Wolfmother

Coronavirus Concert Casualties

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
10/9-10/11 Aftershock Festival @ Discovery Park, Sacramento – CANCELLED – See you in 2021!

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…

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

Epicenter 8/22/09

The Fairplex in Pomona is basically the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds that underwent a name change in 1984 and host to the largest county fair in the world. I drove up with Bob and a guy he works with to get scorched by the sun and a pretty solid lineup.

The first band we gave any shit about was Street Sweeper Social Club, which was Tom Morello’s new project with Boots Riley from The Coup on microphone duties. I did not have the benefit of really listening to their newly released self-titled debut album before we saw them because I only learned of them at all very shortly before the show. In an article written by Alex Young in Consequence of Sound Morello described the project/album as “revolutionary party jams. It’s got huge steamroller riffs combined with depth, charge, funk, while Boots unloads clip after clip of incendiary rhymes rich with satire and venom.” Boots Riley added “this is a time when the working class is being fleeced left and right. More families will be homeless and more people will be jobless. They’ll need something to listen to on their iPods while storming Wall Street.” The music was all those things. I only wish I had the benefit of getting to know the songs prior to seeing the performance.

Wolfmother was up next and I had just seen them open for STP less than a month before this. They were awesome again but essentially put on the same show as the first time I saw them.

Alice In Chains was the first band I really really wanted to see again. This was to be my third time seeing them with William DuVall singing but now they were only a month away from releasing the excellent Black Gives Way to Blue so we got to hear “Check My Brain” and “A Looking in View” in addition to the classics. It was a little strange to see them in full daylight but they killed it.

Linkin Park was up next and I had not seen them since the two times I saw them back in 2001 when they were touring for Hybrid Theory. At this point they were a full on hit factory and their newest album was their third album Minutes to Midnight. They were touring pros by now so the set was very tight and they looked like they had gained some confidence after years on the road.

Closing out the night was the almighty Tool. I do not care how many times I have seen them they still blow my mind. It’s like an old friend that you haven’t seen in awhile and I had not seen them for almost two years since I saw them in Spokane. Tool is an experience. The visuals are on par with the epic nature of the music and the whole thing can very easily put someone into a trance like state. The pot that I smoked did not do anything to counter this feeling. The newest album was still 10,000 Days but I was in hog heaven. Adam Jones has a way of playing guitar sometimes where he appears to be staring into the crowd fixated on one spot as he is pulling off these badass rhythms. We were watching from his side of the stage and I was right in his stare zone, which was messing with me in my state of affairs. Also of note was that Maynard performed on crutches due to an injury. Not that it affected his performance since he stays in the back of the stage anyway, but it was pretty cool he did not call off the show.

Stone Temple Pilots 7/27/08

Twice in the same month? You bet your sweet ass. For some reason concert promoters thought it would be a good idea to have some concerts this summer in what was essentially a small practice field in the southwest corner of the parking lot of the stadium where the Chargers played. They touted it as “Concerts on the Green” at Qualcomm and the space probably held about 5,000 people. The show was general admission, which meant Sam, Marvin, Bob and I were free to roam as we pleased which of course meant up close in the action.

Wolfmother opened and was awesome, especially when they played “Joker & the Thief.” They were still touring behind their eponymous debut album released nearly three years before this. I am continually amazed at two and three piece bands.

As for STP it was essentially the same show I saw earlier in the month (sans mushrooms); great energy, great set list, great performance. Weiland seemed to be a little more riled up but STP did have a history with San Diego. At one point during “Sex Type Thing” Weiland climbed the scaffolding, which is always a crowd pleaser.

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Rock N Roll Recollections

Fuzzy recollections of bands that rocked my world

Wolfmother

Coronavirus Concert Casualties

Wolfmother 5/16/19

Stone Temple Pilots 7/27/08