Del Mar Fairgrounds

Kaaboo 9/14/18

Kaaboo 2018 Wristband

Attending all three days of Kaaboo the previous year was a little too much standing in the sun, drinking and spending a shit ton of money so Ingrid and I decided to cut it down to just one of the days this year. Based on the lineup of Everclear, Incubus, Blondie and Foo Fighters the day that was decided upon was Friday. Unfortunately Ingrid had to bail out at the last minute and sell her ticket due to an impromptu bachelorette party in Vegas.

The Charter Bus worked out well last year so I decided to do that again instead of paying for a surge priced Uber or staying sober and driving. After sucking down a tall boy of Bud Light on the way, our bus rounded the last corner to the Del Mar Fairgrounds to reveal a line of people trying to get in that nearly stretched to that intersection. I could not believe what I was seeing but thankfully there was a far shorter line near the bus drop off point because Everclear was set to kick off the festival about 10 minutes later. Even that line was moving slowly but moments later a festival worker announced that there was a line specifically for people without a bag that was empty. It is baffling to me that an expensive festival that expected 40,000 people could be so disorganized but what can you do?

I got in just in time to grab a cold 16-ounce Corona for $13 as Everclear took the stage around 2 pm. I had not seen Everclear for 17 years and had all but stopped paying attention to any new Everclear material since So Much For the Afterglow so I did not know what to expect. What I got was a band that passed as Everclear but did not go as full force as they could have with the songs at their disposal. I loved that nearly their whole set was songs from Sparkle and Fade and So Much For the Afterglow and it was great to hear those songs live again (especially “Heroin Girl”) but despite Art Alexakis’ best efforts the songs still sounded slightly lackluster. Maybe it was just impossible to impress me because of that time I saw them tear the roof off the place when they opened for Filter about two months before they hit it big with “Santa Monica” back in the day.

Near the end of the Everclear set I met up with Larry and basically just kept drinking and wandering around until Larry’s wife Christi showed up because the next band I wanted to see was Incubus and they were not on until just after 6. We went to watch comedian Tom Papa and quickly realized it was more of a plug for bread baking then it was a comedy show so we caught a little of The Zombies set before more drinking and wandering around ensued.

Close to the time Incubus was to go on I was reminded that every time there are too many people in one spot the woman’s bathroom line is always crazy and there are always a few brave women willing to go into the men’s bathroom. One particular pair of younger girls in front of us were not going into the bathroom to use the toilet but rather to go do some coke with a 70 year old billionaire. After we exited the bathroom Christi and Larry started chatting with them and the gold digging vibe was making me sick to my stomach so I ended up basically ditching them and standing by myself for Incubus because Kyle had come in later and found Larry and Calvin and Jane never returned my text.

This was to be my seventh time seeing Incubus but I had not seen them for nine years. Their newest effort was the album 8 that was released a year earlier but other than “No Fun” they stuck to older songs and treated us to a one/two punch of “Calgone” and a great cover of “Need You Tonight” by INXS. I feel like Incubus made the most of their limited time and age was not about to slow them down. Not that they are old by any means but they were still sounding fantastic playing the shit out of their songs with passion and enthusiasm after all these years.

SETLIST: Privilege, Anna Molly, Meglomaniac, A Kiss to Send Us Off, Circles, Pardon Me, No Fun, Love Hurts, Calgone, Need You Tonight (INXS), Are You In?, Nice to Know You, Wish You Were Here, Drive, A Crow Left of the Murder

Next up was Blondie. Even though there are only five Blondie songs I really like I was excited to see them because I had never seen them before. After getting a round of applause for basically telling some jerk chick trying to cut in front of everyone in the beer line to fuck off I got to see a 73 year old Debbie Harry do her thing. She was still pretty spry but something was just missing for me from the band as a whole. I got to see “One Way or Another,” “Rapture,” and “Call Me,” but had to get my ass to the other stage to see Foo Fighters so I missed “Heart of Glass” and “The Tide Is High.” At least I got to see someone playing the keytar before I left.

Once I made my way to where the Foo Fighters were playing I ran into Christi and Sierra. Larry, Kyle and Sierra’s boyfriend had gone to get beers so I just waited there and watched the Foo with that group. This was my eighth time seeing Foo Fighters but this time was not like the last time I saw them a year earlier at a festival made up of strictly rock and roll bands that they headlined. This was a diverse group of bands gathered so they knew their audience and filled the limited set time with mostly hits. To be fair they do have a lot of hits. Regardless of this a Foo show is always packed with energy and surprises. Taylor’s drum riser literally started rising during a drum solo tacked onto the end of “My Hero” that lead into him singing “Sunday Rain.” The most rocking song I got out of them was “The Sky Is a Neighborhood” but the most fun moments started near the end when Dave sang Van Halen’s “Jump” over the music of “Imagine” by John Lennon. It matched up surprisingly well. After that we got a little “Hey Ho, Let’s Go” from the Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop” followed by a full on cover of Queen’s “Under Pressure” with Dave climbing behind the drum kit to let Taylor come out front and sing after he proclaimed, “Here’s one Vanilla Ice stole from Queen and we’re taking it back.” Those moments made the whole day worthwhile.

SETLIST: All My Life, Learn to Fly, The Pretender, The Sky Is a Neighborhood, These Days, Walk, My Hero, Sunday Rain, Another One Bites the Dust/Imagine/Jump/Blitzkrieg Bop, Under Pressure, Monkey Wrench, Best of You, Everlong

Creedence Clearwater Revisited 6/30/09

CCR

Creedence Clearwater Revival was a special slice of Americana that still sounds timeless to this day. They had that “it” factor” and I cannot think of anything else that really sounds like them. John Fogerty’s songwriting and that voice of his was always something I gravitated towards when my father would play records like Cosmo’s Factory. It’s fucked up but I actually stole the Chronicle, Vol. 1 CD from a party when I was in my teens. That is when I really got into CCR. That compilation is solid all the way through.

Fast forward to 2009 and Creedence Clearwater Revisited was playing at the fairgrounds in Del Mar. Long story short John Fogerty and the rest of CCR had some very bad blood between them so the original rhythm section consisting of Stu Cook on bass and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford on drums were touring around with a bald man singing and playing guitar under the moniker Creedence Clearwater Revisited and I thought this might be as close as I would ever get to experiencing these songs live. It really was great to hear the music of CCR live and they sounded good but I am all about the voice and the songs just were not the same without John Fogerty’s unique voice. The truth is they could have sounded like shit and I still would have been excited because of the gal I met up with at the show…

I met a gal named Ingrid a little more than three weeks before this show when I was completely shithoused. I woke up the next morning with her face burned into my mind and told my friend “I think I met a girl last night.” Then as I scrolled through my phone I learned that not only did I meet a girl, but I was apparently charming enough in my drunken state to get her phone number. Days later we actually spoke on the phone and set up a dinner date in Old Town. Full disclosure I did not have high hopes for the date. We seemed like we might be too different as she lived downtown and I lived in OB. By the time we met up in Old Town I also could not remember exactly what she looked like. As I was waiting to meet up with her I saw a gal across the street that looked like someone I would go for but she was too far away to see all the details. All I could think was “please let that be her.” Then she called me and I could see that the gal in question had a phone in her hand and was walking towards me. All I could think in my head at that moment is “YES!” We ended up hitting it off and I think we made loose plans for this show during that first date.

I think I text her to confirm about the show and she responded that she would let me know for sure but it was now the day of the show and I had still not heard from her. Just as I began to question if we really did hit it off that night and accept the fact that this was not going to happen she finally contacted me and asked if I cared if she brought her sister along. I did not. We met there and I remember having a little pack of Jelly Belly jellybeans that I used to get into good graces with her sister. We rode the sky car, shared a quick kiss in the photo booth and had a blast at the show.

After the show ended we hopped on the tram to take us deep into the parking lot where our cars were parked. I wanted to give her a kiss goodbye but it felt weird with all those people and her sister around so I did not. By the time I walked back to my Jeep after separating from her she had text me saying something to the effect of “Nice kiss goodbye.” I knew then and there at the very least we were going to be in each other’s lives for the foreseeable future.

CCR

Alice In Chains 8/18/06

AIC with William DuVall

This show after the horse races at the Del Mar Fairgrounds was included with the price of admission, which means I got to see Alice In Chains for about $6. Jerry Cantrell recruited William DuVall to take over lead vocal duties for Layne Staley and started to tour. It would be a full three years before this incarnation would put out their first Alice In Chains album Black Gives Way to Blue so they stuck to playing all the songs we knew and loved. Layne left some big shoes to fill and there is nobody out there that quite sings like he did but DuVall did a good job. It was great to hear the songs live again. I don’t think Jerry Cantrell felt quite the same as I did about this show as some disrespectful motherfucker threw a shoe at him during their encore and hit him square in the face. He threw down his guitar and walked off the stage as the rest of the band, not realizing what just happened, kept playing. Once they did realize they too walked off the stage and disappeared into the night never to be heard from again.