What do I remember about Billy Idol? I remember that from afar the man looked the same and from close range I remember that he still had it. Not that I ever knew he had it in the first place. I am what could be called a casual Billy Idol fan but the songs that I do like, I like very much. “Rebel Yell” is pretty badass live. Lots of energy out of a somewhat older crowd. The kicker for this show is the fact that I was heading to the Tri-Cities directly after the show for boat race weekend. I ended up arriving at about 2:30 a.m. to Marvin’s house and there were a few drunken stragglers still awake. Got a few winks and started up the debauchery train again with some drinks.
I first heard Adema because they were playing the crap out of the song “Giving In” on KUFO. The fact that the singer Mark Chavez is the half-brother of Jonathan Davis from Korn was made a big deal of. It certainly didn’t hurt anything seeing as how Korn pretty much ruled the earth in this window of time, but Adema actually had talent. I wasn’t impressed with them based on “Giving In” but became a fan the instant I heard “The Way You Like It” power its way out of the speakers in my Jeep CJ-5. I had purchased the self-titled album and was pretty much obsessed with it by the time of this show. The B-Complex is essentially a small warehouse that was turned into a music venue. I would say there might have been 200 people at the show tops. The energy of their music translated to a small venue very nicely. I’m pretty sure it was just Lucinda and I at this one but I found out later that my soon-to-be good friend Marcus was also in attendance. They rocked through every song on the first album without missing a beat. The one thing that surprised me was how large one of the guitar players was. He seemed like a giant compared to the rest of the band.
I had seen each of these bands before but Lucinda had not. It was just her and I at this show and we were able to get very good seats on the left side of the stage. Static-X had just released their second album Machine about six months before this show and had the material pretty polished by the time they rolled into Portland. Staind was touring behind their recently released album Break the Cycle. Staind is an interesting band to watch live because Aaron Lewis doesn’t move around the stage very quickly, no matter how heavy the song is. They did rock though. Linkin Park was also there still promoting their first album and played it almost in its entirety. Finally came the real reason we spent our Friday night at the concert, Stone Temple Pilots. They were touring for their severely underrated album Shangri-La Dee Da. Scott Weiland appeared to be drunk at this show but the band nonetheless put on a very great entertaining show. Scott thanked the people who had drinks with him at the strip club Mary’s the prior evening. During “Hollywood Bitch” they had a very slutty looking lady come dance around on stage only to reveal at the end of the song that it was actually a man. They had Chester from Linkin Park come sing a song with them at some point. The highlight was when Weiland started to rant about how rock n’ roll was stolen from all the black jazz musicians. He jumped out into the crowd and walked right through it to the very back of the arena all while ranting. The funny thing is that he didn’t have any security near him but nobody touched him. I think everyone was a little scared of the guy. The other thing that stands out in my mind is a moment when they left the stage. Moments later the whole stage revolved 180 degrees and there they were sitting on couches playing an acoustic version of the Beatles “Revolution.” Magical.
This concert took place almost four years to the day that I had last seen Tool on that fateful acid fueled summer evening at the Gorge. It was my third experience at the Schnitzer and the third occasion I was lucky enough to see Tool. We were still living in a world where you had to wait in a physical line to buy a ticket instead of just purchasing one online. I was still working at Meier & Frank at the time and lucky for me our store was a Ticketmaster outlet. Over the tenure of my employment I had become chummy with the customer service staff that ran Ticketmaster but unfortunately for me the demand for this concert was so overwhelming that preferential treatment was not a possibility. I timed my break to coincide with the time the tickets went on sale but two people had still beaten me to the punch. I figured I would still be able to get decent tickets for Lucinda and I since I was only the third person back. Each person in front of me bought two tickets and when I was up only one ticket printed out. The concert had sold out after our outlet had printed a mere five tickets, which took all of about one minute! Let’s just say that there were plenty of bummed out people behind me in line. Knowing how much I loved Tool Lucinda without hesitation said that I should just go alone, which sucked because she had never experienced Tool. This was a pretty special concert for a few reasons. The first being that Lateralus was released less than three months earlier and the second being that this was only one of only nine shows on the tour that were opened by King Crimson, who are extremely admired by Tool. I didn’t really know too much about King Crimson at the time but remember they put on a very epic Pink Floyd-ish show. Tool’s show and music had evolved quite a bit in four years. Maynard had retreated to the back of the stage and their visuals became more intense. I’m almost positive they opened their set with “The Grudge.” This was the first and only time I ever saw them perform “Ticks & Leeches,” my favorite song from Lateralus. They closed out the first part of their set with an extended version of “Reflection,” which was incredible because the album version already runs over 11 minutes. Despite being by myself and not on acid I did not go home unfulfilled.
I first heard the Toadies via their song “Possum Kingdom” late one night watching MTV (when they still played videos). I ordered the Rubberneck album from Columbia House based on liking this song and loved it. Fast-forward about seven years and they had finally released their second album, Hell Below/Stars Above, in late March of 2001. By this time I had completely forgot about the Toadies but saw the new album randomly on a trip to Fred Meyer, my preferred place to buy a new CD. I initially didn’t get totally into the new album but jumped at the chance to see them when I learned they were coming through Portland in support of the album. Jack and the same girlfriend he had from the A Perfect Circle show accompanied me on my second trip to the famed Crystal Ballroom. After drinking some beers in the car we ventured in. I can’t remember everything they played but I know they split their set pretty evenly between both albums and hit all the songs that I really wanted to hear. The amazing thing to me was how hard they rocked. Their songs at their heaviest are not super heavy but that changed when translated to a live show. This was demonstrated by how much action was occurring throughout the audience. I feel especially lucky to have seen this show because less than three months later the Toadies broke up due to the departure of their bassist Lisa Umbarger.
The Union Underground was a band that I learned about from Jack. He loved them and insisted that I buy their album, which I decided to do because it was a cheap CD. The album is called …An Education in Rebellion and I have to admit it took listening to it multiple times before I really got into it. Some of the songs on the album are flat out rad but others definitely had to grow on me. Jack was the only one who attended this concert with me. This band did not disappoint live. The great thing about seeing a band that only has one album released is that they pretty much end up playing the entire album, which is what happened here. At one point in my drunken stupor I thought about jumping onto the speaker stack from the balcony to get onto the stage, but then realized that was a sure fire way to get kicked out. Good thing I didn’t. The highlights were “South Texas Deathride,” “Killing the Fly,” and “Revolution Man.” After the show Jack and I walked across the road to call Lucinda to come pick us up from a gas station payphone (before cell phones). The piece of shit ate the only quarters I had, which angered me to the point of breaking the receiver on the main unit itself. After a little persuasion I ended up calling from the gas station itself and it was agreed to pick us up at the entrance of Chinatown on Burnside. This entrance has a gigantic stone dragon on each side of the road. In my even more drunken stupor I decided to climb atop one of the dragons. I proceeded to pretend to ride it like a horse and within 10 seconds a cop car came out of nowhere with the spotlight on me and a voice coming out of the loud speaker yelling “get down.” Let me just take a moment to say something about the Portland Police force at the time. Their motto seemed to be “shoot first, ask questions later.” I say this because in the time I lived in Portland there seemed to be someone getting killed by the Police every other week. That being said I did as I was told. The officer went into a dissertation about how I was vandalizing public property, yadda, yadda, yadda. I was super cooperative but pissed him off because I had a big smirk on my face the whole time, knowing I really didn’t do anything that bad. After he was satisfied that I got the point he was off to harass someone else. A few minutes later Lucinda arrived and everything in the universe was right where it was supposed to be.
What a month! Marilyn Manson and Maynard. This was my first trip to the Keller Auditorium. Not that many bands that I like are ever allowed to play there because it is a relatively nice establishment. I went with Lucinda, Roscoe, Jack, and Jack’s girlfriend at the time. Jack and his girlfriend were getting drunk in the parking structure before we went in and the rest of us decided upon just getting stoned. I really don’t like to smoke until right before the band comes out because I want to have the full effect but Lucinda was concerned that we would have a hard time smoking inside. Based on my past experiences I assured her that we would be alright and persuaded her to just wait until we were inside… What ended up happening was us having really good seats and a security guard about 10 feet to either side of us. My bad. This was the first and last time I ever smuggled a pipe into a concert. Roscoe had the brilliant idea to go to the bathroom to smoke. I didn’t think it that bad of an idea myself so we waited in a decent line to get to the target. Roscoe was ahead of me in line and got the middle of three stalls. I got the stall closest to the wall about 30 seconds later but the problem was that he had started smoking before me. People started hooting and hollering, “hey, who has it” and “share!” Of course by this point I am paranoid as shit and then I hear two people outside the stall bantering. “Who do you think it is?” “They’re either behind door number one or door number two.” After I quickly finished up, I decided to exit the stall looking as angry as possible and not make eye contact with anyone. It worked until I was almost out of the bathroom when Jack re-emerged and in his drunken state of mind said “Oh they’re after you man. Everyone knows you were in there smoking weed.” The truth of the matter is that they probably did know but he was drawing attention to me. Now I really was angry. What a friend. I hightailed it back to my seat as swiftly as possible when two security guards who looked like they were on a mission breezed past me. Then I had to give Lucinda the bad news. It probably wasn’t a good idea for her to reprise what I just did in the ladies bathroom. I don’t know if she ever forgave me for that one. So out comes A Perfect Circle and I’m high as a kite while Lucinda is sober as a bird. I remember they had a pretty elaborate light show that kept projecting Mayan symbols onto the floor and backdrop. One weird moment was them performing the song ”Vacant.” Tapeworm was a supergroup type project with a handful of very high profile musicians, but ended up mainly featuring Maynard, Trent Reznor, Danny Lohner, and Atticus Ross. Apparently this show was the first time the song had ever been performed live and Trent Reznor was a little upset that the track had been debuted in this fashion before it had “been properly realized.” The track ended up in a revised form on A Perfect Circle’s eMotive album under the title “Passive.” This was the last time I would see A Perfect Circle in this original incarnation.
SETLIST: Paz Violin Solo/Reinholder, Thinking Of You, Magelena, 3 Libras, Brena, Orestes, Vacant (Tapeworm Cover), Rose, Over, Thomas, Judith, Ashes To Ashes, The Hollow
I have “only” dropped LSD three times since proclaiming that I would never drop acid again after the life-changing Tool concert at the Gorge. This show was one of those times. Roscoe made the drive from the Tri-Cities to go to the show with Lucinda and I. This show occurred on Manson’s 32nd birthday, which was also the day he met future wife Dita Von Teese. They were on tour for the album Holy Wood, the third and final album of a trilogy along with Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals. Remember me mentioning how CD burning was still a new phenomenon? Well I received most of the album in the mail about a month before it hit store shelves courtesy of Marvin! All three of us were on acid and were peaking the whole time the band played. Classic theatrics from the whole band ensued. It was definitely a different experience than I had at this venue about a year earlier with the same crew watching Chris Cornell…
SETLIST: Count To Six & Die, Irresponsible Hate Anthem, The Death Song, Disposable Teens, Great Big White World, Tourniquet, The Fight Song, My Monkey, Lunchbox, Rock Is Dead ,The Dope Show, Cruci-Fiction In Space, Sweet Dreams (Hell Outro), Burning Flag, Valentine’s Day, The Reflecting God, The Love Song, The Beautiful People
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…
I didn’t really start listening to Eminem until after I got with Lucinda. There are very few artists of this kind that I’m into but he’s definitely one of them. It’s like comedy hour set to phat beats. He was touring for The Marshall Mathers LP that had just been released in May. I remember him coming out in a Jason mask from Friday the 13th with a chainsaw and overalls. He lived up to his reputation as one of the greatest rappers to ever be. Papa Roach played before Eminem and they were alright but not as good as the first time I saw them. Then to close the show was Limp Bizkit. This was the third time I was able to see them. One of the big draws of Limp Bizkit for me is Wes Borland. I love the style in which he plays the guitar and he has an affinity for putting himself into costume for their performances. They had just released Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water about a month earlier. It has moments but I don’t like it as much as the previous two albums. One particularly memorable moment in this show was when I got into a scuffle. I was getting rowdy down on the floor in front of Wes and apparently a few people around me didn’t like that I was having a better time than them. There was pushing, which I thought was just friendly moshing, but at one point I turned around and there was a fist coming at my face. I ducked and laid a punch square in the face of my attacker. It was like slow motion after that for a second as the guy flew through the air. I turned back around to watch the show and tried to move out of the area a little bit but the next thing I knew I had about three people punching the back of my head. This time I was a little more successful at leaving the area and that was the end of it. Angry people at the Anger Management tour after people have been drinking? I know. Weird…
