Pomona

The Darkness 10/9/15

The Darkness

FINALLY! This band came onto my radar when my cousin Earl showed me the video for “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” back when their first album came out. It had me in a fit of laughter because it was one of the most ridiculous videos I have ever seen but musically speaking this band was good. Just how good was confirmed when I bought the first album and I had wanted to see them ever since then but it was never in the cards until now. Pomona is roughly a two hour drive from San Diego so Bob, Ken and I decided to make the trip. At the last minute Ken said he was going to drive himself because he could not get off of work soon enough but Bob and I received a text on our drive up that he was not going to make it after all…his loss. After a few hours of fun Friday traffic we arrived. We needed beer and food so I walked down the road for beer and then decided to order a pizza. I later found out that I ordered a pizza from the wrong Pizza Hut when I went to pick it up. On my drive across town to the correct Pizza Hut I got a frantic call from Bob that he had lost his wallet. Long story short I got the pizza and found his wallet in my car. Disaster averted. After a quick puff of the good stuff (my first time in almost a month due to a pre-employment drug test) we were off. Neither Bob or I had ever been to this venue and I must say it was AWESOME. Super small and intimate with great sound. The show was not as packed as I would have expected but I was glad to have more breathing room than usual.

The Darkness had a DJ as an opener but I’ve been to enough concerts to know when to time things so we can get right to it. Just enough time to get a beer, listen to their pre-concert music “The Boys are Back in Town” by Thin Lizzy and here they come. SIDENOTE: nobody told us that we had to find the “ID checker guy” before we could get a beer. Instead we waited for a bartender to take our order and then found out. Seems like it may have been easier for the guy checking our ID to get our will-call ticket to just give us a wristband but I digress…The Darkness were touring for their fourth album Last of Our Kind which was released at the end of May. They opened with the song “Barbarian” which was fitting since it had been stuck in my head for about a week. This band KILLED IT. They had the energy of an arena rock show in a small place. Total pros and tight as shit. The dual Les Paul’s through Marshall stacks sounded fantastic against the rhythm section. Though I’m not sure of the exact setlist in the order they played everything, I can tell you they played nearly the entire first album by the end of the night and the rest of the songs were a nice mix from the other three albums including a cover of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” and one of my favorite songs off the new album called “Roaring Waters.” The most surprising moment for me came when they played a super amped up version of “English Country Garden” with singer/guitarist Justin Hawkins behind a keyboard. It was truly magical. It was also pretty damn cool that Justin rode around the floor on the shoulders of a guy whilst playing his guitar during “Love on the Rocks With No Ice” near the end of the show. AWESOME.

Check out the link to this guy’s review for video footage: http://metalsludge.tv/1-way-tix-to-hell-in-the-heat-the-darkness-live-review-at-glass-house-pomona-calif/

 

Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare 11/2/13

IMG_1486

Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare was billed as the ultimate Halloween music and horror event that was set to run every Thursday through Sunday from October 10th to November 2nd at the Fairplex (redubbed FEARplex) in Pomona. Each night featured music performances and the grand finale on closing night was Rob Zombie headlining with Powerman 5000 and Eagles of Death Metal opening. Each ticket also came with access to three haunted house attractions based on Zombie’s films.

Bob drove Marvin, Ken, and I to meet up with Jason at the shithole Pomona motel fairly close to the Fairplex grounds that we were staying at. This was one of those classy places where the person checking us in was behind bulletproof glass. They must have had party problems in the past because we were grilled about partying and there were prominent “No Parties” signs everywhere. We argued a loophole since were technically just pre-gaming…

Immediately upon entry we were spit out into The Great American Nightmare’s “Blood Boulevard” that lead to the haunted houses and was laced with food and beverage vendors, a DJ, classic horror films being played and freak show characters roaming about. It was nice that the haunted houses were included with admission but the lines were so long that we would have had to miss one of the bands to enter.

A few beers later and we were in to see Powerman 5000. This was only my third time seeing them and the last time ironically enough was on Halloween of 2003. Spider was the only band member left from those days, which definitely contributed to me not seeing them since 2003. They were good and thankfully for the most part stuck to “older” stuff since I was unfamiliar with anything after Transform.

It was about four songs deep into Powerman’s set that Jason and Ken got into a scuffle. We were hugged up against a wall to our right and the next thing I know some chaos started to my left. I did not think twice about it until five minutes later I looked over and saw Ken flying through the air with fists of fury. Everything quickly dissipated but another five minutes after that Ken came up to me and said, “Dude Jason got popped good. They kicked him out, won’t let him back in and he possibly needs medical attention.” I walked to the back of the venue to see Jason pleading his case to be let back in even though he had this look about him like he did not quite know where he was. Apparently someone was fucking with Marvin so Ken grabbed a guy by the neck and Jason was in the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter the amount of pleading they were not letting Jason back in so Ken joined him outside since he felt partially responsible.

Eagles of Death Metal were on next. I was excited to see them again because the only other time I saw them was the partial set I saw at Street Scene in 2008. Still no Homme on the drums but these guys were a perfect in-between for Powerman 5000 and Rob Zombie because they are more of a feel good brand of rock and roll.

Before this concert I saw Rob Zombie twice with White Zombie and three times after he went solo, but the last time had been 11 years prior to this at Ozzfest 2002 so this was my first time seeing with John 5. John 5 is one of my favorite guitarists from his stint in Marilyn Manson so I was pretty excited for this. Irony struck again because Ginger Fish also used to play with John 5 in Marilyn Manson but was now the full-time drummer for Zombie. Rob Zombie was the only one out of the night’s lineup that actually had newer music to pedal, having released the excellent Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor album six months before this. Getting to see “I, Zombie” live again was the shit. After we somehow all made it out alive and un-arrested we reconvened at a nearby 24-hour breakfast joint to celebrate another “successful” outing.

SETLIST: Teenage Nosferatu Pussy, Superbeast, Meet the Creeper, I, Zombie, Living Dead Girl, The Star-Spangled Banner, We’re An American Band, More Human Than Human, Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown, House of 1000 Corpses, American Witch, Scum of the Earth, Enter Sandman, Thunder Kiss ’65, The Lords of Salem, Dragula

 

Epicenter 8/22/09

Epicenter 09

The Fairplex in Pomona is basically the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds that underwent a name change in 1984 and host to the largest county fair in the world. I drove up with Bob and a guy he works with to get scorched by the sun and a pretty solid lineup.

The first band we gave any shit about was Street Sweeper Social Club, which was Tom Morello’s new project with Boots Riley from The Coup on microphone duties. I did not have the benefit of really listening to their newly released self-titled debut album before we saw them because I only learned of them at all very shortly before the show. In an article written by Alex Young in Consequence of Sound Morello described the project/album as “revolutionary party jams. It’s got huge steamroller riffs combined with depth, charge, funk, while Boots unloads clip after clip of incendiary rhymes rich with satire and venom.” Boots Riley added “this is a time when the working class is being fleeced left and right. More families will be homeless and more people will be jobless. They’ll need something to listen to on their iPods while storming Wall Street.” The music was all those things. I only wish I had the benefit of getting to know the songs prior to seeing the performance.

SSSC Epicenter 09

Wolfmother was up next and I had just seen them open for STP less than a month before this. They were awesome again but essentially put on the same show as the first time I saw them.

Andrew Stockdale Epicenter 09

Alice In Chains was the first band I really really wanted to see again. This was to be my third time seeing them with William DuVall singing but now they were only a month away from releasing the excellent Black Gives Way to Blue so we got to hear “Check My Brain” and “A Looking in View” in addition to the classics. It was a little strange to see them in full daylight but they killed it.

IMG_0004

Linkin Park was up next and I had not seen them since the two times I saw them back in 2001 when they were touring for Hybrid Theory. At this point they were a full on hit factory and their newest album was their third album Minutes to Midnight. They were touring pros by now so the set was very tight and they looked like they had gained some confidence after years on the road.

 

Closing out the night was the almighty Tool. I do not care how many times I have seen them they still blow my mind. It’s like an old friend that you haven’t seen in awhile and I had not seen them for almost two years since I saw them in Spokane. Tool is an experience. The visuals are on par with the epic nature of the music and the whole thing can very easily put someone into a trance like state. The pot that I smoked did not do anything to counter this feeling. The newest album was still 10,000 Days but I was in hog heaven. Adam Jones has a way of playing guitar sometimes where he appears to be staring into the crowd fixated on one spot as he is pulling off these badass rhythms. We were watching from his side of the stage and I was right in his stare zone, which was messing with me in my state of affairs. Also of note was that Maynard performed on crutches due to an injury. Not that it affected his performance since he stays in the back of the stage anyway, but it was pretty cool he did not call off the show.

IMG_0035

Epicenter 09