saturday. That was enough reason for a group of us to decide that a trip was in order.
UPDATE 5/1: The rescheduled tour dates have arrived and it looks like I will not be seeing Rage Against the Machine until May 2021!
4/4/20 Loudermilk @ The Uptown Theatre, Richland, WA – POSTPONED – This was to be the first time I had been “home” in over nine years and with The Ladybird Unition set to open it was going to be like I was 17 years old all over again.
4/13/20 Pearl Jam @ Viejas Arena (SDSU) – POSTPONED – Pearl Jam was one of the first bands that decided to halt their tour. This was to be only my second time seeing Pearl Jam and ironically at the same place that I saw them the first time. This tour was slated in support of the new album Gigaton released on 3/27/20.
4/24/20 The Darkness @ Observatory – POSTPONED – The Darkness was set to tour for their newest effort Easter Is Cancelled, which turned out to be a prophetic title.
UPDATE 5/15: CANCELLED – Well
5/8/20 The Rolling Stones @SDCCU Stadium – POSTPONED – This was to be the second time I had the pleasure of seeing the Stones. As a bonus this was going to be the opening night of the tour within walking distance of my place on a Friday…
5/22/20 System of a Down, Korn, Faith No More and Helmet @ Banc of California Stadium – POSTPONED – This was a one-off concert in L.A. that had such high demand that a second show was added.
UPDATE 5/22: RESCHEDULED – This event will now happen on the same date in 2021 as if this year never happened at all.
6/10 Styx @ San Diego County Fair – CANCELLED – This was set to be my second time seeing Styx but the show and better yet the entire county fair for 2020 was cancelled.
7/12 The Black Keys @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – This was to be my third time seeing these Ohio natives. Good thing I was able to see the beginning of the “Let’s Rock” tour back in November.
7/19 Incubus and 311 @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – Two bands that I like on the same bill is always a treat. I guess this would instead fall under the category of trick.
7/23 Motley Crue @ Petco Park – ??? – On May 1st Motley Crue released a statement saying “Our goal is to have an official update to everyone by June 1 outlining exactly how we will proceed.” All signs are pointing towards an inevitable postponement/cancellation.
UPDATE 6/1: POSTPONED – Shocking!
7/24 Weezer/Green Day @ Petco Park – POSTPONED – What was to be a rare concert on a Friday night is no more…until 2021
7/30 Ministry @ House of Blues San Diego – RESCHEDULED – There is a website called bandsintown.com that I am on the email list for and this was how I learned that the Ministry show got rescheduled to April 29, 2021. Hopefully Uncle Al is still around.
8/1 Primus and Wolfmother @ Open Air Theatre – POSTPONED – This was going to be a unique show with Primus undertaking the task of replicating Rush’s 1977 classic album A Farewell To Kings. I was also looking forward to seeing the entire Wolfmother performance after the last one got cut short.
8/8 Guns N’ Roses @ Sofi Stadium – POSTPONED – This was going to be my second time seeing GNR and first time visiting the new gazillion dollar monolith stadium in L.A. where the Rams and Chargers will play.
9/1 Disturbed @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – POSTPONED – This tour was to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the debut album The Sickness, which now seems like an even more apt title.
10/9-10/11 Aftershock Festival @ Discovery Park, Sacramento – CANCELLED – See you in 2021!
11/1 Aaron Lewis and Sully Erna @ Del Mar Fairgrounds – CANCELLED – Just when I thought I was going to get some sort of live music even this got cancelled…
Larry departed first thing this morning and the rest of us woke up still a little buzzed from the day before. I wanted to get something in me before the hangover set in and sometimes beer does not always go down easy in this situation so when Ken said he was going to the store I requested a bottle of Jager or Fireball but because Ken is Ken we ended up with a bottle of both.
H09909 was the first band on the bill for the day that I wanted to check out based on me seeing the end of their set a few years back when they opened for Ministry. They were alright but for some reason we just were not feeling it.
Stone Temple Pilots was up next. The last time I saw Stone Temple Pilots was at this very festival four years ago with Chester Bennington singing. Fast forward to 2019 and now sadly both Chester and Scott Weiland are dead but the other guys in the band wanted to move on so I was naturally curious to see how well STP Version 3.0 would sound with the new singer Jeff Gutt. It turns out not so bad. Gutt’s voice is more suited to these songs than Chester’s ever was and he never seemed to try to imitate the massive personality that Scott was.
SETLIST: Down, Wicked Garden, Vasoline, Big Bang Baby, Big Empty, Plush, Interstate Love Song, Roll Me Under, Dead & Bloated, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart, Sex Type Thing
Had it really been three years since I last saw Marilyn Manson? Yes and ironically enough it was when they opened for Slipknot. Since that last time they released the album Heaven Upside Down and dismissed Twiggy from the band due to rape allegations but even that was two years ago. This time Marilyn Manson himself seemed like he may have been a little drunk but that certainly did not stop him from tearing up the stage with a good mix of super aggressive songs like “Irresponsible Hate Anthem” and “Antichrist Superstar” with more accessible staples like “The Dope Show” and “The Beautiful People.”
SETLIST: Irresponsible Hate Anthem, This Is The New Shit, Rock Is Dead, The Dope Show, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Say10 (preceded by “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”), Antichrist Superstar, The Beautiful People
It was funny that Rob Zombie was billed as the headliner for the night right after Marilyn Manson since Zombie now has John5 playing guitar and Ginger Fish playing drums. I have seen Zombie several times and noticed that having these two guys as a part of his band seemed to rejuvenate Zombie to the level of energy he used to display when he was still in White Zombie and the early days of his solo records. “Electric Head, Part 2” was just the swift kick in the ass I needed and besides that familiar crushing riff in “Thunder Kiss ‘65” was easily my favorite moment of the set and possibly even day. Unlike the day before we all managed to stay together this time and get back to our hotel with enough time to shut it down so we could do it all over again one more time.
SETLIST: Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown, Superbeast, Living Dead Girl, More Human Than Human, Get Your Boots On! That’s the End of Rock and Roll, Electric Head, Part 2: The Ecstacy, In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High, Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O., Pussy Liquor, Ddd, Thunder Kiss ’65, Helter Skelter, Dragula
Having previously always taken at least a year off between attending Aftershock festivals we had no intention of making 2019 our first back-to-back year… but then the lineup was released and it was too insanely good to pass up. Bob, Larry and I all flew in together and met up with Joe, who flew in from Portland within minutes of our flight landing. We then made our way over to the Embassy Suites where much to nobody’s surprise our room was not ready as this was only about 9:30 in the morning. We were not, however, too early to grab some beers at a nearby convenience store to go along with our omelet and potatoes that we snagged from the still open breakfast buffet at the Embassy Suites. A short while after refusing to pay $100 for a BS early check-in fee we were approached by the guy working the front desk who told us our room was suddenly ready. This is about the time Ken showed up to join in on the action so I am convinced management just did not want five degenerates sitting around getting wasted in their lobby at 10 am.
It is about this time that Larry started to question if he should stay the whole weekend because of surprise work that was doled out to him. He found out a massive project was going to be due Monday morning when he checked his email as soon as we landed in Sacramento. At first he thought he could slough it off but as the morning went on reality sunk in that he simply could not so he made the decision to stay only the first day and catch a plane back to San Diego on Saturday morning. It sucked that we were going to lose him for two of the three days but one less body was not completely unwelcome as our room turned out to have two double beds and a pull out couch instead of two queen beds as originally thought.
First up for the festival and the day was Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals. It was announced that these lads would be opening on the final leg of Slayer’s farewell tour and playing nothing but Pantera songs so it seemed reasonable that we may get nothing but Pantera songs for this set as well. That turned out to be the case and jeezus it was awesome! They played eight choice songs that whipped everyone into a frenzy and left my voice raw from screaming along. Why the festival organizers put these guys on so early I will never know.
SETLIST: Mouth For War, Strength Beyond Strength, Becoming, Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit, I’m Broken, Walk, Domination/Hollow, Fucking Hostile
After climaxing so early in the day it was a welcome respite to have some time to burn before Clutch, which was the next band I really cared about. In the meantime we checked out Motionless in White, which I can only describe as Marilyn Manson Jr., and I Prevail, which basically followed the Linkin Park template but with far worse results.
While I am always pumped to see Clutch unfortunately they never play the old shit that I really want to hear, which is material from the first few albums. This occasion was no different but it was a solid overall set with newer staples “Earth Rocker” and “X-Ray Visions” as well as a couple songs from Blast Tyrant and one from Jam Room.
SETLIST: The Mob Goes Wild, X-Ray Visions, Evil, Cypress Grove, In Walks Barbarella, Earth Rocker, Gimme the Keys, Willie Nelson, Electric Worry, One Eye Dollar
A wildcard for the festival was Staind because they had been on hiatus off and on since about 2012 when Aaron Lewis decided to do a solo country thing. I had not personally seen them for 16 years but did get a chance to see them five times before this in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. They sounded great and Aaron Lewis was moving around much more than he used to back in the day. I am sure this was in no small part due to his diversion into country music.
SETLIST: Eyes Wide Open, Paper Jesus, Not Again, Fade, For You, Crawl, Right Here, Outside, So Far Away, Raw. It’s Been Awhile, Mudshovel
It is about this time I passed out the gummy rings I had brought to everyone but Larry because I wanted them to kick in right as the night’s headliner Slipknot was going on. Besides Philip H. Alselmo and the Illegals today was all about Slipknot for me. It had been three years since I last saw them and now they had a new album under their belt, the outstanding We Are Not Your Kind that was released two months prior to this show, which was just enough time to digest it before witnessing the juggernaut that is Slipknot. Less than an hour after eating the gummy rings everyone in our group got separated from each other and phones do not do a bit of good in densely packed situations such as this so unfortunately I found myself watching Slipknot by myself…unless you count the other 49,995 people that were there. No matter how many times I see Slipknot I am astounded by the energy projected from nine guys going crazy on a stage. It is almost like a giant fireball getting as close as it can to burning you without actually burning you. “Solway Firth” killed live and I was just about dead after they played “The Heretic Anthem” right after but this was only halfway through their set.
SETLIST: People = Shit, (sic), Get This, Unsainted, Before I Forget, Solway Firth, The Heretic Anthem, Psychosocial, The Devil In I, Prostetics, Vermillion, Wait and Bleed, Sulfur, All Out Life, Duality, Spit It Out, Surfacing
It does not surprise me that everyone got separated after the weed kicked in because we had been drinking since 10 am but it did surprise me that I found Larry before I left. We decided to avoid the craziness of catching an Uber and walked along the river all the way back to the hotel to find our compadres waiting for us with a cold one.
To nobody’s surprise I woke up still a little drunk from the day before this morning. After getting our shit together we walked down the road to our staple Buffalo Wild Wings to watch some football and get some beer and food. After we were nice and sauced on $5 pitchers we made a pit stop at a local dispensary for edibles on the way to the show.
We made it just in time to catch Seether, who was badass as per usual. Their newest album Poison the Parish came out in May of 2017 but for some reason I had not picked it up yet so was unfamiliar with the two songs they played from the album but I did like the songs. Note to self: pick up the album.
To our delight we did not have to leave this stage for the next band we wanted to see which was Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. Slash was melting faces like it was 1987. I never really went down the rabbit hole of Slash solo material so most of the set was unfamiliar but hearing “Nightrain” made the whole set worthwhile.
I had just saw Incubus exactly a month earlier at Kaaboo. I think they played exactly the same set but that was just fine by me.
Alice In Chains had just released Rainier Fog less than two months before this and played a short but intense set.
This is when another night starts to get fuzzy again as Marvin and I got separated from the other two. We managed to make it to see System of a Down, which I am always pumped to see. They had not released new material in nearly 13 years at the time of this concert but we all keep lining up because they are incredible live.
At this point Mr. or Mrs. Reader you are probably asking yourself (again) why I continue to spend a lot of money to just get trashed and not remember everything. For the answer we need look no further than the wise words of Wooderson: L-I-V-I-N.
So we had taken a couple years off since our last Aftershock but it was time to get the band back together…with the exceptions of Joe and Marvin. Joe just flat out said he was not going to make it but Marvin, being the sneaky fuck that he is sometimes known to be, kept us hanging. We decided that two days of nonstop drinking would be enough for us so instead of showing up early Bob and I booked a flight leaving San Diego at 6:20 am the day of, which means we had to be heading towards the airport by 5. I thought Bob was joking about having a beer once he parked at my place at 4:30 but apparently he was not…
Fast-forward a couple hours after having breakfast at our hotel and stocking up on beer at the Total Wine down the street we were now awaiting Ken’s arrival. Marvin finally text us that he was not going to make it but I thought him and Ken were in cahoots due to some very suspicious text messages. It turns out they were not, so after a little more drinking all three of us hopped into a Lyft and headed for the show.
This year’s Aftershock was moved back to Discovery Park where we attended our first Aftershock (it was at Gibson Ranch the last time we went). The layout was a little more spacious from that first time, which was a good thing because apparently this was the first time that Aftershock ever sold out.
We showed up in time to catch Hyro the Hero, which reminded me an awful lot of Rage Against the Machine and I do not mean that in a bad way. It was about 80 degrees outside in direct sunlight but it was worth enduring.
What I really wanted to see was the Vinnie Paul All Star Tribute. Hellyeah was supposed to play Aftershock but decided not to after Vinnie Paul unexpectedly passed away on June 22nd. SiriusXM deejay Jose Mangin helped organize a performance anchored by Vinnie’s ex-Hellyeah bandmate Kyle Sanders on the bass and Pepe Clarke of Kyng on the drums. Other than that it was a rotating cast of characters that started off the fun with Damage Plan’s “Save Me,” followed by Pantera’s “Becoming” with Stephen Carpenter, “Mouth For War” with members of Gwar, “A New Level” with the freshly shave-headed Jose Mangin on vocals and “Walk” featuring Jonathan Davis and Sully. The thrill of seeing these songs again in a live setting was oh so badass and I am pretty sure this is what all but blew my voice out for the next several days.
To be completely honest this is where things started to get a little fuzzy. After getting some food together we of course all got separated from each other. I remember being completely confused watching Jonathan Davis because I thought he was going to do a DJ set but instead had a full on band with a bass player that was getting after it. I later found out he had released a solo album at the end of May called Black Labyrinth.
The next three bands were all welcome sights and sounds but nothing in particular stuck out about any of the performances (probably because I was a drunk ass). The first of these was 311, who had released two new albums, Stereolithic and Mosaic, since I had last seen them five years prior. The next was Godsmack who were touring for When Legends Rise that was just released back in April and the last of the evening was Deftones, whose newest release was still Gore that was released back in 2016 but I hadn’t seen them since the last Aftershock I attended in 2015.
The night was far from over after the last notes rang from the Deftones amps as my phone battery had died and therefore I had no way to get back to our hotel that was about 10 miles away. I anticipated a dead battery so I brought an external charger but what I did not anticipate was losing the cord that connected the external charger to my phone! After awhile I found a couple that reluctantly let me use their cord just long enough to get my phone powered on to request a Lyft and get back to the hotel. Once I arrived I found Marvin sitting on the couch. I had a feeling he would make it but since he did not tell anyone he was coming he spent all day by himself and then finagled his way into our room since he did not have a key to get in. I should have went to bed at this point but I was still drunk and was not about to squander away an opportunity to drink more with one of my oldest friends.
This morning was the very definition of a value buzz. I think I drank about half a light beer before I was buzzing again. Which means it took me about another two before I was closing in on full retard…at about 8:30 am. Thank god for the motherly instincts of Marvin, who ventured out of the campground and brought back breakfast burritos for the gang. Life saver. I was right as rain after our “campsite” neighbors came over and smoked me out. From our site we could hear Faith No More doing their sound check, which was pretty awesome but they kept playing “Midlife Crisis” right up to the climax and then stopping. At least we knew they would be playing it later.
The first band I cared about today was Eagles of Death Metal. Even though I had seen them twice before, the first time was only for a partial set (see Street Scene 9/20/08) and both times were without Josh Homme behind the drum kit. Not that the music had crazy drum beats or that Homme was a virtuoso drummer, but I respect him immensely as a musician from Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures (essentially another QOTSA album with better backing musicians). They rocked and seemed like they truly enjoyed being there playing these songs for everyone.
Next up I got to see Red Fang for the first time. All it took for me to like this band was hearing the song “Wires,” which Joe turned me on to. This band was exactly what I was looking for and I was hooked after that. Rock and Roll pure and simple. Generally I prefer to see bands at their own headlining shows because they can “stretch out” and play a longer set instead of 45 minutes to an hour. One thing I do like about these festivals besides the value of so many bands for one price at one time is that the stage setup is usually stark and devoid of crazy props which allows the focus to be on power of the music. Red Fang did not need much of a production and I cannot imagine that they would have had one even if I would have seen them at a small venue by themselves.
After that was Stone Temple Pilots…sort of. It was STP but with Chester Bennington from Linkin Park singing. I LOVE Stone Temple Pilots and I like Linkin Park so I was not opposed to this arrangement but I obviously knew going in that it would not be the same as with Scott Weiland. I just looked at it like I was going to see the best STP cover band that existed. We all sang along to the songs that we loved and let a spade be a spade.
Onward to the setting sun for my third privilege of seeing Jane’s Addiction. I am not a giant Jane’s fan but they are always enjoyable to see because Perry Farrell is just the right amount of nut to make a great frontman, Dave Navarro is a guitar guru and Stephen Perkins is a monster on the drums.
Deftones played next and I must say that I think at this point I was starting to drift away to drunk island because I have no photo evidence of the show from this point on. Maybe I was just feeling it so much that I could not be bothered to distract myself from the show. I think I have seen the Deftones more than any other band (have you read the rest of the blog?) but they are always great to see. True road warriors that are no strangers to the stage. I don’t remember this set being particularly on the heavy side as far as the music was concerned. They have super heavy songs and more dreamy atmospheric-type songs and I feel like they leaned more towards the latter.
Faith No More closed out the entire festival and were the band I most looked forward to on this day. I had just seen them for the first time back in April and since then had only fallen more in love with the album Sol Invictus. The song “Sunny Side Up” had become sort of an inside joke between Joe and I and we could not stop singing that shit to each other the whole trip. The stage setup and set list were pretty darn identical to the time we saw them in April but the new songs were much more familiar at this point. I wish they would have played “Cone of Shame” or “Last Cup of Sorrow” but like the Rolling Stones said you can’t always get what you want. The song “Epic” still holds up and somehow sounds even more fierce after all these times the band has been forced to play it. There was also a pretty funny moment after they played “Midlife Crisis” when they broke into the song “End of the Road” by Boyz 2 Men. Funny Fuckers.
After such a good time two years ago at this event we could not help ourselves and holy crap what a lineup! Same crew as 2013 (Marvin, Ken, Bob and I) and the addition of Joe in from Portland, but unlike last time we actually knew that Marvin was coming. This time the venue was at a place called Gibson Ranch instead of Discovery Park and we were able to “camp.” The plan was for Marvin to drive out from Salt Lake City and meet up with Bob who would already be in the Bay Area due to attending the 49ers/Seahawks game for Thursday Night Football and then meet up with Ken, Joe and I who were flying in on Saturday morning. Since all of us were flying Marvin was in charge of bringing tents, sleeping bags, etc. After we all met at a Walmart on the way to load up on supplies (mostly alcohol) we were on our way. The first band any of us cared about was Suicidal Tendencies, scheduled to be on at 2 pm, since we had missed them earlier in the year at Epicenter. Since our flight landed at 10 am we figured we had plenty of time to get settled but all the little things add up and we now found ourselves waiting in a long line of cars to get into the place and more specifically the campground. Very poor organization caused us to wait in our car (a rented super small shitbox of a Mazda) for what seemed like forever before we could get “escorted” to our campsite. By the time we got to the campsite and set up tents, etc. it was about 2. We quickly decided that we did not care all that much about Suicidal Tendencies after all. In our defense we could hear them perfectly from where we were. We were trying to save money by drinking at the camp spot but Helmet was up at 2:30 and attendance was non-negotiable. After some quick work of beers we went in and Helmet greeted us with all the songs you would want them to play (mostly from Meantime, Betty and Aftertaste). Next up was P.O.D. who continue to surprise me with each passing time I see them. Then we had to find our way to the “fourth” stage, which Clutch was playing at for some damn reason. Clutch was touring for the excellent new album Psychic Warfare. I made a bet with Joe that they would not play anything from their first three albums and I was right. It did not matter because they have so many good songs to choose from otherwise. More beers and back to one of the main stages for Seether. I believe by this time most of us had gotten separated from each other and when there is a concentration of that many people in one place cell signals do not work. I believe at this point I was just with Bob and some gal came out of nowhere and would not leave us alone. We finally shook her and watched Breaking Benjamin which was pretty alright.
Our original plan was to get an eighth of pot to bring but when that did not work out we settled for two decent sized joints. This meant we had to ration one for this day and one for the next day, which meant we had to strategically time ignition. For me this was the moment: Marilyn Manson was coming on. I had seen him many times but he is always splendid and now he had another excellent album out; The Pale Emperor. This set is one I have only seen him play a few times and can only be described as fierce. Not a lot of talking, every song just ripped you a new one and then he was gone. This version of his band is the tightest I think I have seen since the departure of John 5. I was tripping out because I could not tell if Twiggy was on the stage or not. If not it sure as hell looked like him.
Next up was Slipknot. I REALLY like their new album .5 The Gray Chapter so I was really excited to see them as well. By this point I was a little drunk and stoned but holy fuck did these guys rock. After finding our way back to the campground Bob and I were greeted by our missing buddies for a nightcap. Marvin informed me the previous day that he forgot one of the sleeping bags so I shoved a pillow and blanket in my carry on (talent) and planned on just sleeping in the reclined seat of our rental car. This is easy when you are drunk. Joe ended up sleeping in the passenger seat because we were up forever talking and laughing our heads off since I do not get to see him very often anymore. Today was a good day.
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!
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
