Slayer

Slayer 11/30/19

It’s funny how life sometimes comes full circle. I saw the very first date of Slayer’s farewell tour in San Diego and here I was a year and a half later at the very last date of Slayer’s farewell tour in Los Angeles. Not just the last date of their tour but the last Slayer show EVER…or so they claim. I actually believe that these guys are done but time will tell. I was not sold on Slayer alone but when they announced Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals doing a set of only Pantera songs, Ministry and Primus as the openers on a Saturday that made for a pretty easy decision. I got Bob, Kyle and Larry interested but the problem as always was getting tickets so we ended up with shitty seats but when all was said and done we did not sit in our actual seats even once.

Usually the openers suck, which gives us time to suck down more beers at the hotel room but when the opener is Philip Anselmo & the Illegals playing an entire set of Pantera songs you get your ass to the venue. I had just seen them a month and a half earlier in Sacramento but this is the closest I am ever going to get to seeing Pantera again so better to strike while the iron is hot. They did play three songs that they did not play at Aftershock so that was the cherry on top, including “This Love” with a brief Jason Momoa appearance. This is about the time I started getting lit so it is not surprising that I have no pictures from this point forward in the night.

SETLIST: Mouth for War, Becoming, I’m Broken, Goddamn Electric, Strength Beyond Strength, Fucking Hostile, This Love, A New Level

Wait, there’s more after that kick in the nuts and the next band up is Ministry? Fuck yeah! This was the first time I got to see Ministry with ex-original Tool bassist Paul D’Amour and their choice of setlist was absolutely perfect. It was heavy as fuck and the songs seemed to have their edge back. Only much later did I find out that Joey Jordison was drumming for Ministry and now it all makes perfect sense.

SETLIST: The Missing, Deity, Stigmata, Supernaut, Just One Fix, N.W.O., Thieves, Jesus Built My Hotrod

Primus seemed slightly out of place in this lineup but then again Primus are kind of always out of place next to any other bands. Les and company brought it as usual and I especially enjoyed the songs they played from Sailing the Seas of Cheese and Pork Soda.

SETLIST: Those Damned Blue-Collared Tweekers, Too Many Puppies, Sgt. Baker, The Seven, Cygnus X-1, Southbound Pachyderm, Mr. Krinkle, Welcome To This World, Professor Nutbutter’s House of Treats, My Name Is Mud, Jerry Was A Race Car Driver

Ironically Slayer was the band I was least excited to see at this show but the crescendo was finally here and being Los Angeles it was a star-studded event. Slayer did not have any guest appearances during their set but the likes of Kirk Hammett, Robert Truillo, Post Mallone, King Diamond and others were sighted milling about. Slayer played a monster 20 song set and then after they were done a very emotional Tom Araya stood on the stage afterwards for quite awhile to soak it all in and thank everyone for being a part of his life. It was a very tender moment from someone who made such non-tender music and it was perfect.

SETLIST: South of Heaven, Repentless, Postmortem, World Painted Blood, Hate Worldwide, War Ensemble, Stain of Mind, Disciple, When the Stillness Comes, Born of Fire, Payback, Seasons in the Abyss, Jesus Saves, Chemical Warfare, Hell Awaits, Dead Skin Mask, Show No Mercy, Raining Blood, Mandatory Suicide, Angel of Death

Metal Injection Writeup

Blabbermouth Writeup

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.

Mayhem Festival 7/12/09

So there were quite a few bands at this festival but the only ones we cared about were Slayer and Marilyn Manson. I made my first trip to the San Manuel Amphitheater with Jason, Larry, and Christi. We had to travel the two hours because this was as close as the festival came to us. It’s probably a good thing that the bands we wanted to see didn’t play until the end of the show because we were all decently hung over from the Saturday before. Jason drove and I was drinking beers the whole time. I never really got drunk but definitely felt the effects the next day. So we hung out in the parking lot for about an hour before heading in. Good timing. Killswitch Engage was just getting on so we had time to get an $11 beer, etc. Apparently somebody got shanked at the show because this is a ghetto type area. Then it got dark and out came Slayer. People that like Slayer LOVE Slayer, namely Nicole, who bought tickets to this show when I did but then we had a falling out because of me meeting and falling for Ingrid. I never really liked Tom Araya’s voice but have slowly gotten more into Slayer as the years progress mostly because of the Seasons in the Abyss album.

The real reason I was here was Marilyn Manson. I found somebody nearby willing to share a joint with me and I was off. They opened with “We’re From America” and that whipped me into a frenzy. It was cool to see them play “Little Horn” because I don’t think I had ever seen them play that song in all the times I had seen them before. They played the very electric version of “Four Rusted Horses” and that was also pretty badass but I think this was a turning point in the show. The only other new song they played was “Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon.” They ended with “The Beautiful People” and just like that after exactly an hour they were gone. No encore. I guess that’s what you get when you see him at a festival. After the long ride back home and a shitty night’s sleep I woke up with sore neck and back muscles from crazy head banging. I must have had a good time…

Marilyn Manson 8/25/07

Marilyn Manson was touring for Eat Me, Drink Me that had just been released less than three months before this show. I went with Donna, a girl I had been seeing since the beginning of the year with a white contact in one of my eyes leftover from my previous year’s vampire Halloween costume. I remember this show being General Admission (my favorite) because we sat in a seat for Slayer and went down to the floor for Marilyn Manson. Tim Skold had moved from bass to take over lead guitar duties for this tour. It was not the same as seeing Twiggy and John 5 but was an upgrade from the last time I had seen Marilyn Manson in L.A.

This was apparently a time period where Marilyn Manson was especially taken with Lewis Carroll. He reportedly began to make a movie called Phantasmagoria: The Visons of Lewis Carroll where he was to play Mr. Carroll around this time but scrapped it due to the emotional drain it was having on his psyche. The Alice In Wonderland influence on the album/show was evident throughout this show, especially when they played “Are You the Rabbit?” (my favorite song on the new album) and brought a giant chair out onstage. Unrelated but this may have also been the first time I saw the “knife microphone.”

SETLIST: If I Was Your Vampire, Disposable Teens, mOBSCENE, Are You the Rabbit?, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)/Lunchbox, Just a Car Crash Away, Heart-Shaped Glasses, Rock Is Dead, The Dope Show, Putting Holes in Happiness, The Fight Song, The Reflecting God, Antichrist Superstar, The Beautiful People

KUFO Rockfest 7/15/00

The Tattoo the Earth tour was a tour that featured several bands and prominent tattoo artists. It also took the place of the normal KUFO Rockfest for the year 2000. I was interested in Downset because my friends and I had got into their self-titled album years earlier. Their set was alright. I would have been into Sepultura but Max Cavalera had already left the band by this point. Mudvayne was there but not yet on my radar. Coal Chamber was scary to watch simply because the band members look scary. Slayer was Slayer. Even though I’m not a huge Sevendust fan they impressed me because the two guitar players were doing some insane things going back and forth feeding off each other. This was the second time I saw Slipknot but I was still not really a fan of their music. I remember one moment when Corey Taylor wanted everyone to crouch down and jump up right when the song hit its peak. That was pretty weird because I have never seen so many people do as they were told at a rock show. The truth is that I really could of gave a shit about the other bands; I was there to see STP again for the first time in six years. This show marked STP’s return to Portland for the first time since they had reunited. They had just released their comeback album, No. 4, the previous fall. I attended the show with Joe, Roscoe, and Lucinda. Joe and Roscoe had both driven in from out of town to stay with Lucinda and I and had a little quarrel later this night at our house. As far as STP’s performance, it was pretty flawless. Scott Weiland was upset with one of the DJ’s at KUFO because in an interview earlier that day he had been asked questions about his family. One highlight was putting Lucinda on my shoulders so she could see (she’s about 5 foot 2). She was the only one at this point towering over the crowd and therefore Scott Weiland was looking right at her for a good portion of time while he was singing. Another highlight was when they played “Crackerman.” The place just erupted. The final thing I remember was them pumping police siren sounds through the sound system when they left the stage, which was funny because they seemed to be mocking all of Weiland’s recent problems with the police.

STP-4

Ozzfest 7/18/99

Main Stage: Black Sabbath, Rob Zombie, Deftones, Slayer, Primus, Godsmack, System of a Down

Second Stage: Fear Factory, Static-X, Slipknot, Puya, Drain STH, hed (pe), Apartment 26, Flashpoint

This was the first Ozzfest that had come in my proximity. Ozzfest had been going since 1996 and kind of filled the summer void that Lollapalooza had left. I was pretty excited about this show because every band on the main stage was a band I wanted to see even though I had already seen some of the bands before. A girl in one of my classes named Tawni turned me onto System of a Down. I was lucky enough to sit next to her in my math class and we had similar musical musings. My cousin Earl really liked them too and gave me their first album on CD for my 21^st birthday. They were the first band on the main stage and touring for their eponymous album. Claude strikes again though. Bless his soul but the guy’s just not all there sometimes and this time he didn’t quite comprehend the importance of leaving at a specified time. Long story short we arrived just in time to see the last 3 songs of System of a Down’s set. By we I mean Earl and I only because we ran all the way down to the floor from the moment we arrived inside the Pearly Gates. I believe Roscoe was also with us? The next band up was Godsmack who was also touring for their eponymous album. They were on it. They played pretty much their whole first album. Primus was next and let me just say that Les Claypool is a badass. They were still a few months away from releasing Antipop so they technically touring for their EP of cover songs Rhinoplasty. This is probably about the time in the show we started shifting from the first stage to the second stage all the way up on the hill. We saw Static-X up there, who was on tour for their new album Wisconsin Death Trip! We also saw Slipknot who had just unleashed their debut eponymous album on the world a few short weeks earlier. I wasn’t really into them at the time but did find it quite entertaining to see nine guys dressed up in fucked up masks rocking their ass off and just flat out going crazy onstage. Back to the mainstage was Slayer whose newest effort at the time was Diabolus in Musica. I love their fat ass guitar riffs but at the time just could not get with Tom Araya’s voice. Next up was Deftones. This was the third time I was lucky enough to see them and they were nothing short of amazing. Deftones are a hard act to follow but Rob Zombie somehow managed. It had only been three months since the last time I saw him but I think this performance was much better. Maybe it was just because I knew Korn wasn’t following him this time. The closing band was none other than Black Sabbath! I’m not talking about that shit with Dio, I’m talking about the real Black Sabbath with Ozzy. I was as excited about this as any other band of the day. Never in a million years did I think I would ever get the opportunity to see a band that was huge in the 1970’s. I really got into Black Sabbath when I was about 16. It started with the album Paranoid and then I bought the whole catalog one album at a time. They did not disappoint me. Ozzy was still as crazy as he was made out to be, Tony Iommi was razor sharp on his riffs, and the rhythm section was holding down the groove. Little did I know that this would not be the last time I would see them.