Mudvayne

Freaks on Parade 8/12/22

It is rare that I want to see every band on the bill, especially when four bands are playing. This was that rare instance. Bob, Kyle and I decided that making the drive up to Irvine on a Friday was a much better option than doing the hometown show in Chula Vista on a Sunday. This allowed us to get loose and enjoy ourselves a little more than we would have on a “school night.” None of us had ever been to the Fivepoint Amphitheatre that was built in 2018 to replace the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre I had previously seen a handful of shows at. Capacity is only 11,730 so even though our seats were near the back we still did not seem that far back. That of course did not stop me from trying to weasel our way into better seats but more on that later….

The aptly labeled “Freaks on Parade” tour started with Powerman 5000. There was a time when I really liked this band but the only remnant left from that band is Rob Zombie’s little brother Spider One. I guess if there is only going to be one member of the original band left the singer is the preferable person since actual instruments are easier to approximate than the vocals. They were alright but things just have not been the same since everyone else left. All members jumping up and down in unison just came across as very contrived. I still enjoyed it but that was mostly due to the setlist they chose. We did get away with sitting in the best seats in our section thanks to my sweet talking the security guard so that was a bonus too.

SETLIST: Footsteps and Voices, Nobody’s Real, Invade, Destroy, Repeat, Horror Show/Seven Nation Army, Bombshell, Supernova Goes Pop, When Worlds Collide

“Static-X” was the last band I saw before the pandemic lockdown. I put “Static-X” in quotation marks because this of course was without Wayne Static who passed back in 2014. Instead, this was the original lineup with a character named “Xero” filling in for Wayne. They did a damn good impression last time and this time was just as good if not better. Of course it did not hurt that the entire setlist with the exception of “Cold” was taken from the Wisconsin Death Trip album. We tried to sneak into better seats before they came on but failed as security at this amphitheater is tighter than most.

SETLIST: Bled For Days, Wisconsin Death Trip, Sweat of the Bud, Love Dump, Cold, I’m With Stupid, Push It

Though both Mudvayne and I were at Rockfest 2000 this was before they were on my radar so I really only saw them once over 20 years ago at Ozzfest 2001. They put on a pretty fierce show back then so I was excited to see if they could match that level of performance after all this time. They did in spades. Chad Gray and company never broke character and took us into the darkness, both proverbially and literally. The songs held up nicely and the band played tight yet loose, which produced a very natural sound for such a brutal brand of music. Welcome back!

SETLIST: Dig, Under My Skin, -1, Severed, Death Blooms, Internal Primates Forever, Determined, Not Falling, Nothing to Gein, Dull Boy, World So Cold, Happy?

I was no phantom stranger to seeing one Mr. Rob Zombie as I was privileged enough to see White Zombie three times back in the day and Rob Zombie solo four times before this but I had not seen Zombie since Aftershock 2019. Though I miss White Zombie I love seeing him because he has both John 5 and Ginger Fish so it is essentially like seeing Marilyn Manson at his peak with a different singer. Rob Zombie himself has always been a mixed bag in the previous times seeing him but on this particular night he sounded great. Overall, the sound from where we were was not great but the atmosphere created by the full moon and good company more than made up for it. At one point they played a good portion of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” and convinced all of us in the crowd that we were going to be treated to the whole thing but then they ripped into “Thunder Kiss ’65.” You got us good fucker!

SETLIST: The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition), Superbeast, Meet the Creeper, Shake Your Ass-Smoke Your Grass, Living Dead Girl, More Human Than Human, Scum of the Earth, Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown, Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy), Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O., House of 1000 Corpses, Thunder Kiss ’65/ Blitzkrieg Bop, We’re An American Band, Shadow of the Cemetary Man, Dragula

Ozzfest 6/25/01

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You can’t tell from the pictures but the Gorge literally had one gigantic black cloud hanging over it for most of the day. It was the strangest thing because everywhere else within sight around the Gorge was a perfectly clear and sunny day. All I really remember about Taproot was that the entire band was clad in all-white outfits. Maybe I just wasn’t that excited about seeing them since I had already seen them twice in the prior year. I was however excited about The Union Underground because of the kick ass show they put on in Portland. I waited for them to go on stage before I sparked up a joint and directly after this the first ray of sunshine poked its head through the nasty clouds. It was a stoner moment worthy of the books. Marijuana aside, these guys were on the mark that day. “Revolution Man” was about as epic as they could’ve been. Next up on the second stage was Mudvayne. I still didn’t know that much of them but they were all painted up in costume and put on a pretty intense show. Moving on to the main stage was Crazy Town. I learned about them at a bus stop in Portland. On the bench was sitting a cassette single. All it said on the cover was “Who the fuck is Crazy Town?” I took it home and it turned out to be the songs “Toxic” and “Darkside.” I ended up buying the album based on this but they turned out to be the only songs I liked on the album, even though “Butterfly” turned out to be a commercial hit. They weren’t that great. They reminded me of a shittier version of Limp Bizkit. Disturbed followed and David Draiman was carried out on stage in a cage. It was novel but this is Ozzfest. They seemed to lose some of the explosiveness they had displayed a year prior on the second stage but nonetheless rocked. After they were done was the first time I got to see Linkin Park. I heard the song “One Step Closer” on KUFO late one night after I first moved to Portland and bought the album Hybrid Theory. They were a good mix of heavy and soft. I don’t remember anything about Papa Roach playing but know they were there. Slipknot was insanity. They graduated from the second to the first stage since I saw them at Ozzfest ’99. They were about a month away from releasing their second album Iowa but I’m pretty sure they played some of that album live. Then came the real reason I was here: Marilyn Manson. I had just seen them at the beginning of the year, on acid no less, but based on the past two times I had seen them and everything else I knew about them I knew they wouldn’t disappoint. And they didn’t. The guitarist John5 was painted up like the joker and besides tearing through their heaviest material they put a new spectacle to the test. During “Cruci-Fiction In Space” Marilyn kept getting hoisted higher and higher into the air until he was damn near the top of the rafters (see photo). The illusion was outstanding thanks to the cape he wore that disguised the actual hoist. This was the first and only time I ever saw them do that. Then to close the show was Black Sabbath. Never in a million years did I ever think that I would get to see them even once, but twice? It had been a few years since seeing them the first time but they didn’t miss a step. The set was short and concise but left everyone in the crowd feeling satisfied.

 

KUFO Rockfest 7/15/00

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The Tattoo the Earth tour was a tour that featured several bands and prominent tattoo artists. It also took the place of the normal KUFO Rockfest for the year 2000. I was interested in Downset because my friends and I had got into their self-titled album years earlier. Their set was alright. I would have been into Sepultura but Max Cavalera had already left the band by this point. Mudvayne was there but not yet on my radar. Coal Chamber was scary to watch simply because the band members look scary. Slayer was Slayer. Even though I’m not a huge Sevendust fan they impressed me because the two guitar players were doing some insane things going back and forth feeding off each other. This was the second time I saw Slipknot but I was still not really a fan of their music. I remember one moment when Corey Taylor wanted everyone to crouch down and jump up right when the song hit its peak. That was pretty weird because I have never seen so many people do as they were told at a rock show. The truth is that I really could of gave a shit about the other bands; I was there to see STP again for the first time in six years. This show marked STP’s return to Portland for the first time since they had reunited. They had just released their comeback album, No. 4, the previous fall. I attended the show with Joe, Roscoe, and Lucinda. Joe and Roscoe had both driven in from out of town to stay with Lucinda and I and had a little quarrel later this night at our house. As far as STP’s performance, it was pretty flawless. Scott Weiland was upset with one of the DJ’s at KUFO because in an interview earlier that day he had been asked questions about his family. One highlight was putting Lucinda on my shoulders so she could see (she’s about 5 foot 2). She was the only one at this point towering over the crowd and therefore Scott Weiland was looking right at her for a good portion of time while he was singing. Another highlight was when they played “Crackerman.” The place just erupted. The final thing I remember was them pumping police siren sounds through the sound system when they left the stage, which was funny because they seemed to be mocking all of Weiland’s recent problems with the police.

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