What a day leading into an insane night... onSunday, in the 28th edition of The Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series, we debuted the third annual Summer Concert Series section of the little thing we have going on here. Out to the Susquehanna Bank Center for the MMR(93.3FM) BBQ in Camden, NJ for Stone Temple Pilots & Alice In Chains with Three Days Grace, Fuel, Skillet, Dive and Automatic Fire.. Doors open at 12 and the first band (Automatic Fire) set to hit the stage at 1:30PM... I had a few questions coming into this show. For one thing, 1:30PM? So then how late exactly will this run, will we be exiting at 8:30 or something? Another thing, this is the first time the Jay Porks Experience has made its way to this venue, the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ.. We had no idea what to expect besides being told that it was “just like PNC”, referring to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Homdel, NJ.. So lets check it out shall we? About an hour and a half ride from my house in Staten Island, we rolled into the parking lot before 2PM, and the scene is one for the ages. For all the non-New Yorkers out there reading this a quick back story.. frequenting shows in New York City-We wait on lines to be squeeze into 800 person capacity venues-going from freezing on a city street to sweating in an oversold rock venue within seconds only to spend money on $7 beers and $13 shots for anyone to get their “buzz” on before their favorite band hits the stage.. Even at PNC in Homdel, NJ-due to an altercation that occurred during a 2007 Ozzfest show-you cannot tailgate in the parking lot. That means NO pregaming what so ever. So believe it that when Pam and I rolled into this parking lot and saw, what was basically one big party, we were pumped as ever.. reached into the cooler and cracked open some beers-at Supermarket discount prices...
Everyone is just having a great time.. there are some older people a few spots to the left of us, and a 'Smart Car' on our right.. So we're just hanging there, figuring we're going to head in when everyone else starts heading in (or at least until we each get through a six pack).. the row in adjacent to ours we're looking at has a few chicks dancing on the back of a pick up truck with others tossing a beach ball around and all the way to the right of us is a few other girls standing on top of vans-everyone screaming in joy with music blasting from their cars.. a few guys in the older group to the left of us started screaming to this moderately attractive girl with a hat on-sort of like a top hat.. they start screaming “SHOW US YOUR TITS!!”.. Finally I'm next to some people that I can hang with.. So when I reached into the car for another beer, a roar from the surrounding crowd begins-she flashed everyone, and I MISSED IT! Damn. A dude from the older group to our left went over and handed her a beer, she was resistant to take it since she was drinking what appeared to be that Mikes hard Lemonade stuff-the thing we all drank before we choose the crappy taste of normal beer over days of acid indigestion.. Continuing on, one of the women in the older group to our left is being asked to “show us your tits” by the girl who just flashed everyone and her surrounding group.. that's when this women, who honestly was not an eye sore at all, answers them by screaming “You don't want to see them trust me-I've been through child birth!”.. a few minutes later, she's next to the younger chick who flashed everyone( but me) before with a couple of surrounding dudes and chicks looking on and I said “Wait a second!” and ran over there to get in good view and said “I can't miss this”.. the two girls standing next to each other- the top hatted party girl and the early 40's looking woman who claimed we didn't “want to see these” with hands at the bottom of their shirts ready to go with about 10 of us looking on from the close up.. and then they whipped em' out.. Great stuff... and the woman who said we didn't want to see them-lets just say we enjoyed her's more than the top hat party girl chick.. a few minutes after this it was already past 4 o clock believe it or not and we headed inside after the groups around us had already done so..
The parking stub said things like “Cameras”, “Illegal Drugs” and “Sharp objects” are prohibited.. yet somehow after I was patted down and forced to open my cigarette pack to show insider contents, somehow I'm walking into the venue with all of the above... Pam and I grabbed a couple of those frozen alcoholic flavored beverages in a yard glass for $11.. looking over at the tee shirt prices of $35 and $45 listed, I didn't even get myself on that line-I can't exactly take out a loan for a tee shirt.. we sat in the concessions area with everyone else who was standing around people trying to hit the target on one of those dunk tanks-a few moderately attractive girls were 
taking turns on the hot seat... as this is going on, Pam says “I guess we missed Shimmer”, referring to Fuel being on stage at the moment.. they played from 4:20 to about a quarter after 5pm.... we then decided to head to the lawn section of the venue, which surrounds the area behind the 7000 seat weather-proof section with a 'Pit' section in front of that, which standing room and closest to the stage...
I bought two lawn tickets and Pam had two 'Pit' tickets, and since it was just the two of us we were going to take full advantage of both sections of this venue.. we went to the lawn first to sit on the grass for a little bit while Three Days Grace
was on-this is in the 6 o clock hour.. all I kept saying was “Come on play those two or three good songs you guys have”.. I heard them playing “I hate everything about you” and I was like “Yea! That's what I'm talking about!”.. then as we started into some recreational use of Marijuana, I turned to the various people around me and asked who wanted to engage-about six people did, and we were all chatting it up sitting on the grass not being annoyed by event staff or anything enjoying a show.. it was cool for that moment.. then we realized in a little while, this crazy day would turn into an even crazier night.. the plan is to move down to the “Pit” after Three Days Grace finishes their set at about 6:55 PM, and that's when we set the plan and motion-and 
headed towards the 'Pit' for the main events of the affair...
At about 7:25pm, Alice In Chains hit the stage an emphatically put their stamp on the evenings proceedings about two songs in-kicking it off with “Them Bones” and “Dam That River”-Alice In Chains probably the heaviest band I've ever seen live-we were deafened immediately.. They were doing it-like they never skipped a beat... William DuVall isn't imitating Layne Staley-that's just the way he actually sings, which is what makes it so eerie...And he and Jerry can trade leads when he's playing guitar on songs...
Now Jerry Cantrell-there is a guitar player. It's a shame that he spent years inactive on the shelf without a band-his playing is on such a level that it's a travesty it was absent from society all these years... I mean when they start playing “Angry Chair” then lead that into “Man In The
Box” you don't hear the message board junkies screaming “it's not the same without Layne!”.. all you have is all of us, some younger and some older than others-you have this crowd rocking to one of the greatest bands of our lifetimes.. I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but: Layne who? Come on-'Black Gives Way to Blue' was a great record (#3 on the Jay Porks top 10 of 2009).. the two hit singles off the record they played mid-set: “Your Decision” and “Check My Brain” were amazing live with DuVall strumming the opening chords on an acoustic then sticking with the electric the rest of the song.. it was brilliant all around.. Alice In Chains(This was known to me already but was announced by the band during the set) is embarking on the biggest tour they've ever been on..with Layne, they hardly were able to tour due to his(and probably other band members at times) drug issues.. now, on the “BlackDiamondSkye” tour, with the Deftones and Mastodon, they are set to headline Madison Square Garden on September 24th of this year-that's going to by far be the biggest Alice In Chains show in history-they are back. This is NOT a reunion tour.. when they played “We Die Young”-there was nobody there including ourselves who thought this was anything but slightly beneath heaven what was being 
experienced... the epic set continued with hard hitting song after hard hitting song til about 8:40PM when they played a kick ass version of “Rooster” and exited into the night-freakin epic.... consider us and everyone else around completely blown away... WOW... gotta get BlackDiamondSkye tickets.....
After we grabbed drinks and pit stops at the bathrooms, we headed back towards the 'Pit' area
and I saw written on a piece of paper that STP hits the stage at 9:15.. much to my surprise, they came out around 9:20, which isn't so bad if we're going by Scott Wieland time. They kicked it off with “Vasoline”, with the screen behind them getting lit up with weird visuals in tune with the light show and song.. Alice In Chains had some slight stuff going on this screen but STP had a whole schpeel going.. it was cool I guess.. and here's the thing that STP does best of bands I see live-they play all those songs you want to hear.. they have a new record coming out-they played like 4 songs off it tops, and they kicked it til about 10:45.. kick ass versions of “Sour Girl”, “Interstate Love Song”, “Big Empty”.. Dean Deleo kicking ass over there and for some reason reminding me of Joe Perry-maybe the hair style.. then we got Robbie Deleo on Bass and he's got the 'Joe Cool' look going-big sunglasses-leaning over conveniently towards people holding up cameras.. I got them doing “Between the Lines”, which if you listen to the bridge part of the song it's an exact copy of the bridge part of Nirvana's “Stay Away”-but that's what STP is known for.. doing what others do best.. Scott looked like he's clean I guess-one can never quite tell.. he had the megaphone going in full effect all night.. “Crackerman”, “Creep”, “Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart” all serious crowd pleasers.. they played “Tumble in the Rough”-thats a song I happen to like but Scott said they hardly do it live, and the two previous times I've seen them they didn't play it.. but STP was upstaged in the highlight of their set, when they invited
Jerry Cantrell out on stage to play “Sex Type Thing” with them.. That was beyond epic.. imagine “Sex Type Thing” with that Alice In Chains sounding riff that Jerry provides.. I have it on video of course...Jerry and Dean facing each other and playing viciously-then trading solos.. this is the definition of tearing the house down... After that Jerry left stage but no one forgot-they played “Dead and Bloated” before ending the night at 10:45 after the aforementioned 'trippin on a hole'... great set... amazing night... I can't believe Jerry Cantrell totally blew them off stage by himself.. brilliance....
Seriously-what more can be said? Just go to the Jay Porks Experience YouTube Channel-link is in the side bar somewhere over there and take a look at all the videos I got from the show... Until then check back here for late editions to the concert calender and chances to get free tickets to shows-LATE...
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