Soundgarden, QOTSA, Mastodon & The Meat Puppets 7/30/11 Gorge Amphitheater

Spent much of this weekend just staring around in amazement, repeating the phrase “Holy freaking God” over and over again. This is a special 53rd installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series as it takes us to Newark Airport where I hopped on a plane and came out to Washington State(Home of the Cougs) to meet up with some of the Northwest chapter of Concert Confessions: thenaturalstoner ,Mr Sparkly and maybe more of us, since my count is five of us who will be in attendance enjoying the epic bill of Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age, Mastodon, and The Meat Puppets on a awesome summer Saturday at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA... Had NOOOO idea what I was getting myself into..

'We're not at PNC Bank Arts Center anymore' is the thought in my head as we start to drive into the campground.. yea that's right I said it, campground. A sea of tents pitched everywhere, people getting wasted everywhere; and I know I've written similar sentences to the last two in previous show experiences, but this place was about 1000 times the size of ANY venue I've ever been to in my homeland on the Least coast. If I was at this show by myself, there's no way camping out all night would've even been a thought in my head. We don't camp in NYC, we take sweaty train rides home after shows and get home at 2AM... but there I was after the show sleeping on a folding chair outside the tent using a sleeping bag as a blanket (its been HOT in New York, couldn't let that freezing cold overnight go to waste-I've been sweating for months).

So we pitch a tent, camp out and pre-funk for a little while.. we decide to head down to the box office and claim the photo passes that were left for us through me via Meat Puppets personnel.. To not run off on a tangent here, lets just send out thanks over to those retards(Livenation) that run the box office at this place for fucking that photo pass experience up for me. If I wasn't walking over this hill and seeing heaven on the other side, I'd be super pissed-as opposed to just really pissed.

So after several up hill climbs through the scorching hot sun (Yea, I came to Washington State and didn't see one drop of rain, not one CLOUD my entire time here! False advertisement right there-I thought I was escaping the heat), we finally make it to the the gigantic mountainside that is The Gorge Amphitheater.. I've been to venues with lawn based seating, but this is ONLY lawn seating and the hill is a hell of a lot of steep then the one at PNC and that similar, bigger venue in Camden, NJ.. and it's not a polluted highway behind the stage, it's a freaking river. It's like this piece of land split in half causing a canyon to open-and they placed a stage in the middle. I know I sound a little too blown away by seeing the Northwest -but I'm from the city, this is all new to me. A one mile stretch without a cement building is something I've never seen before-let alone a valley.

Meat Puppets come out at 6PM with the guns blazing. I knew it was gonna be “Oh, Me” by the sound of the guitar jingles.. but I didn't know they were going to come out that intense with it. I was thrilled to see as many people down on the cement area in front of the stage(every part of this place is general admission-lawn tickets get you everywhere here) can walk down to the front and get rocking out.. Because I know a lot of people are missing them right now, and that sucks. Jumped into “Sam”, the lyrical demonstration that it is..moving faster than R.E.M.'s “It's the end of the world as we know it”.. Then “Plateau”, which was fitting considering we hiked many hills and plateau's to arrive where we are. Except there was way more “nothing at the top but a bucket and a mop”, there was the freaking Meat Puppets right in front of me for the seventh time. It was the first time I've ever seen Curt Kirkwood use his Les Paul live with my own eyes before, the six times on the east coast I've seen them he played his teal Fender Strat.. That's a query I need answered: Is it a coastal thing? Not like they sound any different, it's just something that's been in the back of my mind for a while. “Backwater” followed, the one Meat Puppets song I was able to get played on the radio when I was the in-studio guest at my local college radio station a week ago(88.9 WSIA or www.WSIA.fm), so we were diggin our heels in, and again I loved the people up front so into it. That one time I caught the Pups as a first opener there was like 30 of us there at a 3500+ capacity venue.. so glad I'm in WA. When they followed Backwater with “Sloop John B” (Beach Boys cover) I started getting really excited. Not for Sloop John B so much as for the fact that I was completely sold on the fact they would play “Hey Baby Que Paso”, I've been going over the lyrics to the song with the kitchen staff at my day job for months. Then I recognize the little lead in that's about to be “Lake of Fire”.. as much as I love that freakin' song, it was like a stab in the chest because I knew the set was ending in a little over 7 minutes when the end this song.. Damn, I figured this venue would give them at least 40 mins, they got a half hour, if not less. Again I'm not exactly from around these parts, but I know for a fact that the Meat Puppets didn't request to only play six songs. I think doors should've opened earlier and had longer sets for the bands. It's not like we're in a residential area here-we're all camping here all night.. I don't see why they needed to squeeze in a 4^th band if they were just going to give them the “Sublime w/ Rome treatment” from my experience 2 weeks ago... they were done at 6:30

Which brings me to my next point: If there's one band to remove from this bill to make this a full out amazing Ménage à trois of great bands playing long sets, which one would it be? Who's the odd man out here? Then at 6:48 when Mastodon came out and we started to make our way back up the lawn, that was the question wondered aloud. And lets not take this as a shot at Mastodon, they do what they do and judging by the herds of people heading down for their set-they do it well. Caught them on the BlackDiamondSkye tour at it's Madison Square Garden stop ...so as they plowed through their 40 minutes set while we were walking up the mammoth lawn; it wasn't like they weren't loud enough where we'd hear the entire set no matter where inside the Gorge we were

Another wild card to the evening, what is Queens of the Stone Age going to play? They've been on a album-themed tour, playing their first record in it's entirety.. and we just had a 30 minute set followed by a 40 minute set. It's 7:53 when they came out, there is a lot of show left tonight.

Not recognizing the first four songs was the indicator that this first album thing was going down. First song I recognized was “Giveth then take it away”.. a little while later we had Josh Homme, who is the man by the way, saying “everyone's waiting for it to get dark so they could do all those things they can't do in the light” … introduced a song called “Make It Wit-Chu”, saying it was a song for the ladies. Then suddenly out of no where we turn and two people just got engaged during the song-now obviously that guy was aware of what the set list was going to be, we should've found him... from that guy popping the question and onward was magic.. my eyes are drawn to the left, as I notice the sun is beginning to set. I know it's happens everyday, but man during those last three songs “Little Sister”, “Go with the Flow” and “No One Knows” with the sun setting and beams of light bouncing off the river and silhouetting the people on the lawn.. man that 8 minutes right there may have been the greatest moment of my life (well, besides Jen Cartiglia of course). They went off at 8:43.. epicness

So it's coming up on 9 and Soundgarden is on deck.. Little note to keep in mind for the duration of Soundgarden's set-I hate Eddie Vedder, and I hate Pearl Jam-personal preference, lets not muddy this up. Anyway, being the last show on Soundgarden's tour and being in their backyard(even though Eddie Vedder is from California,he wears flannel so he can say he's from there) combined with my luck I had a bad feeling we'd be having a Temple of the Dog section of the set and me in tears during everyone's glee. All the awesome stuff I've seen over here in Washington, this gorgeous venue, this epic adventure can easily be turned into another Jay Porks Bogus Journey. I hate to be the one guy in the building praying for it not to happen(no I don't), but I think I'm the only one in the building who traveled 3000+ miles for this. If would be the equivalent to finding out the hottest girl you know has a penis.

Save the suspense, as we can read in Jakob's review, there was no PJ sighting, no Vedder appearances, no Hunger Strike or whatever non sense it is that they do(Also in Jakob's review he mentions the bootleg tee shirts they were selling outside the venue.. it had all four bands listed on it. Not only did it have the wrong Meat Puppets drummer on it in the picture, but above the words Queens of the Stone Age was a picture of Pearl Jam. Vedder staring right at me, didn't notice it til the next day.. I can't get away from this guy). So besides that, I'm also thinking “How is Soundgarden going to top this? Seriously, what are they going to do, play a 2 hour set of nothing but there best?”

To answer the question in my last paragraph-Hell yes. It's exactly what Soundgarden did. The sky was still a bit pink as the sun was behind the mountains. I don't care how far away I was the sound if freaking golden on some of these videos I got.. 9:10 was the official first riff. And speaking of video“Spoonman” was the 2^nd song in.. “Gun” followed-this place is rocking like I've never seen a place rock before. And I got to see “Jesus Christ Pose”! For that girl screaming it in the row in front of me at Town Hall a few weeks back for Cornell's Acoustic Songbook tour. See 2 years ago when Soundgarden said they were getting back together, I didn't think I'd have to wait this long to see them-I thought they'd do some heavy touring-they never did. So these guys were going to have to earn it blowing me away tonight.. and when “Blow up the Outside” smacked me in the face, I knew they were doing just that. Seeing Cornell acoustic songbook tour gave me a reminder that I needed to see this band live, one day, some how. Blow up the Outside at Town Hall just didn't pack the punch that I needed it too-now here, it's laying heavy fists to my face repeatedly..

What's up with the little slowed down version of “Black Hole Sun”? I need that song to blow up in my face not be kinda toned down a bit-but that's my only complaint about that set, and its minor. But really though, is that like, left over from the songbook tour or something? He's screaming like hell on every other song so it's not like he's voice is out.. And then it was only 10:18 when it ended.. which begs the question: So when do they start packing up here? I'm not used to seeing bands just keep playing awesome songs for hours .. everyone else had short sets, who knows.. And keep in mind Vedder walking around the back of my head, me thinking I was going to have to walk out and meet the group at the campground.. Out of no where, Chris Cornell, in one of the more humorous displays I've seen, got pissed off that the NBA took Seattle's basketball team. I don't know what got him, maybe he spotted a Sean Kemp jersey in the crowd- but he starts saying “Man, they fucking too away our team-It's fucking bullshit to take away a basketball team!”

Fell on Black Days, My Wave..-they're still kicking out the fucking jams. During “Burden in my Hand” I asked thenaturalstoner if the lyrics were actually “I shot my load today”.. then around 10:40 he turns and is like “Pretty Noose and I'm good”.. Freaking psychic is what he is, and I forgot how much I love that song. Played “Rusty Cage” and “Head Down” right before it....By now I'm playing with house money, I had stopped taking pictures(or little video snippets) for a while to just sit back and enjoy this.. I'm in the Pacific Northwest watching Soundgarden tear the place apart. We kept saying to each other (Mr Sparkly by now is down front and apparently found Phish Beard) “So what else you think they got?, what else can they play?”

Well they could play , “Head Down”“Outshined”, “Superunknown” before ducking off at 10:52, only to come back out at 10:56 and rock three more songs (which are believed to be new ones, since all five of us Concert Confessions brethren can't name any of them.. actually that's a lie one is called “Room 1000 years wide”, but only knew it because Cornell told us).. on the last song they rocked out and eventually drifted into a pure feedback orgy.. it made me want to cream my pants. They distorted sounds from 11:13 to 11:20, and that's when the sound was turned down.. it was over.

This is usually the time where I gloat about catching whatever scheduled train I need.. but not the case tonight.. we're climbing back up the hill and all the way down back to the campsite, where we will spend the night in the tent.. not for nothing, NYC's been sweltering the last few weeks.. and here, unlike home, when the sun goes down it actually cools off significantly.. I had an extremely comfortable folding chair, plenty of bud and brews-”fuck it ,I'm sleeping outside the tent.. pass my sleeping bag over it's now a blanket”. After the show while we're (Me, thenaturalstoner, Mr Sparkly) discussing the nights proceedings (so glad to be at a show with these dudes, usually when I'm telling a random cab driver or some stranger about an epic night, I spend most of the discussion explaining to them who the bands are. NY is so lame).. main topic is Sparkly being quote “Underwhelmed”.. we would've been able to have a better time had those dickheads camped out next to us hadn't showed up and annoyed the crap out of us. All of a sudden the drummer has a mouth. These dudes say they're in a band that “sounds like NOFX and Blink 182” named after some actor I can't remember the name of now. Anyway, your band sounds like NOFX/Blink 182? Yea, that's just about the time we called it a night.

A side note, my alarm on my phone set to 930 eastern time woke us, and the rest of the surrounding campers up.. seems I'm the only one who didn't hear it until I was awoken.. So we packed up, and headed into Spokane to catch Willie Nelson at the Northern Quest Casino and Resort before I fly home Monday... Awesomeness.

Flaming Lips & Weezer PNC Bank Arts Center NJ 7/28/11

Better a few days late than never, The 52nd edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series takes us back to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Homdel, NJ-the very same place we were 7 days ago, only tonight we're here for The Flaming Lips & Weezer to put on a set in which they are sharing the bill. By sharing the bill, I mean I read that both bands will be setting their gear up on stage at the same time and each band will take turns playing a handful of songs. Read a quote that Rivers Cuomo asked Wayne Coyne if he has an extra bubble he can ride around in. Now this is something different. It refreshing to see bands trying new things, I wonder who's going to encore? Will they play songs together? This has the makings for an eventful few hours. Having said that-lets not count our chickens before they hatch, doors open at 7:30PM and Yeasayer are the first openers. Planning an earlier arrival than last week, which means two things: Not gonna miss any of the sets we planned to see and two, most time to get wasted. And I tend to let the criticism fly more loosely when intoxicated, and I have a feeling these New Jersey folk are gonna get to me tonight after last week.. We shall see....

We pulled into the parking lot around 6, not pulling any punches today-lets not miss anything in case they decide to go on early....We parked in a lot that wasn't miles away from the venue, so we were able to camp out til about 8 or so, when we headed in right after Yeasayer had finished. Grabbed our lawn spot (rented chairs for $5 a pop, why stand all night?). I notice the stage is already being set up, and its not far past 8...

Wayne Coyne comes out, and explains to the crowd how this is the first time they've done a show like this.. he tells us “Rivers needs you guys to help him out with the bubble when he gets in it”.. and Wayne also mentioned that “if our strobe lights are little too intense for anyone-then just don't look at them. Simple solution”... then he said they'd be back as he ducked off stage for a little while....

So around 8:30-8:45 we have The Flaming Lips intro, where they come out of the big screen and walk down the ramp as two bubble inflate with Wayne Coyne in one and Rivers Cuomo in the other one. Smoke filling the stage, graphics hitting the screen. This is cool. Wayne and Rivers take to the crowd in their bubbles, as both bands on stage play a cover of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf", which was an awesome start considering I'm hanging with a girl who's primarily death metal and dragged to the Weezer show. Didn't take Rivers long to fall down and have to be rolled back towards the stage by the crowd he's rolling on.. then he busted out of if and The Flaming Lips jumped in three songs Worm Mountain , Silver Trembling Hands and Yeah Yeah Yeah Song... - At one point Wayne sat on a gorilla's shoulders … they do those three songs and he says “Alright we'll be back-Weezer everybody!”

Weezer comes out and kicks things off with “Hashpipe”, “El Scorcho” and “Perfect Situation”.. Whoa, what is this did Weezer finally get the memo to start playing their good songs live? Awesome. Girl I'm with turns to me and says “Oh I know this song from the Deftones” during “El Scorcho”.. I said “Really?” and returning home upon YouTube search, the Deftones do cover it... sweet. After Perfect Situation, they head off for the Flaming Lips to come back on..

Out comes Wayne and Co. again, this time to rock it out harder with “Is David Bowie Dying?”, “See the Leaves” and then we got into a little Laser Hands Jam, where the Gigantic hands come on.. lights bouncing off the disco ball thing into the lawn.. damn I wish I had a good enough camera to tape that shit.. And the Flaming Lips also have a whole bunch of chicks in outfits resembling Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz bouncing up and down.. awesomeness

So back out comes Weezer, and they play “My Name is Jonas”, “Suzanne” and one of my personal favs of the Weezer catalog “The Good Life”... Again, I'm still amazed at the fact that Weezer is playing good songs-this is like the set I've always wanted to see when I saw Weezer headline a show.. now for 25 bucks I'm on a lawn chair enjoying all those hits I thought I'd enjoy on days I spent 50+ dollars to see them. So far this was a great investment.
Now back to the Flaming Lips, as we seem to be grooving to 3 songs a clip before switching... As if this night couldn't improve, it's “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1” time. Yes! Love that freaking song, and the half filled PNC Bank Arts Center loved it too.. can't believe more people weren't at this show.. “Ego's Last Stand” and “Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung” followed... as we shift back to the Weezer.

Island in the Sun.. it's becoming redundant.. can't believe I'm at the one good Weezer set to come to the tri state area... “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly” (B-Side from 'El Scorcho') followed. Then Rivers says “ Here's a song we used to listen to when we were growing up, then jumps into a cover Radiohead's Paranoid Android.. I didn't like it when I first heard it watching the vid on YouTube but experiencing it live actually made it quite enjoyable.. one of the more listenable Radiohead songs of the past decade of so.. and apparently the 14 year old kids that surround us everywhere are loving the Radiohead. I'm on board..

Then the Flaming Lips came out for “What is the Light?” and "The Observer".. I noticed Wayne has had a cool looking fur scarf on for the duration of the show.. Is he not the man?

back out for 'Pork and Beans', 'Tired of Sex', and 'Say it ain't so'.. So I guess Weezer is closing out this show-especially afterward when they played “(If your wondering if I want you to) I want you to”. They were trading off three for three, now Flaming Lips did two and Weezer did four?

So then the Flaming Lips come back out for “Do You Realize”...with full confetti and lights going I said to myself: Okay, so the Flaming Lips are closing this show...

That's when Weezer came back out (stop confusing me guys!) for “Buddy Holly” and “Only In Dreams”.. which was making me think we've witnessed a Flaming Lips set minus “She Don't Use Jelly”.. but Weezer stayed on stage as the Flaming Lips came back on to play it with them-Weezer and The Flaming Lips doing “She Don't Use Jelly” with Rivers singing lyrics on the 2nd and 3rd verses. Awesomeness. And then “Undone- The Sweater Song” with both bands remaining on stage was a perfect end to a very

cool evening. The Jay Porks Pre-Flight extravaganza

. Perfect send off to Washington! The Gorge Saturday: Soundgarden, Meat Puppets, Queens of the Stone Age and Mastodon.. the Willie Nelson on Sunday.. let the insanity begin!

Unity Tour 2011: 311 & Sublime w/ Rome..Homdel,NJ 7/21/11

Well THAT was an ordeal! The schlep that is the 51^st edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series takes us to Homedel, NJ and the PNC Bank Arts Center to see Untity Tour 2011: 311 with special guests Sublime W/ Rome.. how could this not be fun? It's summertime, we have a scorcher out there today getting near 100 at several occasions today(and not cooling off as the sun went down). One of the few days I bust out the shorts, met Lex at my job and waited for the rest of the posse, Pam and Ray.. cold beers in trunk.. Doors at 6:30PM, and I'm sure there has to be some third band on this bill, so we figured there was no rush.

Got to the parking lot before 7PM(with the guys in the parking lot selling tee shirts for $20, I got one after the show for $10 #Winning)....we had a nice 'on the grass' spot so we can have less cops walking around. All working out well, we start drinking, and we don't head in until we see everyone around us walking in.. so instead of walk beside people going into the same place we are, I look left and see the venue, just over the grassy hill over there. The genius I am, we head towards it only to find none other than the Garden State Parkway waiting for us there... it's not like a street, this is a highway with very tight gaps between cars. I still don't know how we made it across, like the nut jobs we are we dodged across making it to the other side.. that's where we found AGAIN, the Garden State Parkway(this end going south I guess)-so another deathly mission, but using the Jedi force we made it and walked all the way up more parking lots finally making it inside..

Couldn't be to much past 8PM, maybe 8:30 but we get to the lawn and take our place in a sea of pot smoke.. Ray and Pam head off to grab drinks and stuff, upon coming back they told us they were hearing that Sublime had gone on and off already.. No freaking way this can be true, when did they go on 7:30? We didn't hear this from the parking lot? Guy next to us turns and says “yea they went on and played for like 20 minutes”... What?!? it's still light outside.. so what's happening now 311 is gonna come on at 9PM and play 2 hours? I just accidentally missed an opener? An opener I WANTED to see no less-I'm one of the 27 people who's into the new singer, and I missed it drinking Heineken Light in the parking lot? We could chalk that one up in the Fail column for me.. dammit.

So it's cool tho, 311 is still gonna come out here and play an awesome set, right? They didn't disappoint me the last two times I saw them so I figured the odds were in our favor.. Ray is Mr. Optimistic over here saying “It sucks, but I mean we still got 311!”.. then about 5 songs in (they came on at 9PM almost on the dot) I turn around and see Pam and Ray looking at each other puzzled.. I look at Lex and she gives me this puzzled look too-then I realize I feel a little puzzled myself. What songs are these? Obviously I'm aware that they have the new record out.. and I know bands like to sprinkle new stuff into their set when they first release it.. but I mean, after kicking off with 'Beautiful Disaster' and throwing 'All Mixed Up' into the first few songs, I went for what felt like the longest time before another song I knew, “Amber” was played. 'Jackpot' was in there too-but I don't know that song on its own merit just know it from the last time I saw them.. This was beginning to get really disappointing... Can I get “Love Song”? Can you do me that favor?

Now at 9:42PM here comes the drum solo part, where the whole band bangs on bongo drums for a few minutes-not sure if its just a jam or an actual song but either way, it's another few minutes of us looking at each other waiting for the good part. It's not like I'm by myself, and I can totally fluff this piece up by focusing on all the scathingly clad chicks walking around-I'm with my friends here, one of whom will be voicing her own thoughts on this on Concert Confessions herself.. How dare you shove that new record down my throat like that, in front of my friends no less.

New Jersey is full of odd girls man.. I mean, lets start with this random chick who asks me for a cigarette. Back story: I had like 3 cigs left in my pack, Lex was supporting my habits all night under the condition that I'd give her back a few later(Which I forgot to do).. so this chick walks up and asks for a cigarette after seeing me get handed a bust down from Lex, gave me that “pretty please!” facial expression. So while grimacing I reach to give her one and I'm like “If you had a penis, I wouldn't even consider this” and I hand it over. She of course needs a light (Want me to smoke it for you too?), then she walks away back to hang with her boyfriend or whatever. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to get a picture of this broad. I tweeted “To the girl who just grubbed a cig off me, welcome to the blog”. And with this pic I snatched, I stand by my tweet.

Fed up, and inhaling the second hand of all the awesome smelling weed that's going around, I loudly state “Does anyone have weed? I have money!” just taking a shot in the dark, and wouldn't you know it, there's typical “I sell pot at rock concerts” guy standing over there calling me over.. hell, we're at a 311 show what's a guy to do.. hands me a 20 sack fatter than Snooki.. some nice smelling stuff too. But guess what, we don't have any paper to roll in.. serious FML status going on all night long. So Ray is off into a sea of people through the darkness of this epic lawn and emerges with paper. Amazing. A God amongst men, but while that was happening, I asked these two girls if they had any paper on them who were standing close by.. she's like “No we don't have papers-do you have weed?” (No, I just want the paper because my notepad is out of sheets you moron) I reply with yes and the girl looks at me and is like “Alright when you find some paper come by and we'll blaze”... I nodded and walked away. Balls. Seriously? What are you like Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher? Give me a nugget I'll smoke it in the car like.. At least the shallow girls I run into in NY will pretend to be into you for the five minutes they want to take advantage of your stash. There weren't even any guys with them, I promise if that girl woulda touched my freaking wrist she would been smoking with us.. come back when you get paper.. sure. And I get laid often..

But suddenly as we're pouring the weed into the paper(Members of my family are probably loving all this getting high discussion right now-cannot compromise the truth, wouldn't be fair to my any of the readers) I hear the “Come Original” riff starting.. Ray is doing the pouring, so I'm screaming at him “Don't jump up! Please do not jump up!”.. we survived, and started burning a little herb.. impressive bud too-and then they played “Down”.. so like, as soon as I found some pot this night took a sharp left turn... they ducked off for a sec, came back to play “Who's got the Herb”, and as a matter a fact we did! Played “Creatures for a while” and set was over like 10:40ish.. I mean, when you have til 11, you'd think they'd get close to it.

On the way out, we're trying to figure out when Sublime w/Rome exactly went on, and all these people look like they're the walking dead filled with Oxycontin I swear-I mean, we got wrecked before the show but on the walk out it was like amateur night here-ambulances and shit.. it's called moderation people! But back to asking people, I got a lot of interesting replies. Went up to a group of girls by a car and asked when Sublime w/Rome went on (I specifically said the 'with Rome' part so I wouldn't have to hear a lecture).. one girl says “They went on before 311”.. Wow, and the award for best zinger in a sHit-com series goes to.. They went on to say that it was early, but they don't remember now(again, moderation)..The one chick says to me “Dude you're old enough to be wearing a Sonic Youth tee shirt-you should know this isn't the real Sublime”... As a matter of fact I did know that believe it or not. You see because I know the “real Sublime” could have had so many more great albums if Brad wasn't such a junk box-I mean but what do I know, I wear the tee shirt of 'ART' ROCK band Sonic Youth. I must be clueless. And why are you here anyway? It's like the people who go to Hole concerts hoping and praying Courtney Love falls down face plant style (everyone reading this nods saying “yea, that's me”).. I don't know people, maybe it's me. Maybe Pam, Lex, Ray and I are old fogies.. felt like we were being starred at the whole time.. maybe we're out of touch with music or something, and for me that's fine. I'd rather sit alone and listen to music I like they be surround by people listening to the crap these people want today. Still reminiscing over Bradley-get over it. Like it, or shut the hell up. I hate people like that women I encountered in the parking lot. She's giving me a lecture? Obviously hasn't googled me.. But if you wanna do that go get a blog or something.. all these people have opinions and no one will document them publicly.. I mean, ended up an overall fun night for some reason, maybe my ranting throughout the parking lot on the way back to the car that, if you know me, is always a can't miss. I'm the most humorous when I'm pissed. All of you New Jersey folk make me need to take a shower when I got home to wash off the stank of pretentiousness. Cargo shorts, no shirts looking like they've had heroin shot into their eyeballs.. You people make me sick

Having said all that, I'll be in the exact same place this time next week watching the Flaming Lips and Weezer share a stage.. Rivers asked Wayne if he has an extra bubble he can ride around in.. should be fun. I HAVE AN EXTRA TICKET, was going to give it away Friday afternoon between the hours of 4-7PM because I'll be the in-studio guest on 88.9 WSIA-FM (WWW.WSIA.FM), my local college radio station, talking all things Jay Porks Experience, and the world domination of Concert Confessions.. just basically me giving the verbal experience of all these shows I've been to and hopefully I'll get to pick some songs... But we've been told that I'm not permitted to give away the ticket on air due to promotional complications-even tho it's MY ticket, I'm just really looking to get a ride out of the deal. Anyway, I'll catch all my faithful next week right here same bat time, same bat channel. Thanks for reading. LATE

Dinosaur Jr, Henry Rollins, OFF! and Fucked Up..6/23/11 @Terminal 5

The 50th installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series takes us back to the famed Terminal 5 (610 West 56th street 11th ave in NYC) to see a special Dinosaur Jr show tonight.. Well of course all Dinosaur Jr shows are special, but the band isn't really on a tour right now-they're playing a handful of dates, one of them happens to be tonight.. opening bands are 'Fucked Up' and 'OFF!' (a new Keith Morris outfit) along with another added treat as according to Brooklyn Vegan, Henry Rollins will be interviewing Dinosaur Jr live on stage. I've seen Dinosaur Jr twice before, once here on a bill with the Meat Puppets and Built to Spill and a crazy set at the Brooklyn Bowl that left me deafened..Been a while since I was this excited for a show.. anyway, the plan is to head straight out to the venue after a 4 o clock exit from the day job, with hopes of getting there around 6 and being on of the first few people on line-I need that spot along the railing on the third floor I had for PJ Harvey.. that spot was insane. Place is huge (capacity 3000+), so fingers crossed as we head out for the latest Jay Porks Experience..

So I showed up early enough where the doors were open but technically not open, as all of us who are here pre-6:30 are being shuffled up flights of steps to the roof top smoke deck thing to await the official 6:30 doors. "Early doors" is what they're calling that, I call it: “Instead of these kids flooding the street, lets flood them towards somewhere we can sell stuff”... So at about 635 event staffers begin to wave us in. As people dart passed me(one girl even busted her ass on the steps) racing for their lives to get down near the stage, I calmly walk myself over to the spot I've been dreaming of for weeks...and I got it. Third floor , left side along the railing WITH an ottoman pulled up that I'll sit on until this show gets on the road and inbetween sets. Look at all those schmucks down there squeezing in to try and get really really close..it's Dinosaur Jr for christ sake, I'm going to be deaf from up here on the top floor.. so have fun hearing for the next month....saw a sign behind the bar that said "OFF!" goes on at 7:30, Fucked Up at 8:30, Henry Rollins will interview at 9:30, and Dinosaur Jr will go on at 10 playing 'Bug' in its entirety, hopefully along with some other hits..

Quick random question: playing "Bug" in it's entirety, why is the backdrop of the stage a picture of their latest album" Farm"? Maybe they're just going with that as the default thing.. As 7 rolls around I start to wonder how this interview is gonna go down, doesn't look like they left much room on stage..

“OFF!” is Keith Morris's latest vehicle (Circle Jerks/Black Flag)., and sticking with these speedy hardcore punk roots, OFF! has a set list 3 pages long, and they are running through songs at a ferocious pace. .. Like I wonder if any of these clock in over a minute.. Did anyone tell Keith that the dreads with the receding hairline is not a great look..he looks like a hobo I'd see on the train.. 56 years old and still gives off that angry at life with his music-I envy that.... There's a whole area of the floor section circled off with slam dancers... Jesus they are getting rowdy down there... They went off at 7:57.. Thanked us for coming out early repeated, and for all we know ran through 37 songs in the last 25 minutes. Awesome.

“Fucked Up” hails from Toronto, and they've been much the buzz every time they come to town.. plus, a former professor of mine Brian Cogan (Who's book you can purchase here ) says that Fucked Up is a “brilliant band with a great sense for the absurd”.. Well, I consider myself a fan of the absurd, but only NOW I get the full meaning of the word.. Fucked Up gave us a three guitar onslaught of heavy riffs topped off with a gigantic jolly front man who isn't afraid to take his shirt off..first song in he's in the crowd.. he's screaming these lyrics as the microphone cord is like endless feet long so this dude just walks through the crowd hugging members of the pit..And it's not like he got back on stage any time soon...the bass player is a chick,which always peaks interest of mine.. Nice little bass player cleavage... This band is pretty odd..and pretty cool.. Over thick, raspy screamed lyrics the other members of the band provide a little vocal harmony... it's like a lot of these acts labeled “hardcore punk”.. it's an interesting sound if there wasn't all the screaming.. still a band I'd recommend.. I guess this is how they do things in Toronto, eh?

So I need to bring this up, and I really don't care if this person reads it or not ( every time I mention a random fan in a blog they find me).. In-between Fucked Up and Dino, there was this girl who tapped me on the shoulder and said "excuse me, can I like sit on the floor in front of you.. like down there?(pointing to the spot) You can kick me if you want.".. First off, I've been here in this same spot since 630, now you wanna come and sit in front of me so you can see? I got up for work today at 9AM, came straight from there in my dorky white button down shirt and took a bus to a train to a ferry to a train and walked 10 blocks just to get THIS spot. I would love if you didn't come and try and Bogart that .. How bout you get here early enough to grab some prime real estate?.. Furthermore, let me get all male chauvinist pig here(I am Porks after all) for a second- Note to ANY girls in the future who want to tap me on the shoulder and ask me for something at a show, you better have something to bring to the table.. A make out at least.. something! Don't use that "I'm a girl" bullshit to get whatever you want, this isn't the 40's anymore- we're all equal here.. That said, my reply to her was "Do what you want"..

Safe to say I went hoping Rollins can squeeze in a few minutes of his humorous spoken word stuff that I missed out on March 2010..So about 9:30 they set up four chairs on stage as we wait for this interview to go down.. About 9:45, Henry Rollins came out to a resounding ovation-now all of a sudden this place is packed.. Instead of transcribing the interview and give my two cents, you can view the video at this link: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWK_RjXVSx0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL )

We were all set up when the interview ended, so the band headed off to return in a few minutes- and at around 10:15 they hit the stage.. J Mascis says playing "Bug" straight through the last few nights was "a little weird", so they kicked off the set with "In A Jar" and "Off the Wagon".. Absolutely electric-and not just due to the fact they're plugged in. For the first time ever, I'm getting to hear JM's vocals; previous two times I saw them I was inches away and I couldn't hear a damn thing, I figured it was customary for them with the noise they make..place me a good two floors up it's all sounding so crystal clear to me now- this is incredible..

"Freak Scene" and the rest of the tunes as we got through "Bug" put some insane guitar work on display by our platinum haired compadre downstairs.. His pedal board looks like something out of Star Trek, colors and buttons everywhere.. And a light show, who knew? Green and purple beams bounce off the walls and crowd.. And as I look around I think to myself: " I was lucky enough to accidentally be introduced to Dino Jr a few years back that's how I know them.... how are all these 17 year old kids chapter and verse on a record that came out in 1988?" The first song of the encore I didn't recognize, but the room did.. I taped it I'll find out..

Towards the end of the set songs got more and more intense.. For the last song on the album "Don't", We had a guest screamer on the mic.. See, bassist Lou Barlow blew his voice box out while cutting the track for the album- and he says he did the same first night of this tour, so they enlisted a fan (With a stellar afro) to come up and sing it..it clocked over ten minutes as it was about 11:15 when they went off for the encore..

They came back out a few minutes later and played a song before "Feel the Pain" started playing and my camera was tapped out of battery.. so I started to head closer to an exit, maybe check some other views of the room to finish off this set.. It's gonna take me 4 songs to get outta this place anyway... 1st floor was terrible, as on stage Dino invited the lead singer of "Fucked Up" out to help them finish off the last song of the evening-which wasn't "Just Like Heaven", much to my chagrin...

Love to get my money's worth, especially on our 50^th installment.. fun night, plus that fact that I caught all the trains and boats with good timing on the way home, so I can queue up all this video to upload tonight... Sweet times... Thanks for hanging out for a few, and stay tuned..

Joe Budden @Irving Plaza 6/17/2011

I always wondered what it would be like when I saw that show I was extremely unfulfilled with. I've never left a show thinking “I'm gonna trash the sh*t out of this thing”.. Well, let me try not to give away the ending here as the 49^th edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending concert series is sort of a continuation from where we left off last time. A few weeks ago we endured Slaughterhouse (Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Royce Da 5'9'', Crooked I) at SOB's in the city. Tonight is the alleged main event, as Joe Budden headlines Irving Plaza in Union Square. We came to these tickets like this, have you ever tried to set yourself up for a good birthday present? Well, that's what I tried to do as this was my representation for my friend Chach's birthday present, in hopes that when December rolls around they'll be some awesome show I'll get bought in to. And as previously mentioned here, Joe Budden's music and the ears of Jay Porks usually get along very well.

Before we left for the city, I had tweeted something like “never been so unenthusiastic headed to a show before” and tagged Joe Budden in it, not thinking anything of it. What happened after that is completely out of my hands as sh*t got real and all of a sudden I had a way more powerful voice that I thought I did. So Joe Budden decides to tweet back at me, asking me why I paid for tickets if I'm not enthused. Here's the back and forth via twitter:

-Jay Porks: me and @oneshotchach headed out to this @JoeBudden show with LOW expectations... I don't remember being this unenthusiastic for a show b4.

-JoeBudden: @JayPorks then y exactly are yall paying to come ?

-Jay Porks: @JoeBudden It's this little thing fans do. You know, where they like your music and come out to show support...

-Joe Budden: @JayPorks u ever been to 1 of my shows ?

-Jay Porks: @JoeBudden 2night's the 1st time I get the exclusive Joe showcase.. was at SOB's a few weeks ago. I wrote this: tinyurl.com/5tcj4wp

-Joe Budden: @JayPorks I read that b4.. All of it leads me to ask.. Y so unenthused about tonight ?

-Jay Porks: @JoeBudden If I had more than 140 characters, I'd have added "unenthusiastic due to in-climate weather and a trek from Staten"

First of all I'd like to thank Joe for walking directly into my trap by being so annoyed by my lack of enthusiasm he felt the need to Re-tweet(RT) it to all of his almost 296,000 followers. And I owe dude another thank you, as it was the perfect lead in to link him up to the review I wrote of the Slaughterhouse show. And of course the key line in all of this being “I read that b4”, now that is awesome-an admitted fan of my work... By the time all this is going down I still haven't left my house, I'm up like 10 Twitter followers-the 'mentions' are out of control. NOW this night just got interesting. Too bad this would be the peak of this evenings surprises.

Me and Chach aren't pulling any punches-we showed up after 9 (doors opened at 8:30).. last Hip Hop show I attended I sat through 27 opening acts before my headliner did a whole 40 minutes give or take; was not taking that chance this time. I've heard stories about (and could've sworn I read tweets directly from the horses mouth about) three hour Joe Budden sets. Which I wouldn't mind-just would like to skip the additional 2 hours of standing before that. Irving Plaza, much like a lot of these NYC venues, if you're not one of the first 15 people on the line and you don't get a spot up against the stage-your standing place is going to suck balls anyway if you're under 6 foot 2, so why rush there in the rain. And besides if doors don't open til 8:30, I don't expect to see this dude hit the stage pre-10:30.

Like I said it was after 9 when we walked in, and there on stage is a funny dude known as “Low Key” (Twitter @LowKeyUHTN) who is serving as the MC for the evening before the acts hit the stage. They're spinning records, getting the crowd pumped and all that. It feels like a “club” in here, and it's PACKED. People are already out the doors into the hallways packing into every inch of this place. The most full I've ever seen a place that wasn't listed as “Sold Out” . And wait a second, there is an opener who is yet to go on stage, his name is Drue Hudson (I was calling him Dru Holiday all night, but Chach had to inform me I was thinking of a basketball player). Anyway he came on and played from 10PM to 10:10PM.. not a typo, that's ten minutes and promptly after that Low Key handed off the mic to someone who said he was going to be our MC for the remainder of the evening, his name is “Killa BH” of “Is it the Shoes?” fame.. Joe Budden walked onto the stage at about 10:20, maybe a tad after, and jumped right into things with a song called “Real Estate” followed by a TEASE of a song called “Walk With Me” off his only major label release. What I mean by tease, is that the beat was played, everyone got excited and then as soon as it was time for the lyrics to kick it they flipped to another song immediately. There were a lot of times tonight I felt as if I was listening to HOT97 or something the way a beat would be teased only to not hear the song. How is that gratifying at all? And throughout the night the same “time killing” non sense would go down as it did at SOB's a few weeks ago. We have fans being invited up on stage to see if they can rap the verses from a random Joe Budden song they throw on. First fan killed it on a song called “Calm Down”, completely nailed it. He won himself a free “Joe Budden related” tattoo from Joe's personal tattoo artist. But that sucks, because that's one of my favorites and another from that first(only) record that we're now obviously not going to experience for real tonight. And not to say there weren't full songs played(or almost full), because there were like: “Downfall”, “Side Tracked”, “Black Cloud” and inbetween there his biggest hit to date “Pump it up” was played about mid way through the set.

Am I missing something here? Think about this for a second, the artist I'm here to see has ONE album that you can buy in a store-the rest of his work has come on mixtapes. I mean, Pump it Up is not one of my favorites at all, but it's his highest charting single, I would think that you save that song for close to the end, no? I know artists don't like to be defined by one song, or one album of their career-but with such scarce depth of songs to reach too,don't you think you should spend, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes of this set and run though some of that for us really quick? Maybe play “Stand Up Nucca”, “Calm Down” or even “10 Minutes”-just to bring the night full circle you know. Promote all the new material too, but damn man I'd kill for a classic right now as I hear you accapella your verse from “Microphone” or a piece of “Never Sober Up”.. And as the night moves on, I keep hearing Joe say how “We're pressed for time here tonight”... WHAT? It's Friday night in New York City at a real deal concert venue and we're already hinting about an early exit? At least add some commentary to that like “the VENUE is giving us a ceiling on time” or something. Especially when I've seen plenty of bands like Mudhoney and the Meat Puppets play into the 1AM hour and we're dropping curfew hints at 11:23? This is making me feel like Esther Baxter isn't the only one with the “So what? attitude/coming off arrogant” to quote a line from “Ordinary Love Shit Part 3”, which was actually one of tonight's highlights.

Coming up on midnight closing this set down, Emanny was brought out to do a song called “Dreamers” as me and Chach decided it was time to see if we can catch that 12:30 ferry(which we didn't) and got the hell out of there. So after being interrogated over Twitter and in not so many words being dared not to be blown away by this show-I walk away unblown, and my back is freaking killing me. I mean I've been to over 50 concerts, if any artists I'm going to see need tips on how to make a set list out or something, just send me over an email I'm always here to help. Had more fun at SOB's than I did at this show-more intimate, more interesting, more energized...They say don't knock it til you try it, well....Knock Knock.

Slaughterhouse sets SOB's on FIRE...May 25th 2011

Well, we decided to do something a little different here for the 48th installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series-we're going rouge on this one. We're headed out to a club called SOB's in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City teetering on the borderlines of the Lower East Side, catching an “impromptu” show featuring the Hip Hop super-group known as “Slaughterhouse”(recently signed to Eminem's Shady Records label), consisting of rappers 'Joe Budden', 'Joel Ortiz', 'Royce Da 5'9'' and 'Crooked I'.. As previous mentioned in a post here, “Budden is one of the handful of Hip Hop artists I'd go see. The lyrics on songs from his debut album way back when helped me get out of a bad time of my life ”. And that said, when the members started tweeting the night before about an “impromptu” show at SOB's the next night, a night that was billed for just Crooked I with opening acts “CMR” and Emilio Rojas. Doors at 7, show at 9. So I texted my buddy Chach(who you can follow on twitter @OneShotChach) and told him the news on Tuesday night, and we said why not check this out for 15 bucks? Being that I turned Chach into an avid concert goer (taking him to STP and Filter 5/31/08 now he goes to Summerjam and saw Jay-Z and Eminem at Yankee Stadium last year), I figured it could be fun to be rolling with him as oppose to him rolling with me; besides the fact I'd had a rough Monday and Tuesday sitting in my house bored as hell with the school semester being over and everything. So I ask everyone to open their minds here, and prepare to get weird...

Great to have the feeling of the welfare line while waiting to get into SOB's, it adds to the ambiance of this night sort of. We were there at 7 and we waited, and waited for what felt like forever and they finally opened the doors at like 730-745 and we entered this so called dinner club..

We were on line early, but not early enough as the space leaning on the stage was taken by the 6 people on line before us so we were regulated to being a head or two back. Standing room only-besides a seated section left of the stage that had signs reading “$25 minimum to sit”..If I knew I could sit for dinner during the show, I wouldn't have made that McDonalds pit stop beforehand. That said, those tables lined up over there looked so out of place, and who knows if they'd let us sit there all night; so lets stand here, I can get some good pictures from here.

There was an MC for the evenings proceedings.. funny dude too called “Low Key”(Twitter: @LowKeyUHTN).. who introduced all the acts and stuff, inbetween mixing in the roll call of the boroughs i.e. “Is ______ in the house?” and gaging the rooms reactions. This place only fits about 350-400 people, so when it started filling out I'm happy to report we did eventually have more than the two of us representing Staten Island “in the house”.

After 9, we began the parade of opening acts BEFORE the opening acts. I can't even begin to tell you how many acts went on that I have no recollection of. It was frustrating looking at our watches and it's creeping past 10 and no one on the bill has came on yet. To put it in perspective, we were on line at 7PM-Joe Budden tweeted that he was leaving his house(in NJ) at 7:23. Looking like we're in for a long night..

Eventually the first official listed opener came on, and man was it worth it. Emilio Rojas. This dude was, how do you say, 'a beast on the mic'. Had more than a few clever punchlines, the room went “Ohhhhh!” often during his almost 20 minute set in which the highlight was an accapella verse of lyrical genius. Speeding up and slowing down his flow, throwing out punchlines to die for, my favorite being something to the effect of “My mother didn't want me/no stranger to wire hangers”. Awesomeness. I got a pic of him and Chach when he got off stage. Check him out on YouTube, he killed it.

After the next listed opener CMR came on and went off, up on the stage came 4 dudes from the West Coast called COB(Circle of Bosses) came on stage and got crazy for a few minutes. This is another crew that Crooked I rolls with, so they basically led into him coming up on stage and doing a few of his own numbers.. we're at 11:30 right now.

Finally we look to our right and there is Royce Da 5'9'' standing in the crowd waiting to walk up on stage. As soon as everyone realized the show had officially started-some dude 4 people to my left sparked up one of the fattest blunts I've ever scene, with the “yea I'm smoking-so what?” look-he was texting and everything. Event staffers? That's a negative. I figured that was the green light for cigarette smoking.

Royce was introduced, shortly followed by Joel Ortiz and finally my man Joe Budden. When they all eventually made it up there, they jumped into a song called “Sound Off”.. once this night got started, I can really say it was awesome. Watching the crowd bounce up and down-Chach included. Watching the excitement unfold-having forgotten my SD card at home I wasn't taking constant video so I was able to get into these songs that I hardly know, opening up my mind and enjoying the evening.. They did “2.0 Boyz” and “Microphone” as the night rolled along. At one point Joe Budden picked three members of the crowd to come up on stage and rap a verse of whatever Slaughterhouse song they drop a beat to. It was an awkward spot-and they all failed at it. It was part funny, part sad, part “I feel like you guys are killing time on stage”ish.

Two biggest highlights of tonight was Royce teasing a song off a project with Eminem called “Bad Meets Evil”. Song called “Fast Lane”. You hear that and you look up on stage and you're like “damn, I remember hearing Royce rap with Eminem on the Slim Shady LP when I was in like 8^th grade”. We're in the room with a veteran here.

But the number one thing to take from this night is Joe Budden doing his latest hit (with us fans at least) “Ordinary Love Shit Part 3”. It's a song that gets in depth describing a relationship with a girl named Esther Baxter who apparently was having sexual relations with NFL running back Derrick Ward-taken from the line “why's ol' girl sucking off Derrick Ward for?”. And I'm telling you this was like the proof of Joe Buddens massive following as most of the crowd rapped along with every verse. Funny social networking references in the song too like “You won't Skype, won' G-mail chat, won't OovoO!” and “You said the WiFi was down in the telly/you ain't say you was at hotel his house” The song is so real, as most of Buddens songs it covers not the glamor and glitz of money cars and hoes of hip hop life but sticks to stuff people like me can relate to-shitty times, being sad, dumped, addicted to things and helpless. And I'm so glad some professional has a video of it from that nights show on YouTube already-I'll try to put it in the post..

and this guy filming is like right behind me because this feels like where I was watching from. The group continued to rock the stage after that and they didn't go off til about 12:35AM . Felt like longer than an hour. Awesome night.

So we did something a little different and it paid off so far. I mean, I enjoyed my night I hope you all stuck with me on this one. It's not like I went to see some garbage like Kayne West, or Puff Daddy or freakin Solider Boy-this was a team of lyrical assassins we saw here tonight. Being sort of a word smith myself, I tend to appreciate the intellect and honesty that comes across in the lyrics of these four artists I saw tonight. Fun times at SOB's.. just wish I had a chair..

Next time we're out and about should be June 11^th for Coheed and Cambria's free show at the Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn.. I work til four, and I doubt there's a max capacity so we should be in there... lets hope we're not too far back. Thanks for staying tuned.. LATE

Social Distortion 5/14/11 Stone Pony SummerStage Asbury Park,NJ

Now that's what I call a punk rock show-It's just continuous awesomeness for the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series, in which the 47^th installment brings us out to Asbury Park, NJ to the Stone Pony “SummerStage” for Social Distortion, a band I've been dying to see forever, but especially since I missed them last year. And since I'm rolling with Pam, the “Pam-Van” is in full effect picking me up from work and headed out to the show after a supermarket/liquor store stop to grab a 6 pack of Heineken light, bottle of Jack and a bottle of Captain . That's how we roll. Doors open at 5:30-that's not a typo, 5:30 doors. Let's get down to business shall we?

After parking and trying to pregame as much as possible while keeping our bladders in tact, We rolled in at 6:30. On the walk over, I heard some security dude telling this chick “if you're alone you should stand on this side of the street cause it's a real shady neighborhood down that block”. Awesome, because you know how much I love danger and everything. We found the entrance and got in after I was searched to the maximum. Felling every pocket every item and stuff. Sucks that there's something they didn't find that was there-moving on. When we got in one of the openers, 'Sharks' was in full swing on stage.. Focus on the band for a second: These guys looked like they were straight out of a time capsule from England circa 1971. The leather was in full effect, pins on the jackets, the tight pants-all of it. Looked like a girly Sex Pistols. We're scouting out standing spots, we notice the “21 and Over Section” sign, and head through there towards the bar area.. That's when Sharks finally caught my attention by covering the Replacements “Can't Hardly Wait”, which was pretty cool. They played their last song at 6:55PM

So as people file in-this is what I call a punk rock show. Holy God, I have never seen so many mo-hawks and chain wallets in my life. Skin heads to people draped in leather. Everyone is a character I swear, whether it's army fatigues and knee high boots or green hair-this is what I wish I would've seen last week at Bad Religion/Rise Against. I'm standing outdoors surrounded by many people who wouldn't mind breaking my face-the perfect desired atmosphere.

We headed inside for a little bit, grabbed some drinks as Chuck Ragan was on in between Sharks and Social D-but walking around the actual 'Stone Pony' venue where the bars and stuff are, I started to check out the walls that had signed guitars all over the place. So I'm checking these things out, signatures from bands of the likes of State Radio and Govt Mule.. until I found my way around to the back door and there in the corner hanging was a signed Gene Ween guitar.. took me all that time to find some taste around here..slow working bartender is keeping us inside long than desired I must say, but at least some dude bought Pam a drink.

Let me get on a pedestal for a second and rant: This preconceived notion that we can place a stage in the middle of any random parking lot-esque open area and call it a rock venue is completely ridiculous. I know I seem like I complain about every single venue, but venues like this(and Williamsburg Waterfront) make me SICK. You can't just take a parking lot and put a stage there and hype it up to be a “Summerstage”. Sounds so fancy, it's actually gross. Besides me being a huge proponent of size order at standing room only shows-maybe if you guy built the stage, I don't know, two feet higher maybe we'd be able to see what going on. It was like a blind show, the only pictures I got was my arm held as high in the air as possible. I mean, if you had like a tilt effect, a slight downward hill thing going on where people were able to see as they got further away; maybe even some ascending levels or something, anything! Sound was loud as hell and amazing, it was awesome to hang out and hear the tunes of Social D for an awesome set on a nice night out-but for 45 dollars, throw up a video screen or something. You know who had a better view than I did? An entire floor of a hotel a few blocks away standing out on the porch enjoying the show for free. They had a great view I'd imagine. I'm standing here behind thousands of people who should be playing the in NBA. Social D as a very tall following if tonight is any indicator.

So at about 8:20 some dude gets on stage and to hype us up. He says “Social D has some awesome stuff planned, lots of surprises in this full two hour set! They'll be out in a few minutes!”. Wow, a two hour set we're going to get? That's odd, because we're in a residential area with a 10PM “noise curfew” . They're not even on stage yet and you already only have and hour and forty left. Dude could've easily said “And rock it til 10!” and he would've saved himself from looking like a moron who can't do math.

Those last two paragraphs aside, once I heard that “California Love” intro it was freakin' showtime, I was into it. What'd you expect from Mr. 90's over here? I suddenly realized why I was putting up with all this non-sense in the first place. Social freakin' Distortion! Now I'm really in search for a good spot walkin' around jammin' out to “Road Zombie” and “So Far Away” before we found a by the back bar there was this little deck about 8 inches up from the ground, so we stepped up-still nothing, as another pretzel stand has gotten me. So we've settled on just chilling out enjoying this great show from this spot, as oppose to spending the rest of the night walking around missing things. So we're rocking out to hit's like “Bad Luck” and “Mommy's Little Monster” as I'm scoping out chicks walking by in between attempts and some somewhat decent photos.. During this I smell the scent of 'sexy lady' to my left, cool chick, attractive and all that.. she was rocking all night next to what appeared to be her husband I'd assume. So he walks away to hit the bathroom or something and I see her glance over and then she leans into my ear and says “I F*cking LOVE your hair. I'm a hair dresser, I wouldn't touch it! It's perfect”. Now there's a day brightener right there! Being this is the one rock show I've been to where having long hair seemed to be the minority, it was good to get a compliment from an older, kinda hot chick who may or may not have been hitting on me while her hubby was in the bathroom. I'm not stating that that's what I believe was the case, just saying the onlooker may see it in that light. She said her son wanted to come to the show but it's 16+, and I handed her some typical punk rock cliché “See, there's the establishment at work prevent your son from rocking out” I'm so quick witted aren't I?

“Machine Gun Blues” happens to not only be new but also awesome. Lots of little speeches in between songs and honestly the crowd was like, totally not interested. The crowd was asked for “back up singers on this next one”.. and I swear like 4 people raised their hands out of thousands. They were into the tunes, just not anything going on when guitar riffs were not involved. And my only issue with their set tonight was the version of “Ball and Chain” they did right after “Prison Bound”... it was like, a much slower version of it, as if the song was being dragged by the proverbial Ball and Chain.. First time seeing the band, kinda wanted to get the full effect of one of my favorite songs by them, but I'm still having fun through songs like “Lude Boy” and “Don't Drag Me Down” before we heard “Okay, it's time for another story” and this was like 9:43, so I knew this story was going to be the “Story of my life”, which is was before they said goodnight and ducked off for maybe a minute or two...

Came back out to play “California(Hustle and Flow)” and “You can't take it with you” before closing the night with, what else? A classic from an artist everyone's on board with, Johnny Cash's “Ring of Fire”... I tried to record some of it, but let us not even waster our time with what I just saw on the video. These words give you a better picture than that. So it was 10:08 when they officially went off. An hour and 38 minutes keep that “2 hour set” quote in kind from earlier

Awesome night of punk rock. So glad I got to catch Social D-my issues with the venue did not interfere with me and Pam enjoying ourselves yet again-Bad Religion last week, Social D this week-I mean what's next? Well, you'll have to check the concert calender for the official purchases that have been made, but June 11^th there's a free Coheed and Cambria show at the Williamsburg Waterfront that some smart folks are highly recommending I attend. It's a Saturday and I work til 4 and I have a feeling the line for this show is going to start the night before the gig-I have a few friends heavy into them who want to attend, maybe they'll be a spot held in line for me. Headed out there anyway, just hope I make it in. Anyway, thanks for putting up with my non sense for a little while, and keep checking back at ConcertConfessions.Com and of course JayPorks.Com for some HUGE plans later on this summer. Things are happening-stay tuned.

LATE..