San Diego Sports Arena

The Black Keys 11/17/19

On June 28^th in the year 2019 The Black Keys released their first album in over five years called “Let’s Rock.” The title was inspired by the last words uttered by convicted murderer Edmund Zagorski right before he was executed in an electric chair. The electric chair that appears on the cover of the album made an appearance out by the concessions (I wanted a picture but the line was too long) and later in the show a giant version appeared onstage. Both the album and ensuing tour was highly anticipated and thus allowed them to command a fairly pricy sum for a ticket. As a result Kyle and I were the only ones out of our group willing to fork over the dough.

The album “Let’s Rock” did not grab me at first but just kept getting better and better with every successive spin and only after many listens could I fully appreciate the greatness and genius of the album. I love albums that creep up on you like that. Even without this album I would have gone to see them again but my love of this album turned the show into an absolute must-see.

This show was a far cry from the only other time I had seen them across the parking lot at Soma over nine years before this. For starters the Sports Arena is roughly five times the size of Soma as far as seating capacity. This was also not the two-piece band that I saw all those years ago. As the stage grew larger so too did the size of the touring band in order to fill out the sound of the more intricate songwriting. Don’t get me wrong, by and large these songs could survive with the band as a two-piece but dammit people paid good money to see this show and one could tell that the band intended on giving the people their money’s worth. This equated to a bass player and two additional guitarists as well as a proper projection and light show.

These guys totally aced the songs that they chose to play. I was floored from the get go when they opened with “I Got Mine” and they never really let up after that. Much to my delight they played a good number of songs from the new album including two of my favorites “Fire Walk With Me” and “Walk Across the Water.” These guys have a very timeless sound that would be hard to place in an era if I was listening to them for the first time but thankfully they live in this era.

SETLIST: I Got Mine, Eagle Birds, Tell Me Lies, Gold on the Ceiling, Fever, Next Girl, Fire Walk With Me, Walk Across the Water, Everlasting Light, Howlin’ for You, Your Touch, Strange Times, Tighten Up, Thickfreakness, Ten Cent Pistol, Little Black Submarines, Lonely Boy, Lo/Hi, Go, She’s Long Gone

Muse 3/5/19

With the release of the album Simulation Theory in early November of 2018 came a reason for Muse to return to San Diego for the first time since the last time I saw them at Kaaboo roughly a year and a half before this. In my eyes Muse is a band that can simply do no wrong. Their music is diverse, dense, thought provoking, inventive and fresh. They are a band that does not seem content to rest on their laurels now that they have reached a certain level of fame and recognition. Instead they keep pushing the boundaries of their music and more importantly their live presentation of that music.

I was originally supposed to attend with Ingrid, Larry and Christi but due to it being a “school night” Ingrid changed her mind. Ironically it was an actual school night for Larry and Christi’s seven-year-old music-loving son Brody who they decided to bring along as a birthday present. This is one lucky kid because this was already the sixth concert he has attended. After meeting up with Kyle and Chris at Buffalo Wild Wings for some beers (don’t fret; Christi did not drink) we walked over to the dare I say historic San Diego Sports Arena.

I guess this is the year of me sitting side stage but as stated before I cannot believe it took me this long to realize that sitting there puts you much closer to the band than sitting center stage all the way at the back of the arena and still sounds every bit as good. I was slightly disappointed that they did not set up the stage in the center of the arena like the first time I saw them at the very same venue. Instead the stage was more of a traditional arena rock setup with a giant catwalk that was made to look like a giant spaceship to go along with their brand of sci-fi rock and the theme of the album which proposes that all of reality, including the Earth and the universe, is in fact an artificial simulation, most likely a computer simulation. Truth be told, from our vantage point the stage kind of looked like a giant space penis or the number three with a lying nose ala Pinocchio.

The beginning of the show was marked by Matt Bellamy popping up through a hole in the “tip” of the space penis around an army of 10 “backup dancers” dressed in lit up outfits to go along with Matt’s lit up glasses. These “backup dancers” roamed the stage in various outfits and props throughout the show including going up and down the backdrop on cables, utilizing giant fire extinguishers that shot steam and even contributed to the drums on a few songs.

Muse concerts are epic and should be a rite of passage for all concertgoers. They take this shit seriously and the visual element of their shows is breathtaking. From the confetti during “Mercy” to the giant creature that emerged during the medley to the giant balls released during “Knights of Cydonia” it was sensory overload.

Matt’s voice sounded incredible live as did the instrumentation handled by Dominic Howard, Chris Wolstenholme and a person hiding in the shadows that alternately played guitar or keyboard depending on the song. The show rightfully showcased most of the new album and the stripped down version of “Dig Down” was especially nice. Something tells me Brody will remember this concert for the rest of his life. I know I will.

SETLIST: Algorithm (abridged), Pressure, Psycho, Break It to Me, Uprising, Propaganda, Plug In Baby, The Dark Side, Supermassive Black Hole, Thought Contagion, Hysteria (with Back In Black outro), The 2^nd Law: Unsustainable, Dig Down, Madness, Mercy, Time Is Running Out, Houston Jam, Take a Bow, Prelude, Starlight, Algorithm, Stockholm Syndrome/Assassin/Reapers/The Handler/New Born, Knights of Cydonia

Thanks Youtuber SD Boy for the stellar footage for all to enjoy.

P!nk 5/29/18

So P!nk’s world tour in support of her newest album Beautiful Trauma is definitely not the typical concert I would go to but Ingrid chose to take me with one of the two tickets I got her as a Christmas present this last year. P!nk just played San Diego in September for Kaaboo but Ingrid missed half of her set because Muse was playing at the same time.

I got a taste of what a P!nk show was all about when I saw her Grammy performance but that was not even the tip of the iceberg. This show was downright fantastic. I recognized some of the songs but an overwhelming visual aspect to the performance took the music to another level. The custom stage allowed her and her many dancers to spread out with choreographed routines. Two moving walkways in the middle section of the outstretched stage moved in opposite directions as she high fived people closest to her in the audience. A giant blowup of Eminem took center stage as she sang “Revenge.”

The real spectacle was when people were literally flying around the arena on some sort of pulley system. This rivaled a Cirque du Soleil show with the aerial acrobatics and is just not something seen in a live music setting. At one point during the show P!nk was dangling from one of her dancer’s arms high above the crowd without a harness on or a safety net below. High drama as she hit the high notes. The best rope pulley flying was reserved for the last song in her skin-tight glitter suit.

Even as impressive as the acrobatics were, they were nothing compared to the fact that P!nk was actually singing during all of this. Her voice sounded great and never wavered even as she was twisting and turning through the air. Her backing band was a traditional rock guitarist, bassist and drummer setup but she also had two backup singers and two keyboard players. This afforded her the ability to play “Just A Girl” by No Doubt and a delightfully surprising faithful rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana.

In an age of no talent ass clowns that lip sync and fake their way through it was refreshing to see an artist that clearly cares about giving her fans something special and real. P!nk did not just set the bar, she is the bar.

SETLIST: Get the Party Started, Beautiful Trauma, Just Like a Pill, Who Knew, Revenge, Funhouse/Just a Girl, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Secrets, Try, Just Give Me a Reason, I’m Not Dead, Just Like Fire, What About Us, For Now, Barbies, I Am Here, Fuckin’ Perfect, Raise Your Glass, Blow Me (One Last Kiss), So What, Glitter in the Air

Slayer/Lamb of God/Anthrax/Behemoth/Testament 5/10/18

Slayer decided to “hang it up” and they chose the storied San Diego Sports Arena to kick off their farewell tour but the real reason I was here was to see Anthrax. My fondness for Anthrax started in high school when I was introduced to the Persistence of Time album. That fondness only grew once John Bush took over vocal duties on the Sound of White Noise album. After all this time and all these concerts under my belt Anthrax is a band that somehow managed to escape me.

Anthrax was just in San Diego on February 13^th at the House of Blues but by the time I found out about the show tickets were sold out and going for $150 each. I decided to pass because I had already found out they would be coming back as one of the openers on the Slayer tour. Unfortunately when it came time to buy a ticket for this show I once again found out after it was sold out so was still looking at $150 for a ticket on the resale market. I heard there was a miniscule chance of the box office releasing additional tickets just hours before the show, so with nothing to lose I went straight from work down to the Sports Arena. No dice but as per usual there were a few guys milling around the parking lot trying to unload an overpriced ticket. This was right when the concert started at 5 pm and the first guy said he would sell one to me for $70. Not bad but I somehow made up my mind that $40 was what I was willing to pay and was willing to wait it out since Anthrax was not slated to start until 6:55. After another guy offered to sell me one for $120 I decided it was too early for bargains so walked over to nearby Buffalo Wild Wings for some wings and beer.

After scouring Stubhub and Craigslist to no avail I walked back over to the Sports Arena to start the same song and dance all over again. Now a guy was willing to let one go for $60 but I still had a little time. I offered $30 and reasoned with the guy that it could end up being $30 more than he might end up with otherwise. He walked away and came back five minutes later with his tail between his legs and let me have it for $30. I got in with just enough time to grab a beer and grab a spot since this was a General Admission concert.

Although the newest album to the credit of Anthrax was For All Kings they went with a heavy dose of songs from their classic album Among the Living for their shortened set. The backdrop to the stage was a nod to that album as was the shirt on Joey Belladonna’s back so I guess it all made sense. Joey was flying all over the stage still hitting the higher notes, Scott Ian was doing his stomp thing as he was crushing lightning fast guitar riffs and bassist Frank Bello was tripping me out because from a distance he was a dead ringer for Cliff Burton.

I saw two things during this performance that made me appreciate my fellow metalheads even more:

There was a giant mosh pit in the middle of the floor the entire time but in the middle of said mosh pit there was an island of people that were stationary. Kind of an “island of mosh” where they stood still and everyone kept doing circles around them. There were no problems, as everyone just seemed to respect one another to the highest degree.
Barely anyone had their phones out. This was not the crowd that wanted to try to make everyone else in the world jealous by posting where they are, this was the crowd that could give a shit about what you think. They were here to watch an awesome band play awesome music.

SETLIST: Caught in a Mosh, Madhouse, I Am the Law, Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.), Evil Twin, Antisocial, Indians

Oh yeah Slayer was here too…but I did not stick around for that. Don’t get me wrong I love me some Slayer but through a combination of being by myself, completely burned out from the week, the concert taking place on a “school night,” not wanting to sit through Lamb of God to get to Slayer and having seen Slayer many times I just couldn’t do it.

Green Day 4/8/17

I had only seen Green Day one other time back in 2005 on the American Idiot tour but here they were again on tour for Revolution Radio that was released back in October. I was originally going to get floor tickets with a couple guys I used to work with but Kyle had his plus one bail on him and I felt bad that he got hosed on a reseller site so I just bought his extra ticket.

The couple guys I used to work with got to the venue at 6 am to make sure they were front row when the doors opened. Lunatics. I met up with them outside about an hour before the doors opened to have a couple beers and shoot the shit. Once they went in I walked over to Phil’s BBQ to meet up with Kyle for an El Toro and more beer. After a couple more beers at a brewery nearby that I had not ever been to (Bay City Brewing Company) we got to our seats about two minutes before Green Day hit the stage and boy did they hit it. So much energy! So much pyrotechnics! The band was very tight and played a nice mixture of old and new tunes. One super cool moment was when Billie Joe brought a young boy onstage to play guitar and then let the boy keep the guitar once he was done. Another cool moment was when Billie Joe brought a younger girl onstage to sing which ended in her stage diving. Those two kids will remember that for the rest of their lives so I thought that was a pretty cool thing to do.

SETLIST: Know Your Enemy, Bang Bang, Revolution Radio, Holiday, Letterbomb, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Longview, Youngblood, 2000 Light Years Away, Hitchin’ a Ride, When I Come Around, Waiting, Burnout, Are We the Waiting, St. Jimmy, Minority, Knowledge (Operation Ivy), Basket Case, She, King for a Day, Shout/Always Look on the Bright Side of Life/(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction/Careless Whisper/Hey Jude, Still Breathing, Forever Now, American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Ordinary World, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

Muse 1/7/16

Muse

In the spirit of trying to save money for the upcoming wedding, Ingrid and I decided that for Christmas gifts we would get each other tickets to go see Muse instead of paying too much for crap we did not need. Muse was on tour for the excellent album Drones that came out in June. I’m not really sure how this band stayed off my radar for so long but I don’t think I really heard them until the song “Madness.” I am also not sure why the show was postponed from December 16th to January 7th but this delay changed our entire experience because now our friends Larry and Christina were in town from Europe and could go with us. They had tickets in a separate section but we were able to meet up beforehand and have a few drinks. It was raining pretty heavily so we decided to pay the $20 to park in the lot but traffic at the main gate was being diverted to behind the Sports Arena where traffic was horrendous. We had skipped the opening band Phantogram and it was now getting uncomfortably close to showtime. Rather than wait for the traffic we decided to try to find street parking nearby. The closest spot was a pretty far walk so we ended up catching the shortest Uber ride in history to avoid the rain. Once we got close to the venue we realized that Muse was already playing the song “Dead Inside” which ended up being their second song. Shit. Not only was this one of Ingrid’s favorite songs but she also had to use the ladies room immediately after we were inside. I used this opportunity to relieve myself as well but as I stood in the bathroom they had begun to play one of my favorite songs – “Hysteria.” Double shit. After a fiasco trying to find our seats and then kicking people out of our seats we could finally behold the greatness of Muse.

I have never seen such a fantastic stage setup and I have seen a LOT of concerts. They used the stadium in such a way that there was literally not a bad seat in the house. Their massive stage sprawled out lengthwise on the floor instead of the traditional stage setup at one end of the arena that renders all seats directly to the side and in back of the stage useless. The best way to describe it is a circle in the center that turned 360 degrees with a catwalk on the north and south ends. The light show and retractable see-through projection screens were nothing less than incredible. Oh and the music? Flawless and phenomenal without any of the usual fluff and banter with the crowd. They played for two solid hours and had many visual tricks up their sleeve to enhance the experience including giant dark balloons that shot out into the crowd, pianos that came out from under the stage, giant lit up balls that hovered above the crowd and a giant rocket/drone that circled the stadium. Instant top five concert I have ever been to.

SETLIST: Psycho, Dead Inside, Hysteria, Plug In Baby, The 2nd Law: Isolated System, The Handler, Resistance, Supermassive Black Hole, Prelude, Starlight, Apocalypse Please, Munich Jam, Madness, Undisclosed Desires, [JFK], Reapers, Time Is Running Out, Uprising, The Globalist, Drones, Mercy, Knights of Cydonia

Neil Diamond 5/15/15

Neil Diamond is not just a legend; he is an icon. He is one of those artists whose popularity seemed to cross over all musical lines, which allowed him to gather fans of all musical genres. If you don’t believe me just look around the bar when “Sweet Caroline” comes on the jukebox. This guy was making hits before I was making doo doo in my diapers so you better believe that when the opportunity presented itself to see him for the first time Ingrid and I were there.

His newest album was his 32^nd album called Melody Road that was released the previous October but when you go to a Neil Diamond concert you are going to get the hits because he has 37 Top 40 hits from those 32 studio albums. He was everything you would expect him to be, which is a total professional. For roughly two hours he just kept playing hit after hit after hit with lots of banter and storytelling between songs. There were multiple times during the show I thought “oh yeah I forgot he sang that song!” His large backing band gave the show an orchestra/Vegas production feel and I was impressed how great his voice still sounded. All in all he shined bright like only a diamond could.

SETLIST: I’m a Believer, Thank the Lord for the Night Time, Love on the Rocks, Hello Again, Kentucky Woman, You Got to Me, Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon, Play Me, Red Red Wine, Beautiful Noise, If You Know What I Mean, Brooklyn Roads, Shilo, Nothing But a Heartache, In Better Days, The Art of Love, Forever in Blue Jeans, Cherry, Cherry, Crunchy Granola Suite, Morningside, Holly Holly, I Am…I Said, Cracklin’ Rosie, Sweet Caroline, America, Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show, Heartlight

PS – apologies for the shitty quality of my pictures and the only videos I could find out there. Clearly the people who took the videos had iPhones just like me…

Trans-Siberian Orchestra 11/30/12

Laser light show! Pyrotechnics! Christmas Music? Outside of “Blue Christmas” by Elvis I am not much of a Christmas music guy. However, just as adding cheese to nearly any food makes that food better so too does adding heavily distorted guitars and rock drums to Christmas music. This was in-fucking-credible. A full on rock and roll orchestra of virtuoso musicians playing “A Mad Russian’s Christmas,” “Wizards in Winter,” and “Christmas/Sarajevo 12/24” made the Christmas season for Ingrid and I just a little more rocking.

Bob Dylan 10/24/12

I wouldn’t say I’m a big Bob Dylan fan but when your future father-in-law buys you a ticket to go see a legend you do not say no. He sprung for the fancy seats on the floor with our ladies. Mark Knopfler was opening which was cool since one of the first bands I can remember liking as a young boy was Dire Straits with songs like “Sultans of Swing” and the mega MTV smash “Money For Nothing.” The only Dire Straits song he played was “So Far Away” but it was still cool to see.

Bob Dylan was every bit the legend he earned the right to be. He came off like an old coot but only because he was not much of a talker. It was all business and the business he delivered. This guy has been around the block so many times that he is basically the NASCAR race of music which affords him the right to do anything he damn well pleases. In this case that meant playing all the songs he has played 1 million times over in a completely almost unrecognizable version.

SETLIST: You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, It Ain’t Me, Babe, Things Have Changed, Tangled Up in Blue, Cry a While, Joey, Summer Days, Visions of Johanna, Highway 61 Revisited, Forgetful Heart, Thunder on the Mountain, Ballad of a Thin Man, Like A Rolling Stone, All Along the Watchtower, Blowin’ in the Wind

Fleetwood Mac 5/31/09

The almighty Fleetwood Mac! This is music that became a part of my subconscious growing up due to my parents. It is also one of those bands that have way more songs you know and love than you realize.

They reunited for a “Hits Tour” sans Christine McVie and one of the stops was San Diego. I did not realize they were playing until a couple weeks before the show and much to my delight found out it was not sold out. Even more unbelievable is that I only paid $30 to see them because I saved myself service charges by going directly to the box office.

Macy and I got super stoned before going in to witness these legends in the flesh. It was fantastic. No opener; just two hours of Fleetwood Mac hits from the nosebleeds. I was fascinated by Lindsey Buckingham’s virtuosity and unique style of playing guitar with no pick and both him and Stevie Nicks still sounded great.

SETLIST: “Monday Morning,” “The Chain,” “Dreams,” “I Know I’m Not Wrong,” “Gypsy,” “Go Insane,” “Rhiannon,” “Second Hand News,” “Tusk,” “Sara,” “Big Love,” “Landslide,” “Never Going Back Again,” “Storms,” “Say You Love Me,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Oh Well,” “I’m So Afraid,” “Stand Back,” “Go Your Own Way,” “World Turning,” “Don’t Stop,” “Silver Springs”

Rock N Roll Recollections

Fuzzy recollections of bands that rocked my world