Soma

Parkway Drive 8/30/18

Parkway Drive Flyer

Bob caught wind of a crazy Australian band called Parkway Drive on Sirius XM’s Octane channel and suggested I check them out. I am not sure which of their songs I heard first but they definitely sounded like something that was worth further inspection.

This was the first show I had been to at Soma for about eight years and once Bob and I arrived I could not help but notice the larger security presence all around, although this could have been due to the heavier nature of the bands playing. It was a far cry from being able to walk in the back door like Marvin and I used to do. I had also forgotten what a sweatbox Soma is. When we entered to see the last half of August Burns Red I was quickly reminded that there is zero ventilation in that place so you are going to sweat even if you decide to watch the show in a stationary position.

Parkway Drive was touring for their sixth album Reverence that was released on May 4th and this was the opening night of the tour. Right after I randomly ran into the gal that cuts my hair the house sound system started playing quite the warmup of singalong 80’s songs such as Mr. Mister’s “Kyrie,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer,” which I thought was a very funny tongue-in-cheek move for such a heavy band.

Once the band came out the crowd went absolutely apeshit. Usually a small mosh pit will erupt near the front of the stage but for Parkway Drive the mosh pit went front to back. It was full on meathead madness with more than one person cruising around throwing haymakers. I was completely sober and not entirely familiar with the songs so it was interesting trying to hold the position I was in. Some idiot kept finding water bottles and windmilling them over his head so I was soaked in no time but to be fair I was already gross from sweating and it did feel kind of good.

Frontman Winston McCall did a great job of well, being a frontman. He was able to continually whip the crowd into a frenzy with just a few choice words and commanded the stage like that was exactly where he was supposed to be. The dual guitar attack of Luke Kilpatrick and Jeff Ling fed well off of one another and the rhythm section of Jia O’Connor and Ben Gordon held down the fort. The songs are very accessible. I don’t want to say predictable breaks but rather something akin to following along with the bouncing ball onscreen. Digestible. All I know is that Parkway Drive made a new fan that night.

SETLIST: Wishing Wells, Prey, Carrion, Vice Grip, Dedicated, Boneyards, Cemetery Bloom, The Void, Idols and Anchors, Dead Man’s Chest, Karma, Absolute Power, Wild Eyes, Crushed, Bottom Feeder

Parkway Drive Reverence

The Black Keys 9/25/10

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I don’t think The Black Keys came into my orbit until I heard the song “Strange Times.” Shortly after this a roommate of mine schooled me on the rest of their catalog that I had been missing out on. My first opportunity to see them after my awakening came as they were touring for the album Brothers that had come out just four months prior to this. In my eyes they were already a huge band after Attack & Release so I was both floored and confused to learn they were going to play at Soma, which only holds about 2,700 people. It sounded great in theory but getting a ticket was an entirely different animal. Tickets were going for an exorbitant amount on the resale market because the concert was sold out and I did not feel like relying on the old ‘walk through the back door’ trick as I did in the past.

Just as I was coming to grips that I probably would not be attending an angel came to me in the form of a manager that worked where I did at the time. She was over shooting the breeze and I randomly mentioned my frustration with the situation. She disappeared and when she re-appeared about an hour later handed me a piece of paper. It was a ticket to the show! I said “no way” and asked her how much she wanted for it. FREE!!! As in here you go no strings attached. Apparently one of her friends bailed last minute so she had an extra and told me she would rather give it to someone that she knew actually wanted to go instead of mess with selling it.

I decided to ride my bicycle to the venue because it was only about two miles away and I wanted to smoke a joint beforehand. This pot was good stuff so when I arrived at the security checkpoint one of the security guards (not even the one that patted me down) said “Whooooeee. That’s some stinky shit!” as he looked at me with a mile wide smile. Being called out by a security guard is usually the kind of thing that makes a person paranoid but I could tell by his smile that there was no reason for alarm.

The Black Keys killed. So much sound and groove coming from just the two of them. This is one of the those bands that plays better live than on the record. They played with an urgency that I had not seen in awhile and their set was just downright explosive. This would be the last time being able to see The Black Keys in such small quarters since Brothers ended up being their commercial breakthrough, which meant on to bigger arenas/stadium shows.

SETLIST: Thickfreakness, Girl Is On My Mind, 10 A.M. Automatic, Stack Shot Billy, The Breaks, Everywhere I Go, Everlasting Light, Next Girl, Chop and Change, Howlin’ for You, Tighten Up, She’s Long Gone, Ten Cent Pistol, I’ll Be Your Man, Strange Times, I Got Mine, Sinister Kid, Your Touch

 

Chevelle 10/24/07

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This was to be my third time seeing Chevelle, who was now touring for the excellent album Vena Sera that had come out about six months before this, but unfortunately Mother Nature had other ideas. Wildfires had gone out of control from the border of Mexico all the way up to Los Angeles, causing this concert to be cancelled…

San Diego Union Tribune

Chevelle-Vena Sera

The Raconteurs 7/19/06

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I am obviously a fan of The White Stripes and got lucky enough to see them about a year before this show, but then Jack White took a left turn and made an album with some old friends. They formed a more traditional rock lineup and called themselves The Raconteurs. The resulting album is Broken Boy Soldiers that was released only two months before this show. I used to date a girl that had Rhapsody, which was my first exposure to streaming music. It was over at her place that I heard “Steady, As She Goes” for the first time and I got really excited once I identified the voice to be Jack White’s. Once I learned they were coming to San Diego I started bugging Marvin to go with me. For whatever reason he kept pussyfooting and I did not want to buy the tickets until he gave me the thumbs up. Long story short I was almost certain the show would sell out so I bought two tickets, of which I used one and sold one since Marvin flaked. Nowadays he just beats himself up over it kind of like he does for the time he decided to not see Alice In Chains with me back in 1993 but I digress… seeing these guys in a place as small as SOMA right after they released their debut album was a concert lover’s wet dream. Jack White was able to play a little looser since he had another guitar, bass, drums and Brendan Benson’s voice backing him up. They stretched out some of the songs but definitely played every song on the album mixed in with some covers.

A couple minutes of shitty footage from this show

Chevelle 1/27/05

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So this was my second time seeing Helmet, my second time seeing Chevelle and my second time sneaking into Soma. It was Marvin and I again and we literally did the same thing we did previously at Static-X: had several beers at Chili’s and walked right through the back door like we owned the place. There were other bands on this tour besides Helmet and Chevelle but we did not care about them. Helmet had the same lineup and pretty much the same set list as when we saw them back in October but it was still awesome to see them again. Chevelle on the other hand had released the new album This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In) back on September 21st and I had not seen them since they rocked Ozzfest in the summer of 2003. I did not know they had a new album out until I stumbled upon it at Tower Records but was not disappointed. I remember being happy that they played a ton of the new songs and also remember thinking that their songs translated much better to this smaller venue instead of the giant amphitheater.

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Static-X 9/1/04

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There is a Chili’s in the parking lot of the Sports Arena that neighbors Soma. Marvin and I decided to stop in to have some beers before the show since Soma is an all ages venue. We did not have tickets yet but checked with the box office earlier and they were far from sold out. As we were drinking Marvin said wouldn’t it be funny if we just snuck in. As more beers went down our throat we convinced ourselves that this would be a great idea. What’s the worst that could happen kind of scenario? As previously stated Soma is not a large venue. You can walk around the building and see where the bands are going in (not terribly hard to spot a tour bus). Anyway we approached the back door and there was only one guy “watching” it. We just put on our most confident faces and walked in like we owned the place. No problem. Once inside though we were a little lost and tried making a left turn. A guy stopped us and said “oh you want to go that way” and pointed us to the floor. I don’t know if this person knew what was going on but if he did he just did not give a fuck. Static X ripped as usual. Another funny moment was when the drummer threw a drumstick out into the crowd and I solidly got a hand on it. Someone else got a hand on it too but I used all of my strength to try to wrangle it from this other person until I realized it was Marvin. We laughed and I kept the drum stick. It would be less than six months from this show that the guitarist Tripp Eisen would be kicked out of the band for sexual assault charges. I asked someone inside for their ticket stub which is how I ended up with one.

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs 6/10/04

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It’s fitting that my first concert in San Diego was of a band I was seeing for the first time who I had originally heard about through my friend Aria, the first friend I made in Portland. This concert was roughly two months after I moved and I still felt like I was on vacation in what truly is “America’s Finest City.” We lived two blocks from the ocean and two blocks from the action of Newport Avenue in eclectic OB. Coming to the southern most point of California sight unseen would change my life forever but then again that was kind of the idea.

Soma is cool little venue that hides in a strip mall and feels like a high school gymnasium inside. The Killers opened up and were blowing up thanks to their song “Somebody Told Me” but I had no shits to give because they just don’t do it for me. Most people there were into it but I remember sitting down in the back with Marvin because we just weren’t into it and it was rather warm that evening inside of the Soma.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs were touring for their debut album Fever To Tell that had been released about a year earlier, but their popularity soared when they released the song “Maps” as a single about two months before this show. I bought the album after Aria turned me onto it and they played pretty much the entire album. I love watching three-piece bands. This one is unique because you have an intricate guitarist and a drummer pounding the shit out of the drums with a lovely female voice. I play guitar so I was enamored by the way the guitarist would play something and then loop it so he could play something over the loop. Amazing.

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