Coronavirus Concert Casualties

Concert Plans

Gatherings of 250 people became officially banned in San Diego as of March 13th, 2020. Nationwide lockdown followed shortly after. The list of concerts below are the ones I intended to attend that have been impacted (so far):

  • 3/13/20 Local H @ Belly Up – RESCHEDULED to 10/10/20 – Local H was set to open for Soul Asylum in support of their album Lifers that was about to drop on 4/10/20 Local-H-Lifers

UPDATE 4/24: Local H decided to let fans on their Facebook page vote on an entire album from their catalog for them to play live from their “bunker” in Chicago. The album that received the most votes was Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles? and they livestreamed their performance on both Facebook and YouTube. I would have paid good money to see this live so this was quite a treat as the first livestream concert I ever watched. The picture quality was better on Facebook but the sound was better on YouTube.HHH

  • 3/28/20 Rage Against the Machine @ Pan American Center, Las Cruces, NM – POSTPONED – Before Rage announced a full tour there were originally only five shows scheduled: El Paso, TX, Las Cruces, NM, Phoenix, AZ and as the headliner for both weekends of Coachella. I had no interest in going to Coachella due to the expense and “scene” that I am very much not a part of so Phoenix was the logical choice due knowing people that live there and distance but New Mexico was on a Saturday. That was enough reason for a group of us to decide that a trip was in order. Rage

UPDATE 5/1: The rescheduled tour dates have arrived and it looks like I will not be seeing Rage Against the Machine until May 2021!

  • 4/4/20 Loudermilk @ The Uptown Theatre, Richland, WA – POSTPONED – This was to be the first time I had been “home” in over nine years and with The Ladybird Unition set to open it was going to be like I was 17 years old all over again.Loudermilk Postponed
  • 4/13/20 Pearl Jam @ Viejas Arena (SDSU) – POSTPONED – Pearl Jam was one of the first bands that decided to halt their tour. This was to be only my second time seeing Pearl Jam and ironically at the same place that I saw them the first time. This tour was slated in support of the new album Gigaton released on 3/27/20.
  • 4/24/20 The Darkness @ Observatory – POSTPONED – The Darkness was set to tour for their newest effort Easter Is Cancelled, which turned out to be a prophetic title.Easter Is Cancelled

UPDATE 5/15: CANCELLED – Well Poop2

  • 5/8/20 The Rolling Stones @SDCCU Stadium – POSTPONED – This was to be the second time I had the pleasure of seeing the Stones. As a bonus this was going to be the opening night of the tour within walking distance of my place on a Friday…
  • 5/22/20 System of a Down, Korn, Faith No More and Helmet @ Banc of California Stadium – POSTPONED – This was a one-off concert in L.A. that had such high demand that a second show was added.

SOAD

UPDATE 5/22: RESCHEDULED – This event will now happen on the same date in 2021 as if this year never happened at all.SKFH

  • 6/10 Styx @ San Diego County Fair – CANCELLED – This was set to be my second time seeing Styx but the show and better yet the entire county fair for 2020 was cancelled.SDFair
  • 7/12 The Black Keys @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – This was to be my third time seeing these Ohio natives. Good thing I was able to see the beginning of the “Let’s Rock” tour back in November.Screen Shot 2020-05-19 at 6.41.20 PM
  • 7/19 Incubus and 311 @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – Two bands that I like on the same bill is always a treat. I guess this would instead fall under the category of trick.Screen Shot 2020-05-21 at 9.04.27 PM
  • 7/23 Motley Crue @ Petco Park – ??? – On May 1st Motley Crue released a statement saying “Our goal is to have an official update to everyone by June 1 outlining exactly how we will proceed.” All signs are pointing towards an inevitable postponement/cancellation.

UPDATE 6/1: POSTPONED – Shocking!Motley

  • 7/24 Weezer/Green Day @ Petco Park – POSTPONED – What was to be a rare concert on a Friday night is no more…until 2021

     

  • 7/30 Ministry @ House of Blues San Diego – RESCHEDULED – There is a website called bandsintown.com that I am on the email list for and this was how I learned that the Ministry show got rescheduled to April 29, 2021. Hopefully Uncle Al is still around.Ministry Postponed
  • 8/1 Primus and Wolfmother @ Open Air Theatre – POSTPONED – This was going to be a unique show with Primus undertaking the task of replicating Rush’s 1977 classic album A Farewell To Kings. I was also looking forward to seeing the entire Wolfmother performance after the last one got cut short.Screen Shot 2020-05-21 at 8.43.25 PM
  • 8/8 Guns N’ Roses @ Sofi Stadium – POSTPONED – This was going to be my second time seeing GNR and first time visiting the new gazillion dollar monolith stadium in L.A. where the Rams and Chargers will play.Screen Shot 2020-05-21 at 8.56.33 PM
  • 9/1 Disturbed @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – POSTPONED – This tour was to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the debut album The Sickness, which now seems like an even more apt title.Screen Shot 2020-05-21 at 9.11.54 PM
  • 10/9-10/11 Aftershock Festival @ Discovery Park, Sacramento – CANCELLED – See you in 2021!

Aftershock Cancelled

  • 11/1 Aaron Lewis and Sully Erna @ Del Mar Fairgrounds – CANCELLED – Just when I thought I was going to get some sort of live music even this got cancelled… 

The Black Keys 11/17/19

The Black Keys 11:17:19

On June 28th 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

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