I knew Henry Rollins as the singer for Black Flag and Rollins Band but was also aware of the spoken word he had been doing for many years. I had never seen him in any capacity so it was a no brainer to grab tickets for when he decided to roll through San Diego on a Friday night. This was the first time I had been to the Observatory where seats were set up but it was also a rare instance that a presale actually yielded excellent tickets so Wayne and I had seats in the sixth row.
At 8 o’clock Rollins promptly trotted onto the stage that was bare save for a microphone stand. No backdrop, no notes, no water, no opener; just Henry Rollins. For roughly the next two hours and 15 minutes he never stopped talking. At 61 years of age he spoke of not having a moment to waste and based on the quick pace of his delivery and the fact that he never let up made you believe him. As he put it he was “rounding third base coming into home on the existential flatline.” He looked to be in great shape despite saying he only slept three to four hours a night and ate 1.5 meals a day with the .5 usually being a Power Bar but he did say he does not drink so that certainly helps. His topics ranged from Black Flag to Iggy Pop and the Stooges to traveling to a centerpiece story about a guy from Finland who breached his property and then broke into his house. All of his stories tied into the idea of leaving this century better than we came into it and I know I am definitely better off having seen Mr. Henry Rollins.
For the last official day of summer 2022 I did what I set out to do almost exactly a year to the day earlier: see Toadies again, since the original date fell victim to the tail end of the pandemic. Toadies were to play the entire Rubberneck album top to bottom in sequence but this was actually the second time I had the privilege of seeing Rubberneck in full as I caught the performance to celebrate the 20th anniversary at the Belly Up back in 2014. I cannot believe this was eight years ago but really can’t believe that means the album is now 28 years old!
The show time was listed as 6:30 pm so Bob and I figured the actual start time would be 7. We showed up right before that to make sure to catch The Reverend Horton Heat at the behest of my buddy Joe. The next thing you know four fellows wearing matching sleeveless red leather vests appeared onstage. I had heard of RHH but did not really know much about them or what they looked like although I was pretty sure this was not them. The singer immediately started saying something over and over again but I could not quite make it out. After a while we figured out he was saying “Draculas,” which ended up being the band name that they stylize as DRAKULAS. These guys definitely had heard The Stooges and The Ramones before as their punk rock ways resembled both of those bands. Very fast, energetic songs with a frontman that took his cues from Iggy as he wriggled about onstage and spat out amusing banter in between songs. Their music was not so much my cup of tea but they were entertaining.
I did not know what to expect from The Reverend Horton Heat, which made their performance that much better. RHH’s sound was a mixture of rockabilly, country, surf, punk, swing and big band. I do not think it an exaggeration to say that Jim Heath is the best guitar player I have seen in a really long time. He was an absolute beast while Jimbo Wallace held down the fort on the upright bass and Jonathan Jeter would have fit in nicely with a full-on punk band. To keep with the theme of the evening they played their entire 1994 album Liquor in the Front. This album was produced by Al Jourgensen from Ministry and Jim playfully ripped on Al for taking 10 days to play his slide guitar part on one of the tracks. They ended the set with a spot-on version of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades.” The interesting thing is that as I was researching something for this piece I learned that there is a 1925 American silent Western film serial called The Ace of Spades with a character named Jim Heath….
SETLIST: Big Sky, Baddest of the Bad, One Time for Me, Five-O Ford, In Your Wildest Dreams, Yeah, Right, Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’, I Could Get Used to It, Liquor, Beer and Wine, I Can’t Surf, Jezebel, Rockin’ Dog, The Entertainer, Ace of Spades
There is an excellent little documentary on YouTube called “Clark Vogeler’s “Dark Secrets – The Stories of Rubberneck.” I re-visted this before the show and noticed five different people in the documentary wearing a Reverend Horton Heat hat so it was nice to see them pay homage by having RHH open for them. “Little Sin” was a perfect opening song and we even got to hear an excellent new track called “The Charmer” before they were true to their word and played all of Rubberneck faithfully. “I Burn” was especially cool when they brought out the drummers from the opening bands to beef up the percussion. “I Put A Spell On You” was a fun way to come out for an encore as was more help from their friends for the closer “Rattler’s Revival.” Toadies never disappoint and this time was no exception.
SETLIST: Little Sin, No Deliverance, The Charmer, Jigsaw Girl, Mexican Hairless, Mister Love, Backslider, Possum Kingdom, Quitter, Away, I Come From the Water, Tyler, Happy Face, Velvet, I Burn, I Put a Spell on You, Push the Hand, Rattler’s Revival
I love me a two piece band and Royal Blood’s frontman Mike Kerr plays a bass that is also rigged to sound like an electric guitar at the same time with one of the best sounding distortion tones I have ever heard. Bob was originally set to go with me but the show ended up falling on Mother’s Day so Calvin took his place. We arrived at the Observatory with just enough time to grab a beverage and relieve ourselves before the opener Cleopatrick came out. Cleopatrick is also a two piece with a frontman that had a unique way of playing guitar most of the time but then again they are from Canada…they were ok and I did recognize the songs “Family Van,” ” Hometown” and “The Drake.”
Royal Blood’s third album Typhoons was released on 4/30/21. With this album came the addition of keys and therefore a keyboard player was added to the live show for a number of tracks. The newer songs were great and having another entire album to choose from really helped round out their set. This also allowed them to save and build up to favorites “Loose Change,” “Figure It Out” and “Out of the Black.” At one point Mike said something like “I have 18 effects pedals. Do you want to hear what all of them sound like at once?” I think my mind popped right out of my head. At another point during the show Mike told a story about being in a walking boot for awhile and then held an auction for the boot as it appeared from the ceiling on a wire. Proceeds were to go to charity and the winning bidder got to go backstage for a meet and greet with the band. The winning bid was $3k to some gal standing in the VIP section. My other favorite moments were when Mike performed “All We Have Is Now” by himself on piano and when Ben teased the crowd before using the gong behind him. This band is all killer no filler.
SETLIST: Typhoons, Boilermaker, Lights Out, Come On Over, Trouble’s Coming, Hook, Line & Sinker, Honeybrains, Little Monster, How Did We Get So Dark?, Blood Hands, Million and One, Limbo, Loose Change, Figure It Out, All We Have Is Now, Ten Tonne Skeleton, Out of the Black
The Darkness were originally set to stop in San Diego on 4/24/20 to promote the Easter Is Cancelled album but that whole pandemic thing happened…so in a way this was a make-up date for that show. It sucked the original show was cancelled but the fact that they were playing at one of my favorite places to see a concert in San Diego, they now had an even newer album less than four months old to promote (Motorheart) and this was the first date of the tour more than made it up for the delay. I had only seen them one other time back in 2015 so what was two more years anyway?
Bob and I entered the venue in time to see most of opening set from The Dead Deads, a no-frills band of three ladies that rocked. The super snarling guitar tone didn’t hurt anything as far as I’m concerned.
For whatever reason this show was not overly crowded so after the Dead Deads, Bob and I posted up fairly close to the stage right in the center and had plenty of breathing room. The Darkness were simply fantastic. These guys ARE rock and roll – the look, the swagger, the chops. Though I was bummed they only played one song from the Easter Is Cancelled album that I grew very fond of I have to respect the fact that they went full steam ahead with four tracks from the newer album. Even more impressively they ended up playing seven of the 10 songs from their debut Permission to Land.
Bob made the comment that every song felt like a grand finale and I think that is part of what makes this band so special. They are built to rock large stadiums but put in the same effort even for a smaller venue like this. Justin Hawkins and his three full costume changes (if you can call his last outfit of hat and undies an outfit) kept jumping off the drum riser at the end of nearly every song but I was never prepared to take the perfect picture of him doing so while doing the splits ala vintage Steven Tyler or David Lee Roth. Rock ‘N’ Roll is supposed to be dangerous and loud but these guys remind you that when the right band comes along it can also be a hell of a lot of fun.
SETLIST: Welcome Tae Glasgae, One Way Ticket, Growing On Me, Motorheart, Open Fire, Sticky Situations, Givin’ Up, It’s Love Jim, Black Shuck, Heart Explodes, Friday Night, Love Is Only A Feeling, Japanese Prisoner Of Love, Solid Gold, Barbarian, Get Your Hands Off My Woman, I Believe In A Thing Called Love
