Blackest of the Black 5/26/17

Fri

According to the website “Blackest of the Black Festival is…the brainchild of Glenn Danzig, the event not only serves as a music festival, but as a cultural experience: an escape. Coming to Oak Canyon Park in Silverado, CA in Orange County on Memorial Day Weekend, Friday, May 26th and Saturday, May 27th, Blackest of the Black will host two music stages, curated by Danzig, with performances by some of the heaviest acts around including Danzig, Ministry…and many more. The festival will also feature camping, and a number of sinister attractions including Castle Danzig – a fully immersive walkthrough experience of pain, pleasure, and metal, based on the music and graphic novels of Glenn Danzig.” The advertised attractions for Castle Danzig included a Suspension Stage, Sacrifice Altar, Bondage Stage, Padded Cell, Electro Stage, Drukija Blood Bath, Stocks, Freak Performers and Amusement Rides.

Ken flew in to San Diego from Phoenix to accompany Bob and I to this madness. We decided beforehand to camp as we had done at Aftershock a couple years prior. The website said we could each bring in a case of beer but we had no problem sneaking in whatever we wanted, especially because Bob found a “hidden compartment” to hide stuff behind my glovebox. Genius. The concert site itself was a cool little spot out in the middle of nowhere next to a lake in a canyon between two mountains. Our campsite however, was our very own 12’ x 12’ square in a dirt parking lot to call our own. The saving grace was Bob’s brand new pop up tent that literally took under 60 seconds to set up and under 60 seconds to put away. Meanwhile a couple of guys close by were setting up a teepee well into our third beer after our tent was ready to roll.

Today was all about Corrosion of Conformity but they would not be playing until second to last so once we had a few beers at our camp spot we decided to wander into the festival grounds to see what we would be dealing with. Immediately upon entering the festival we spotted three of the “Freak Performers” walking around. They were not really doing anything but were hard to miss because one little lady was walking around topless save for an “X” over each nipple fashioned out of black electrical tape. After walking past some plastic body parts and various horror type paraphernalia dangling from a tree we checked out 3Teeth which seemed like a slightly lighter version of a cross between Rammstein and KMFDM. Next were Butcher Babies, who were up to their syncopated hair swirling ways again just like when they opened for Marilyn Manson years ago. I had to watch just for the laugh. We found what seemed to be the makings of this Castle Danzig we had read about but what we saw looked more like an area strictly for performers rather than “a fully immersive walkthrough experience.” More on that later. Satisfied with our walkthrough we made our way back to the camp spot for more beers, grub and “cookies.”

As I stated earlier today was all about Corrosion of Conformity. I had only seen them once and that was about sixteen and a half years before this. They were not touring for a new album and to my knowledge had not done many shows since Pepper Keenan recently re-joined the band after nearly a decade long hiatus. They did not disappoint. We were only a couple rows back from the front when they came out so we had prime viewing for their entire set. I was so immersed in their set that I did not notate the songs of their setlist like I am known to do from time to time and apparently nobody online did either. What I do remember is them playing many songs from Deliverance and Wiseblood which made me very happy. The cookies did not hurt anything either. Bob and Ken are not avid cannabis users so one cookie plus the beers they had put them on a spaceship, which I was acting captain of after eating two cookies.

Suicidal Tendencies closed up the night and had sort of become a running joke between my friends and I. They were on the bill for at least two or three other concerts we attended but always opened. I was only curious to see them because of “Institutionalized,” the only song of theirs I really knew, but ultimately it always came down to a decision between going to see them and having more beer and beer always won. Now we had no excuse so we checked them out and to my surprise were way more punk than I realized. They had a mosh pit onstage nearly the entire set. At one point they brought about 30 females up from out of the crowd (this accounted for probably every female in attendance) and those females started a mosh pit onstage. Good times (even though they did not play “Institutionalized”).

Once Suicidal’s set was over “Castle Danzig” finally came to life. Long story short it was a joke. It was exactly what it looked like earlier in the day, which was basically an area that had many performers doing the things that were advertised rather than us being able to “walk through.” Now it made sense why the website had changed about a week prior to this to suddenly exclude the details on the “attractions.”

Blackest Festival

Aftershock 9/14/13

Aftershock day 1 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

 

Marilyn Manson 2/20/13

Marilyn Manson

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

Born Villain