San Diego

System of a Down 2/1/22

This was originally supposed to be a one-off show on May 22, 2020 in L.A. with Helmet, Faith No More, Korn and System of a Down all on the bill. Due to popularity another date was added but then the show was postponed multiple times due to COVID so I sold my tickets. Then more cities were added including San Diego so I bought a ticket…then Faith No More dropped off the tour…then Helmet dropped off the tour.

Long story short this show was a long time coming and despite half of the bands I wanted to see no longer being in the lineup I was still excited to see Korn and really excited to see System of a Down, especially since the timing was now perfect to bid farewell to “dry” January and because this was my first actual concert in six months. As such Bob, Kyle, Christi, Larry and I all met at the campus bar/restaurant Eureka to have a few before walking over to the show.

I thought departing at 7:45 would leave enough time to catch some of the opener Russian Circles since the show started at 7:30 but was rudely awoken as we approached the arena and heard the familiar sounds of Korn emanating through the night air. It turns out the show actually started at 7 pm and Korn went on at 7:30 sharp. Now not only was there no Faith No More or Helmet but we had inadvertently missed half of Korn’s set as well because by the time we made our way to the floor they were finishing up “Coming Undone.” I was beside myself but enjoyed what was left of their set, particularly their masterful mashup of multiple songs. Fieldy was absent (Suicidal Tendencies bassist Ra Diaz filled in) but the overall spirit of Korn was not.

Korn SETLIST: Here to Stay, Falling Away From Me, Start the Healing, Got the Life, Rotting in Vain, Shoots and Ladders, Clown, Coming Undone, Y’All Want a Single, Freak On A Leash, It’s On/Trash/Did My Time, Twist, A.D.I.D.A.S., Blind

Everything that happened before System of a Down came on all went away the second they appeared with the energetically perfect opening song of “X.” From then on it was a beautiful blur of spiritual proportions. Rock ‘N’ Roll is my religion and this concert was my much-needed church service.

System of a Down SETLIST: X, Prison Song, Holy Mountains, Mind, Cigaro, Suite-Pee, Needles, Deer Dance, Soldier Side-Intro, Soldier Side, B.Y.O.B., Genocidal Humanoidz, Suggestions, Psycho, Chop Suey!, Lonely Day, Lost In Hollywood, Radio/Video, Dreaming, Hypnotize, ATWA, Bounce, Chic ‘N’ Stu, Protect the Land, Aerials, Toxicity, Sugar

Why yes that is a gentleman in a wheelchair crowdsurfing!

Smokey Robinson 8/21/21

Three concerts in a week? Not bad. And what a diverse week of concerts they were. I did not ever picture myself seeing Smokey Robinson in concert but after the completion of the $85 million Rady Shell at Jacobs Park and the inaugural concert season that came along with it here I was. After Ingrid and I had walked past the Shell one afternoon we decided to check out who was slated to play there. Once we learned Smokey was going to be in the joint I decided to surprise Ingrid with tickets because why the hell not?

The Shell was built to be the summer home for the San Diego Symphony and the first ever event was only two weeks prior to this so it was pretty cool to have seen a concert during the venue’s infancy. There were concerts on this beautiful piece of land behind the convention center prior to the Shell but it was known as the Embarcadero and not half as cool. I once saw Radiohead there and had tickets for a White Stripes show that never happened.

After some sake, beer and sushi at Sushi Deli 3 we were ready. The first thing I noticed upon arrival were the nice built in benches just outside the venue for folks that wanted to hear the music but not pay for a seat. We had seen these benches when we initially walked by the venue but did not know how it would look/be regulated during an event.

After grabbling a full bottle of champagne (!) and a beer we grabbed our seats on the perfectly graded seating area. There is literally “not a bad seat in the house” but then again the venue only holds a maximum of 10,000 people. Smokey came out in a silver suit flanked by a full band and two female backup singers and proceeded to kill it for the next hour and a half. It was mind blowing and inspiring that an 81 year old could still perform at a level that high but clearly the guy has taken care of himself because he looks like 60 years old tops. I suspected this would be a show where I would know way more songs than I thought I knew and I was correct in my suspicions. Subconscious is a wonderful thing. It was especially cool to hear him do some famous Motown songs after learning he played a part in writing some of those hits. The impression he did of his good friend Stevie Wonder had the crowd rolling and the grand finale of “Crusin’“ replete with a lot of crowd participation and fireworks was also something that I will look back on fondly for the rest of my days.

Tool 1/12/20

Bob was the one that was able to secure tickets for the show two nights prior to this and when he did was also able to get two tickets for the Sunday show. His wife expressed interest in possibly going so in the name of spreading joy to the world I agreed to forgo my ticket for her if she chose to go but in the end she passed. Unbeknownst to me he had not even told her that he bought tickets for the Sunday show so he did not know if he was going to make it until the last minute. By the time we figured it all out we were walking in just as “Fear Inoculum” was starting and had to kick someone out of our seats. We did have slightly better seats for this show but they could not be classified as premium seats by any stretch of the imagination so it was funny to walk in on someone trying to snake our seats.

Since it was a Sunday we decided not to drink at all for this show (don’t fret dear reader I still had a couple gummies) so I was able to notice a few more details than I recalled from the Friday show. The first thing I noticed is that people get really cranky about standing in their seat space instead of sitting down in their seat. For some reason people think you cannot hear them when they are talking right behind you but then again maybe they were talking louder than normal to make sure they were being heard. Bottom line this is not your fucking living room so if you don’t want to stand then maybe you should pony up extra dough to sit somewhere else or shut up and deal with it.

The next thing I noticed is that Maynard seems to be coming out of his shell a little more lately. Two nights ago he had come down from his platform but tonight Maynard hung out on the drum riser for a moment then was later seen on top of a speaker cabinet being pushed across the front of the stage and finally briskly walking from one side of the front of the stage to the other at the very end as he was saying farewell. I was also attuned enough to notice that he embellished some of his vocal lines throughout the night.

Tonight I noticed the exact moment that the “fishing wire curtains” peeled back was during “Parabola” to reveal a naked band – not naked in the sense that they were not wearing clothes but just more exposed. This was met with a roar of approval from the crowd. Those same “fishing wire curtains” closed them back in for an INTERMISSION of about 12 minutes with a projected countdown timer and all right after “Forty Six & 2 (this happened at the Friday show as well but I had forgotten).

The only difference in the setlist from two nights prior was the inclusion of “The Pot” and “Part of Me.” At this point anything from Opiate seems otherworldly since it is a short blast of pure rock fury vs. a crazy extended musical journey. People were not as cool on this night with keeping their phones out of their hands but despite this Maynard once again proclaimed that it was ok to openly carry during “Stinkfist,” which turned into an extended jam near the end right when you thought they were mere seconds from being done. This to me was a good summation of Tool: right when you think they are about to disappear they remind the world that they were never really gone. They also remind the world that we need them more than ever.

SETLIST: Fear Inoculum, AEnema, The Pot, Parabol, Parabola, Pneuma, Schism, Jambi, Vicarious, Part of Me, Forty Six & 2, Chocolate Chip Trip, Invincible, Stinkfist

Tool 1/10/20

I guess it was only fitting that the first concert for me of the new decade was Tool. It was also fitting that a couple days before this show I randomly ended up driving behind a car with a custom license plate that said “Schism” as I was listening to Tool.

Schism

After going through hell to get tickets right when they went on sale (eff you Ticketmaster) Bob was able to secure four seats together not far behind the mixer board. After Bob and I met up with Kyle and Chris for a quick beer at Eureka! we met up with Wayne to make our way in (Chris had a seat on the floor) after I had a couple “cookies” for dessert.

I had just seen Tool at Aftershock less than three months before this but was excited at the possibility of them stretching out a little more since this was their own headlining show. It ended up being a very similar setlist as Aftershock but they threw in a partial cover of Rush’s “A Passage to Bangkok” due to the sad announcement earlier in the day that Rush’s legendary drum god Neil Peart had passed away from brain cancer at the age of 67. After a particularly vicious “Forty Six & 2” and intermission they paid tribute again by projecting a picture of Danny and Neil behind the drum kit as Danny was performing “Chocolate Chip Trip.” Finally as they walked off the stage “2112” blasted through the sound system. R.I.P. Doctor.

No Tool show would be complete without crazy visuals and this show utilized what I can only call fishing wire curtains in front of the band for a majority of the show to project trippy landscapes onto. Maynard uncharacteristically came down towards the front at one point and seemed to be in a good mood. Right before AEnema he quipped “San Diego is pretty close to L.A.” before a round of “boos” quickly came back at him. Tool has a very strict no phone policy and threatened removal if caught using your phone but everyone seemed to be ok with being in the moment. Possibly since everyone behaved Maynard then announced right before “Stinkfist” that it was now ok to get out your phones for the last song.

SETLIST: Fear Inoculum, AEnema, Parabol, Parabola, Pneuma, Schism, A Passage to Bangkok, Jambi, Vicarious, Descending, Forty Six & 2, Chocolate Chip Trip, Invincible, Stinkfist

Downtown Throwdown 8/3/19

In the summer of 1990 I was about to go into seventh grade and was still living on Guns N’ Roses, Poison, Def Leppard and Motley Crue because “grunge” was not a thing yet. Along comes this dude rapping over the bassline to a Queen song and I just could not help but to gravitate towards it and proceed to learn every word. Looking back on this time I cannot help but laugh which is exactly why I thought it would be funny to go to a “90’s” package concert dubbed Downtown Throwdown with Vanilla Ice headlining.

This event represented “music for the masses” more so than every other concert I ever go to but that brought more people than usual out on a Saturday to hang out and have a good time. After Ingrid and I had sushi and many rounds of sake and beer at the nearby Sushi Deli we moseyed on over to Petco Park to meet up with our friends Easton, Jules, Parker, Janelle, Sam, Pearl, Calvin and Jane at the now permanent stage built for “smaller” acts on the other side of centerfield.

After grabbing a few overpriced beers first up was Young MC. His allotted amount of time on stage was literally only 15 minutes, which in all fairness was plenty of time to “Bust A Move.” In all seriousness he was actually a very impressive rapper. I had also completely forgotten that Flea was the one who had put down the bassline in “Bust A Move” until someone brought it up.

I was familiar with Color Me Badd because of the songs “I Wanna Sex You Up,” “All 4 Love” and “I Adore Mi Amor” but I would not say I was a fan. You just simply could not grow up when I did and avoid them much like Taylor Swift in this day and age. Their 20-minute set was more than ample time for them.

Next up was All-4-One who I could also give zero fucks about but the crowd really seemed to enjoy their biggest hit “I Swear“ during their 20-minute set.

When I think of Coolio I think of the video to “Fantastic Voyage” where an endless amount of people come out of the trunk of an Impala and his reworking of Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise” into “Gangsta’s Paradise.” His 20-minute set was also ample time.

I remember looking at the set times for all these artists beforehand and realizing each of them was only given 20 minutes or less except Vanilla Ice who was given a full hour. At first I thought okay he’s the headliner but then I thought this whole crowd (myself included) probably only knew one of his songs. I know he went through a phase after he became a superstar where he started experimenting with heavy metal and other genres of music but I had never heard it and honestly never cared to. By the time he came out I was pretty sauced but remember that he was actually entertaining and performed with confidence. My favorite part was the fact that he brought out all manner of character on the stage with him including all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers to dance around in the background while he performed. It’s not every day you get to see someone who had some sort of impact on your life almost 30 years later but today was that day.

The Claypool Lennon Delirium 7/19/19

When Primus mastermind Les Claypool and the only son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono decided to form a band the results were out of this world. Being a Primus fan I already worshipped the bass playing of Les Claypool but was completely unfamiliar with Sean Lennon except in namesake. I do not remember exactly how I came to hear about this collaboration but do remember talking with Wayne about them to which he stated Sean sounds exactly like John did. I missed the duo’s last San Diego appearance in late December so when I caught wind of them rolling back through to promote their second album South of Reality and play the Music Box on a Friday I was ecstatic. It is not very often that I get to see a band that I have not previously seen and I had only been to the Music Box one other time way back when it was called Anthology.

After having a couple beers with Wayne and his friend at the nearby Crack Shack I ate the couple gummies I brought with me as we walked over to the venue. Once inside we grabbed a beer and headed upstairs to watch the opener Particle Kid from the side of the stage. The singer/guitar player had good energy but the music was completely foreign to me. To be fair it is rare that an opening band knocks my socks off which is why I am always trying to time my appearance to purposely miss the opener altogether.

As soon as Particle Kid went off we made our way down to stake a claim on the floor in front of the stage so we could get the full effect of the Lennon Claypool Delirium. We thought we were in good position but the crowd was filled with GIANTS and by the time we realized their existence all around us the floor was too full to move somewhere else without blatantly bulldozing people. I am 6’1” and there were several people in the crowd that had to be at least 6’8”. Ridiculous. This happened to be the weekend of Comic Con but save for a guy that looked like he was wearing a giant fork and a guy with lightning bolt glasses a la Aladdin Sane Bowie this did not appear to be the same crowd as Comic Con. All in all it was a good, respectful crowd as hardly anyone was on their phones. A novel idea I know, right? Come to a concert to actually watch the concert?!?

The Claypool Lennon Delirium achieved something that not every band can: presence. The four piece played in front of a trippy moving background of outer space, which was very fitting for the music they were playing. Backed by a hard hitting, top hat-wearing drummer that rocked Lemmy’s facial hair motif and a top hat wearing keyboardist, the chemistry between Sean and Les was undeniable. There was good banter between “Shiner” and “Kernel” and it was really special when they were both singing and acting the part of co-frontman. Sean wore a dark yacht captain style hat and demonstrated monster guitar wizardry on the same chrome Jaguar-type guitar throughout. Les was being Les and makes me question everything I think I know about how a bass guitar can sound each time I see him. Playing some kind of electric stand up bass with a violin bow at one point did not do much to change this.

The Music Box only holds about 700 people and those in attendance would probably all agree on how fantastic the show was. Les made a comment at one point about how great the sound was for them up on stage and about how this set was longer than usual for them – clocking in at 1 hour 45 minutes+, which explains why they laced their set with covers. From the opening cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” I thought that this is what it would sound like if John Lennon had been the singer of Pink Floyd. Sean’s voice did sound eerily similar to John, which was on full display during the closing cover of the Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” despite his vocals being bathed in effects. It was at this point at midnight that I turned into a pumpkin so I could get home to wake at 5:30 for a 7:20 flight and missed the encore of Primus’ “Southbound Pachyderm.” Damn!

SETLIST: Astronomy Domine, Cricket and the Genie (Movement I, The Delirium), Cricket and the Genie (Movement II, Oratorio Di Cricket), Little Fishes, Blood and Rockets: Movement I, Saga of Jack Parsons – Movement II, Too the Moon, South of Reality, The Court of the Crimson King, Breath of a Salesman, Boriska, Easily Charmed by Fools, Cosmic Highway, Boris the Spider, Cricket Chronicles Revisited: Part 1, Ask Your Doctor – Part 2, Psyde Effects, Like Fleas, Tomorrow Never Knows, Southbound Pachyderm

Paul McCartney 6/22/19

Sir Paul. Macca. Beatle. Legend. Whatever you want to call him does not change the undeniable fact that he has played a major part in shaping the musical and cultural landscapes of history. And lucky me he decided to come back to San Diego for the first time since 2014 when I first “saw” him. I say it like that because if you recall the first time I attended a Paul McCartney concert I was sat on the side of the stage where I could hear perfectly but had to settle for watching his image projected onto the side of a wall. So technically this was the first time “seeing” him. Also lucky for me one of my co-workers hooked up tickets for Ingrid and I again with an exclusive presale she had access to.

What more could I say about a man who has had so much written about him before? The music has always spoken louder than anything and tonight was no different. He was on tour to promote his newest effort Egypt Station (free copy of the album came with the ticket) that was released on September 7, 2018, which marked his 17^thsolo album! The remarkable thing about that number is that it does not even include his work with the Beatles or Wings. The guy is a machine. He has set the bar high for himself and he exceeded that bar again this particular evening by playing damn near 40 songs again!

The highlights for me were “Let ‘Em In,” which was blissful, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” because the contagiously bouncy bass line had the whole place bouncing along and “Helter Skelter,” because it is about as close as I’m ever going to see Paul McCartney doing heavy metal and there is something very satisfying about seeing a 77 year old man just going for it with his screaming, probably because it gives me hope that I will never be anything but that guy when I get older.

There was a funny moment worth mentioning regarding me leaving at some point to relive myself and get refill $15 beers. Since we met up with some friends at the bar inside Spaghetti Factory prior to the concert I may have been “on a good one” by this time and could not find my way back to our seats after the refills. After walking up and down the aisles nearby and trying to text/call Ingrid someone close to me got my attention and pointed it towards Ingrid, who was standing up trying to wave me down. Once I registered this and started on my way back to our seats the entire section of people were cheering me on. They were probably just happy I was not wandering around distracting them from the show any longer. The funny part of the story is that is Ingrid’s signature move. Literally every time we go to a show and she leaves her seat she gets lost and cannot find her way back and I always shake my head thinking just retrace your steps. Now the joke’s on me. Cheers to beers.

SETLIST: A Hard Day’s Night, Junior’s Farm, Can’t Buy Me Love, Letting Go, Who Cares, Got to Get You Into My Life, Come On to Me, Let Me Roll It, I’ve Got a Feeling, Let ‘Em In, My Valentine, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five, Maybe I’m Amazed, I’ve Just Seen a Face, In Spite of All the Danger, From Me to You, Dance Tonight, Love Me Do, Blackbird, Here Today, Queenie Eye, Lady Madonna, Eleanor Rigby, Fuh You, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!, Something, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Band on the Run, Back in the U.S.S.R., Let It Be, Live and Let Die, Hey Jude, Birthday, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), Helter Skelter, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End

Prong 5/30/19

Prong is another band that Claude introduced me to back in the day. This was right about the time in 1994 they were having a moment in the spotlight thanks to their fourth album Cleansing. This album was a solid coming out party. Having Terry Date produce the album certainly did not hurt, as I was already familiar with him at this point due to his work with Soundgarden and Pantera. When I saw they were coming to Brick by Brick of course I was in.

Tommy Victor was the only one left from that lineup in 1994 but being the voice of the band he was probably the most crucial piece to still have anyway. That and he is one hell of a badass guitar player. I saw him once when he played guitar for Danzig a couple of years back so I already knew firsthand what to expect.

After taking in game one of the NBA finals with Bob, we cruised over to a very empty Brick by Brick. It seems not many people in San Diego remembered or cared about Prong any longer. It has to be very disheartening as a band to come out to a place that is only a quarter full but they came out and rocked the fuck out of us like the professional band they are as if the place was sold out. Tommy and Co. played songs mostly off their first few albums before they ripped through essentially the first half of the Cleansing album to close out the show. Just like Powerman 5000 did earlier this year at the very same venue Prong did not play the entire album they were there to celebrate but that did put a damper on this one bit.

SETLIST: Unconditional, Lost and Found, Beg to Differ, For Dear Life, Cut-Rate, Ultimate Authority, Prove You Wrong, Rude Awakening, Cut and Dry, Revenge…Best Served Cold, Test, Another Worldly Device, Broken Peace, Whose Fist Is This Anyway?, Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck, However It May End

Wolfmother 5/16/19

Once I found out Wolfmother was playing the House of BIues I quickly recruited Bob to go with me to see our old friends because I had not seen Wolfmother in nearly 10 years, back when the only album in their catalog was their debut eponymous album. Since then they released another three albums with the newest offering being the album Victorious, which had been out over three years at this point. It turns out they were feeling nostalgic on this particular night as the set skewed heavily towards the first album.

As per usual we decided to forego the opening band The Soft White Sixties in favor of throwing more beer down our throats. Once we became part of a full but not sold-out overly full crowd I immediately noticed that the stage was just the stark default House of Blues stage with no backdrop. The only thing that indicated who we were about to watch was a simple “WM” on the kick drum.

Andrew Stockdale held down guitar and vocal duties flanked by a gentleman playing some sort of Moog keyboard to his right, bass player to his left and drummer behind him. The keyboard helped to fill out the sound and they sounded fantastic. Unfortunately about halfway through the set Bob’s consumption of strong IPA’s caught up to him and influenced “our” decision to leave early. He kept flipping people off and rhythmically moving his arms about as close to people as he could without actually touching them. It was funny to me because I know he is harmless but not everyone in the immediate area felt the same way. Oh well. Shit happens.

SETLIST: Victorious, White Unicorn, Colossal, Woman, New Moon Rising, Apple Tree, Mind’s Eye, Dimension, Vagabond, California Queen, Pyramid, Gypsy Caravan, Chase The Feeling, Joker & The Thief

Pictures and write up from a more sober individual that stayed the whole time

Powerman 5000 2/15/19

So here I am going to my second concert in three days. This time was to see Powerman 5000 commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the album Tonight The Stars Revolt! by performing it in its entirety. This is the album of theirs that caught my attention and still holds a special place in my musical heart so even though Spider was still the only original member left from that period playing with four randoms I did not care. On top of that I had not seen them in over five years.

After drinking a six pack of my favorite Fat Tire and eating one of Ingrid’s gummies I was off to Brick by Brick to meet up with my coworker Wayne who decided to go at the last minute. Wayne showed up less than five minutes after I did and found me at the bar trying to order a beer right as the opening band was bidding the crowd farewell. We had just enough time to get a tallboy PBR, make our way to the bathroom and secure a spot at the back edge of the soon-to-be mosh pit before Powerman came on. I don’t actually like PBR, I just think it’s funny to drink a tallboy PBR.

Long story short the band did not play the album as expected/advertised but instead played a lot of other stuff that was not on Tonight The Stars Revolt! The fuckers tricked me. They made me think that they would be playing all if not most of the Tonight the Stars Revolt! album but instead for all intents and purposes played three songs from the album. Fuckers. To make matters even more confusing they decided to play covers of “Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, “Space Oddity” by David Bowie and “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes instead of “Good Times Roll,” which is the only cover song on the album they were supposed to play. You’re doing shows to commemorate an album but then spend less than 25% of the show actually playing songs from the album?

Overall it was still a pretty awesome show. This was the kind of performance that translated to a small club but probably would not have fared well with the stadium crowd. Brick by Brick is the perfect sized gritty rock joint with leaking roof and all that captures the energy in such a way to make you feel as though there are far more people in attendance. I enjoyed “Bombshell” and “Supernova Goes Pop” the most but am still really bummed they did not play “Operate Annihilate.” At the end of the day I just think they missed a huge opportunity to reintroduce this badass album to people.

SETLIST: Nobody’s Real, Invade, Destroy, Repeat, Hey, That’s Right!, Super Villain, Footsteps and Voices, Relax, How to Be a Human, Horror Show, Bombshell, An Eye Is Upon You, Supernova Goes Pop, Sid Vicious in a Dress, When Worlds Collide