I was looking for an excuse to go to Portland before the end of the year so I could see my mom since I would not get to see her for either upcoming holiday this year and would be gone all of next year traveling the United States. This show was a perfect excuse as I would also be able to go to my first concert at the Roseland since I lived in Portland 18 years ago. Time really does fly when you’re having fun! As a bonus I would get to see Joe, Claude and Joe’s friend Greg.
We arrived right after JD Pinkus had finished and right before Quicksand took the stage. I had not remembered that drinking was only allowed upstairs but it made perfect sense as I am positive the floor area would have been a total mess if they did allow drinking down there.
I own the Quicksand album Manic Compression because it was a free CD through Columbia House way back in the day. Other than that, I had not made an effort to hear any of their other material so seeing them live did not do much for me. They were ok but just did not knock my socks off.
Helmet on the other hand was great. It looked to be the same band supporting Paige Hamilton that he has had for years now, which certainly helped. I thought it was ironic that from my vantage point upstairs Paige was off by himself separated from the other “hired guns.” My favorite moment of their set was when they played “Speechless” because I distinctly remember mentioning that song to Paige several years ago when I was able to chat with him briefly.
I have seen Clutch a handful of times and the only complaint I have ever had is that they never play many of their older songs. I did not expect anything different for this occasion since Clutch just released their thirteenth album Sunrise on Slaughter Beach a few weeks before this show on September 16th. Boy was I delightfully wrong! They did play five songs from the new album but went deep into the catalog for the rest of the set including three songs from the first album! This was the Clutch setlist I had been waiting on for years. Well played sirs, well played.
SETLIST: Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone), Walking in the Great Shining Path of Monster Trucks, Nosferatu Madre, Promoter (Of Earthbound Causes), El Jefe Speaks, Pure Rock Fury, Green Buckets, The Elephant Riders, Mountain of Bone, Willie Nelson, The Mob Goes Wild, A Shogun Named Marcus, Animal Farm, Passive Restraints, Skeletons on Mars, Noble Savage, The Face, Slaughter Beach, Earth Rocker, The House That Peterbilt
Having missed the first two installments of Clutch’s “Doom Saloon” livestreams, I was ecstatic when “Doom Saloon III” was announced. Even better was the fact that it was being advertised as a “greatest hits” performance or as the website said, “We have put together a set list of 15 of our most popular songs as requested by you the fans.” Having seen Clutch live many times my only complaint of recent shows is that they rarely play older material so I took this as a chance for fans like me to finally get to hear more of the older stuff. The term “older” does have some relativity here since they are now up to twelve studio albums so what I mean by older is the first two or three albums, having been a fan since the first release Transnational Speedway League. Don’t get me wrong I also like the “newer” material but those first few albums just hold a special place in my heart I guess.
The stream started out with a montage of fan-submitted footage of people singing along and playing along with Clutch songs on their instrument of choice. After this there was a segment called “Clutch Reacts: Archives” that showed the band reminiscing about old footage of themselves interspersed with questions from fans. This was followed by a tour of their combo Weathermaker record label warehouse where they house their wares before being shipped out and band gear and Doom Saloon studio which houses the live room where they hang out, jam and stream. During the Q&A section I found it interesting that the band was evenly split between Jam Room (Neil and Tim) and Clutch (rhythm sectin) when asked what their favorite album was. It was also interesting to hear how integral they consider performing live to the writing process since it gives them an opportunity to test out the crowd reaction. When asked about their favorite song they all said the “newest one we’re working on,” which was akin to asking an athlete why they won the game and receiving a response of “we scored more points than the other team.”
“Earth Rocker” got the party started and although I thought the sound quality was fantastic Neil apparently thought differently as evidenced by his comment immediately after of “OK. Just so you know this is not pre-recorded otherwise we would re-cut that because there’s something going on with the bass. We’ll figure it out. We’ll have to sort that out before “Spacegrass.” What I heard in this comment was a.) the sound quality was about to get even better and b.) I was going to get to see/hear “Spacegrass.” Eff yeah!
Circling back to set list of the most popular songs, Neil further clarified before they began saying that these songs were the top 15 from over 4,000 submissions for “Doom Saloon II “and would be played staring with number 15 going all the way down to number 1. All I have to say is either the group of 4,000 that voted has for the most part a very different idea of the best Clutch songs than I do or Clutch just played what they wanted to play. I’ll never know for sure but I enjoyed the set regardless. “A Shogun Named Marcus” and “Spacegrass” were worth the price of admission alone.
SETLIST: Earth Rocker, Cypress Grove, 50,000 Unstoppable Watts, D.C. Sound Attack!, In Walks Barbarella, A Shogun Named Marcus, The Elephant Riders, The Regulator, The Mob Goes Wild, X-Ray Visions, 10001110101, Electric Worry, Burning Beard, A Quick Death in Texas, Spacegrass
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.
It’s hard to believe that it had been nearly eight years since the last time I saw Tool and almost equally hard to believe that 10,000 Days from 11 years ago was still their newest release. Due to so many concerts this year I almost didn’t go but as the date got closer the lineup just became too good to pass up. Unofficially dubbed “ToolFest,” the lineup boasted Tool’s friends and past touring mates Melvins, Fantomas, Clutch and Primus with The Crystal Method filling in the gaps between bands. It was supposed to be Bob and I but Bob bailed and Joe decided to fly down from Portland to go with me.
The Glen Helen Amphitheater is kind of out in the middle of nowhere so the nearest hotels are about 12 miles away in San Bernardino proper and San Bernardino is sketchy. At 1 pm we arrived at the ghetto fabulous Motel 6 to see an unfilled swimming pool, cheap banner wrapped around the official sign and an armed guard. Even that was a first for me but almost any accommodations are good for a night when you’ve been drinking. Anyways it was 1 pm but check in was not until 3 pm. This caused an issue because doors to the show were at 2 pm, for once we wanted to see every band playing and we were hoping to get a little pregame in to save some money on the $13.50 we knew each beer would be at the venue. Once we walked into the office to talk to the front desk guy who was behind bulletproof glass about checking in early we saw that there were two different couples who appeared to be trying to do the same thing. While one couple was at the window we started chatting with the other couple that had come all the way up from halfway down Baja in Mexico. What happened next was one of the strangest moments I have ever had. The couple at the window informed us nobody was going to be allowed to check in until three and walked out of the office. The other couple from Mexico then asked us if we wanted their room for free. Joe and I thought they meant we could hang out in their room but apparently they decided to stay somewhere else for the night and could not get a refund for this night and were only in the office to get a receipt of some kind. This solved all of our woes and saved us some money that we could then blow on beer. It is still hard to wrap my head around that moment even while writing this. That couple knew us for 60 seconds and decided that we could be trusted not to trash the place and charge any damages to their credit card. No complaints here.
After drinking some of the beer obtained from the padlocked coolers at the gas station across the street and a short Uber ride we were ready to take on the crisp 100 degrees without a cloud in the sky and rock. The venue holds 65,000 people so once we got settled we found a spot at the front of the lawn section to watch King Buzzo in a bizarro robe and the rest of the Melvins. It was a little ironic that I had not seen Melvins since I saw them back in 2004 with Joe in Portland. “Queen” put a smile on my face and my neck on notice. They also played a dissonantly heavy version of the Beatles “I Want To Hold Your Hand” that was cool.
I had never seen Fantomas so I was interested to see if their stage presence was as crazy as some of their music. Unfortunately Mike Patton’s microphone was fucked up for most of the set, which put a damper on some of the frenetic energy I was hoping for.
Next up was Clutch and they were the kick in the nuts that the crowd needed to waken them from their heat and beer induced slumber. My last time seeing Clutch was also with Joe at Aftershock a couple years back. I won the bet with him that Clutch would not play super old stuff but I was still plenty happy with newer rockers like “Firebirds!” and “X-Ray Visions.”
I had not seen Primus since the 3D tour almost five years before. They opened with one of my personal favorites “Those Damned Blue Collared Tweekers” and then pretty much stuck to the hits. “My Name is Mud” was Bad.Ass. At this point the sun had finally started to go down to give us some reprieve and for the first time in the day the video monitors fired up. Prior to this there were no visual effects or so much as a band backdrop for any band. Judging by the many Tool t-shirts in the crowd I do not think that bothered one person here, as that stood to enhance Tool’s world-class laser light production that much more.
The only taste of newness we got from Tool was “Descending,” a tune they have been playing live for awhile that is more like a teaser/movie trailer of the actual song according to Adam Jones. Although I do miss the early days when Maynard was not hiding in the back amongst the shadows seeing Tool never gets old. They played “Opiate” which I have only seen them play a few times and “Sweat” which I am not sure if I have ever seen them play. This was also a rare night they played “Third Eye.” A brief interlude followed “Forty-Six & 2” that Tool came back from by way of a Danny drum solo that was three minutes of pure fire and speaking of fire, there was a bonfire of trash in the lawn section; a fitting sight since the first time I ever saw a bonfire at a show was the only other time I came to this venue to see Slayer and Marilyn Manson. Stay classy San Bernardino.
Getting out of the venue was a shit show. The people who were parked at the venue could not get out which also meant Uber drivers could not get in to give us a ride back to the Motel 666. After admitting defeat and staring at the stars we sat up to see the original couple from the hotel that was denied check in. We decided walking a mile and splitting a surge priced Uber was a better option than just sitting there so that is exactly what we did.
SETLIST: The Grudge, Parabol, Parabola, Schism, Opiate, AEnema, Descending, Jambi, Third Eye, Forty-Six & 2, The Pot, Vicarious, Sweat, Stinkfist
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 was my eighth time seeing Deftones but first time since the release of their self-titled album that had come out in May of this year. I think they toured every day of the year and just kept coming back to the Pacific Northwest because they ran out of places to play otherwise…I believe this was also only my second time to the famed Paramount Theatre, a fantastic intimate venue in the heart of Seattle. Lucinda and I drove up to meet Marvin and somehow missed Clutch opening up the show. I had seen them twice before so I got over it, especially since Deftones ended up playing for a solid two hours. We had seats on the balcony, which meant we left the show dry unlike all the people down in the pit (not that it mattered because I am sure it was raining in Seattle). I was a little jealous of the people below because the selection of songs made me want to move more than I was able to with a seat behind me. I remember when they came back out for the “encore” Chino commented how they had made the album Adrenaline down the street and then they proceeded to tear through nearly the whole damn thing. Overall one of the more polished times I have seen Deftones.
SETLIST: Minerva, Bloody Cape, Be Quiet and Drive, MX, My Own Summer (Shove It), Feiticeira, Bored, Needles and Pins, Korea, Digital Bath, Battle-Axe, Mascara, Around the Fur, Hexagram, Headup, Change (In the House of Flies), 7 Words, Fireal, Engine No. 9, Nosebleed, Root, Lifter, Minus Blindfold, Knife Party
Clutch is back in town almost a year to the day after I had last seen them. Their album Pure Rock Fury had come out mid-March so they decided to stop in Portland again. The setlist was heavily geared toward promotion of the new album, as I believe they only played one song from their other four albums combined. Other than that there was not too much to report from this show.
By this time I had recently rekindled my friendship with Jack (the roommate who owed me money), partially because he finally paid me back. We shared a liking of both Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity so we decided to go. I don’t remember the other bands probably because we were both drinking pretty heavily in preparation of the two bands we actually went to see. Clutch was on tour for Jam Room but I hadn’t yet heard it. Claude is once again responsible for me ever hearing of Clutch. He gave me their first album and by the time the self-titled album came out all my friends were loving it. It was when Clutch came on that I lost Jack, which is no small feat in a place of this size. I first heard Corrosion of Conformity by way of the song “Albatross” that was on a sampler CD given to me with a pair of Airwalk shoes that I purchased. This lead me to buy the Deliverance album and later Wiseblood but they were touring for the album America’s Volume Dealer that had just been released about a month prior to this show. By the end of the show I was all rocked out and still couldn’t find Jack. It turns out he lost a shoe in the mosh pit and stumbled his way onto the MAX (public transportation in Portland). He said he felt like a bum walking around downtown with only one shoe and since it is Portland we’re talking about of course it was raining. Then he got lost on the MAX because he had only been in Portland a few short weeks…
