Concert Review: Slash and Foxy Shazam 09/18/12 Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC

Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators  with Foxy Shazam - 09/18/2012

Manhattan Center's Hammerstein Ballroom - New York City

Words/Photos/Video - Jay Porks

“The essence of “cool” that is Slash cannot be matched”. That's a phrase typed by this very music fan posing as a journalist in a social media world, after walking out on the band currently touring under the moniker of Guns N' Roses during their encore at Izod Center last November. Well, after tonight that phrase cannot sing any more true as Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators (on tour supporting Apocalyptic Love) made a pit stop at Manhattan Center's Hammerstein Ballroom to turn a disgusting, rainy Tuesday night in New York City into an evening full of magic. Getting to see one of your favorite guitar players play live for the first time is an amazing feeling, and to top matters off, the opener. Now if Slash represents the essence of “cool”, then you'd need to find a bad ass opener able to keep up with that. You'd need to find a band that simply can't be touched right now in terms of putting on a rock show. Whelp, if those are the qualities needed, then you need Foxy Shazam. And tonight that's who we have. We've got Slash and Foxy Shazam, we've got mezzanine seats and best of all, we've got a good camera. Doors open at 7PM. So without further ado let's jump into the 78th Edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series, shall we? Showed up at the door at 6:10. I have to stop showing up so early when I have a seat. The seat is there for me, why am I standing out here in the rain? Tad's Steakhouse taking the Patty Melt I usually get off the Menu and causing me to leave (I'm not a steak guy) may have effected my time. When they started letting us in the search was vigorous. I know I always complain about the search procedures and I sound like a broken record- but this one seriously had me rethinking if I had actually had anything illegal on me. Which of course I never do anyway, because I fear prison. They bring me to my section and tell me “Anywhere in these six rows is fine”.. What??? I paid for an assigned seat, I have the number on the ticket and I scouted online to see the angle I'd be on and everything, now you're just saying I can sit anywhere here? Is it hard to number the seats?

Soundspeak hit the stage at 8:01PM. That's right folks, they went “surprise 1^st opener” on us. I was pissed, not at the band they didn't do anything wrong. The venue should advertise ALL of the openers. Hey maybe it was advertised and I didn't catch it since my place of employment is in the 19^th century and I'm not allowed to touch my phone. But seriously Hammerstein, what's with these surprises? And this band I find out later is friends of my buddy who I met at the Lemonheads and later Local H. Had I known that before I would've given them a chance. They weren't bad, but I can't sit here and break them down for you because they were in a tough spot there (with me personally anyway). They went off at 8:19.. Had I known we were in for an 18 minute set I would have lightened up a bit.

At 8:34 when the lights went low I'm up there screaming “here it comes- the mother fuckin' Church!”. I was so excited. And look at this Eric is rocking a new hair color. Interesting. They ripped through “The Church of Rock & Roll” and “Holy Touch”. I was head nodding and screaming lyrics the whole time. I'm conscience of saving battery on my camera anyway. Suddenly, after Holy Touch I get a tap on my shoulder from the girl next to me. She's with her boyfriend and they have accents so they may or may not be from here but the girl says to me “What is the name of this band” and I told her and she says “They are amazing!!”. You damn right they are. The first song of their set I decided to tape was “Unstoppable”. Well, I decided to get the 3^rd song in, it just happen to be that very song currently running in that MLB commercial. “The Rocketeer” followed, I don't think they played that one at Bowery Ballroom this past May, after I got it at Irving Plaza opening for The Darkness in February.  Interesting.

“Killin' It” before jumping into “I Like It”. And that song, well, “I don't like it baby I fucking love it” as Eric would say. Cigarettes got eaten during “Temple”, which was the set closer at about 9 maybe a tad after. “If we had an ocean, we'd all be Surfin' USA” was our “Deep thoughts by Eric Nally” moment before the lights came on. Unreal. And this night's not even over yet! I go out to smoke a cigarette, but you are not allowed to do that. They don't have stamps for your hand or anything. You must stay inside, where they have confiscated your lighter at the door anyway and not smoke cigarettes. Okay, to the bathroom for that cigarette I go. I guess it's okay to eat them but you can't smoke them at this place.

So here comes Eddie Trunk (of That Metal Show, and the radio) on stage, to tell us Slash was coming up next. I'm so glad they had Eddie Trunk here to inform us of this drastic turn in events. And here I thought I was here to see Emerson Lake & Palmer. Anyway Eddie, thanks for that. At 9:28 the man in the top hat himself hit the stage-Slash w/ Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators (seems 'The Attractions' and 'The Imposters' were taken). They jumped into things with 'Halo', off their new record followed by “Night Train”. The place went bonkers. People walking away from their seats to make it to the back just to jump up and down and rock out. And all of these people are up to date on the new record a lot more than this guy. I have to admit I was more into the last record Slash put out with the revolving door of lead singers-but this stuff translates well live. “Standing In The Sun” came early and caught my ear. A few songs later they jumped into some more GNR cuts with a back to back of “Civil War” and “Rocket Queen”. An epic version of Civil War. Epic soloing as usual. Slash, Myles and the boys went to town on that one. During the 15 minute version of Rocket Queen that was only able to capture 9 minutes and 12 seconds of(because Slash went nuts with a solo that I can't wait to share with you as soon as it uploads), I noticed the entire floor level was pumping their fists in the air in unison. Looked like New Jersey, except that it was beautiful. Every song has it's very own “Slash crazy solo” warped into the song. He quite an amazing soloist on the gee-tar. A song later on in the set, that I can't even recall, I swear it was almost Phishy how Slash just jams out for 10 minutes at a time and then returns to the song Curt Kirkwood style. This became a problem on “Rocket Queen”, which I only have the first 9 minutes and 12 seconds of because I'm yet to figure out why my camera has a limit on the amount of minutes I can record a single video. I had camera issues all night.

Todd Kerns (the bass player) can sing too, so taking a break from Myles Kennedy for a song, we got “We're All Gonna Die”, which the vocals are sang by Iggy Pop on the record. So now not only was Myles killin' it but this guy is doing a hell of a job with this song. Good to have a second voice option in your band so you don't have to limit your set list-these are things professional musicians like these do. They jump back into the GNR catalog with “You're Crazy”. I mean honestly, right now I've “won” for lack of a better term. See, back when I saw the band touring as “Guns N Roses”, I got to hear the handful of songs I enjoyed but every time I looked on stage I realized that I hate Axl Rose and his way of being a douche nozzle in every sense of life. Tonight I look on stage and see Slash, a gifted guitarist who has switches cleaner than anyone I've ever heard who's whole life has been based on finding a singer. Finding someone to tour with and play music, write music, enjoy music with. This isn't a job, I mean, there is a paycheck of course, but Slash and Myles look to be having some real fun up there. And making some real good music too, you can't top the feeling of the artists you're seeing seeming to be almost as excited to see you as you are them.

“Bad Rain” came before Myles took a seat on his little pedestal there. What's with that? I first saw the guy from the Deftones doing it at BlackDiamondSkye with the tables set up in front. And he hardly stood on it. Anyway, he took a seat to get into a song called “Not for Me”, which, even with it's epic guitar parts may in fact, not be for me. Didn't hate it, but was one of the few times I looked to see what time it was during the night. But these guys know what they're doing, and that's when the “Sweet Child of Mine” riff started and then seriously there not an ass in a seat besides me trying to keep my camera steady. It was amazing. Myles does a really good Axl, like a much less annoying Axl. Then rumblings of a familiar riff again, but not of the GNR variety.. It was “Slither”! Velvet freaking Revolver! Eff all you people I loved Velvet Revolver and now we're finding out that Myles doesn't do a bad Scott Weiland either.. I was so happy to hear this song live.... again? That's when it dawned on me that I'm hearing this song live for the second time. In 2007 the first real concert I ever attended was Velvet Revolver with Alice In Chains and Kill Hannah. It's so old there's not even a blog for it. It took me til the last song before the encore for me to realize that this wasn't me seeing one of my favorite guitarists for the first time live, never the less it was the seeing this dude the best time live. It was 11ish when they went off for the encore.

I'm up, I'm on my way out. I know Paradise City is coming and to be honest I've already for lack of a better term “shot my load” here with this one. I've gotten everything I could have wanted. Then Slash is on the microphone, a rarity. He says something to the effect of “We haven't been playing this one, we're gonna do it tonight because it's fucking New York City!”. Then, with Kerns on vocals, we got ourselves “Welcome to the Jungle”. Once Slash grabbed the mic I stopped walking to see what they were up to. When he said that I immediately hit record and walking my way down the aisle and sat on the step there trying to record while everyone's passing by my freaking shot. I found a better seat when they jumped into Paradise City, but halfway through I look at the ticker on my camera and notice it's not moving. I didn't hit record. That's when I decided it was time to get my Foxy Shazam tee shirt and get out of here. Slash's merch is in the lobby and Foxy has a table set up in the back of the General Admission floor. The security guard won't let me through the velvet rope and tells me to head out the door as I'm ten feet from this merch table. So I walk out that door, and walk back in through a door this staffer is not guarding, and there I see Eric Nally taking pictures with two fans. I was trying to get my camera out to see if one of these strangers would take a picture of me with him but I'm way too anti-social for that kinda thing, so I went up to him when they left and shook his hand, told him they're awesome and that I've seen them three times this year and made sure to say “And the Reverend Justito says Hi”. Now this is all while Paradise City is still blasting, so who knows if he even heard a word of what I said, but he seemed like a very warm individual. Not the dude on stage at all. With Paradise City still rocking, and my $30 Foxy Shazam tee shirt hanging off my shoulder, I said goodbye to the Hammerstein Ballroom, I was in a cab at 11:31. What an amazing night.   LATE.   Show Notes: I have some issues with the venue I'd like to address here. Dear Hammerstein Ballroom: First of all, you search people like they're criminals. You take peoples lighters- for what reason might I ask? You think you're stopping people from smoking indoors? Everyone is still smoking anyway, raises lighters in the air, and I have 2 packs of matches besides the point. Speaking of smoking- you have a 3+ hour rock concert and people aren't allowed to go out to smoke cigarettes? What is that? You know what happens when you do that? People smoke inside of your building. People who are Drunk, high, tripping or all of the above are now using fire inside your precious “ballroom”. And on the way out your event staff wouldn't let me near the Foxy Shazam merch cause you stuffed it in the back of the GA standing area and security thinks I'm trying to sneak into that crappy area to stand for the last song of the show. Like I would want to sneak down from my SEAT to a STANDING AREA FULL OF NUTBALLS. Had to fake that lady out and head into the lobby before darting back in to grab my tee shirt. And hey, I don't want to tell you how to run things or anything, but you have a twitter account right? Of course you do, you follow me. Now why on earth would that twitter account not be put into use to TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THAT SECOND OPENER?! Is this a little game that venues like to play? Trick people into showing up early? And why do I get to choose where I want to sit in the mezzanine? I paid 50 dollars plus whatever fees you plugged my ass for on this ticket and you can't assign me a seat?? It's going to take a miracle to get me back inside that building again. [gallery link="file" columns="2" orderby="post_date"]

The Offspring, Neon Trees & Dead Sara All Come Hard In Threesome In Asbury Park 09/09/12

Offspring w/ Neon Trees & Dead Sara - 09/09/2012

Stone Pony Summerstage - Asbury Park, NJ

Words/Photos/Videos - Jay Porks

Amazing how things work out sometimes, it's the whole “life evens out” thing. Great weeks you have end terribly and some of those terrible weeks end awesome. Tonight was fortunately one of the ladder as we embark on the 77th edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series. Tonight it's the Stone Pony Summerstage in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Yea that's right, another trek into Dirty Jersey, this time it's The Offspring with Dead Sara and Neon Trees. Say what you will about The Offspring(and I mean 95 % of the Concert Confessions crew, especially Reverend Justito who's probably cringing at yet another Offspring review ), but that's one of the few bands that has songs with lyrics that relate to me personally on every level. I've been a fan forever, and may not be up to date on their latest record but am still totally psyched to be seeing them. Also, Neon Trees in the past couple of weeks has gotten way more appealing to me as I hear more and more of them now with the new Alternative Station in New York City. And I know at least one Dead Sara song, they're a hard rockin' bunch. So this show (albeit a bit pricey $43 plus fees) was a must see. Especially when Jay Porks Experience veteran Pam being as into all this as I am, along with our buddy and new comer Janine-who's concert cherry we will get to pop tonight weeks before I'm giving a horrible toast at her wedding. Doors set for 5:30. Show I'd assume at 6:30.

Dead Sara is most definitely alive(Stop pretending that you don't love my puns) as they kicked ass all the way from the parking lot. My typical style of being unorganized and having no sense of direction has us in the car attempting to down beers (at Supermarket prices) as Dead Sara hit the stage at 6:43. Surprised they didn't go full cavity search on me there-they were tough at the gate. Event staffers included a gander into my pack of cigarettes and everything. Finally made it to what was going to be our spot, down in front but not too far up and by 7:10 “Weatherman” was already deafening the place.. Here's a band that should be bigger. They were amazing, and they were without a doubt the loudest band to hit the stage on this night. I saw a few Dead Sara tee shirts too, which surprised me at first, then delighted me by the time they went off at about 7:15.  They would fit right in playing with a band like Ume, you heard that here first when the world eventually starts listening to me.

Some bands have songs that are catchy and stick in your head even though they are annoying as hell. It's like you're being duped into becoming a fan of a band sometimes, only to find out two or three singles later that it's nothing but crap, And that's sort of what I was expecting from Neon Trees, who hit the stage at roughly 7:31. It feels so good to be so wrong. Early in the set they had a song called “Sins of my Youth” which was a serious head-nodder. And “Teenage Sounds” is another interesting one. I've got my camera in hand waiting for the songs I know, while the lead singer, Tyler Glenn is full of all sorts of banter-both funny and true. It was almost 8 o clock of the band absolutely killing it when this dude says “Two years ago we wrote this song and we recorded it and out of nowhere people started singing.. singing it in the shower and started singing it in all the offices complexes and all the other real 'idiotic white people areas' to sing songs. If you hate it, you can go get a beer and a hot dog and come back for the Offspring, this song's called Animal”. I was never a vocalist, and never claimed to be one-but this guy can really sing. The way he can bend some of the notes in the slightest of ways that make the biggest difference. This is showcased really on “Everybody Talks”, the jam of theirs I've been getting wasted to almost every night since they did it on Letterman. They went off at about 8:20. I was really surprised how much I enjoyed these guys. Good band, great live band.

At 8:56 The Offspring hit the stage just as the fully darkened night sky was settling in. “Hurting as One” and “All I Want” started off the night and now we turn around and notice we couldn't get to the back if we tried, in case stuff got crazy. Stuff did start getting crazy, I saw some crowd surfing attempts during “Come Out And Play”-but this is New Jersey, they don't do it right. Really shocked how good Dex sounded. His voice hasn't changed a bit. And it's not one of this Axl's Roses deals, to the right you got Noodles tearing it up. This is freaking awesome. I can't believe I'm finally seeing the Offspring! During the craziness of “Bad Habit” during the break that song has Dex led the crowd into singing the line: “You stupid dumb shit god damn mother fucker!”, successfully. During “Gotta Get Away”, I noticed my first 30 seconds weren't recording because I double tapped the button. It was the best three something minutes of my week as I screamed along those lyrics. “There's demons in my head and it's more than I could take”.“Starring At The Sun” really heated things up and we're only about 10 songs in, and “Days Gone By” is already in the rear-view mirror.

Now the lights get low and no one's on stage but Dex and one of the guys in the band is playing keys. He starts into “Gone Away”, in total, gospel style I guess. Like he Adele'd the song up. Then, Emily Armstrong from Dead Sara comes out to join him on vocals, and all I'm doing is waiting for the guitars to come out.. and they never did. The version wasn't terrible, but in this writers opinion it could have been a lot better if they had the narly guitars wrecking shit on stage and you can still have Emily from Dead Sara out there-it's not like she's in a band that plays soft pop music. Hell, they're heavier than the Offspring. How bout the full Dead Sara band comes out and they play the heaviest, loudest version of “Gone Away” ever? That would've been awesome. But my first time seeing one of my favorite bands and they completely took one of my favorite songs and sacrificed it to a goat. It's not like there are any songs slow in tempo at all to this point, I don't understand what that was.. And while we're on the topic of things that were annoying as hell tonight: WHY ARE ALL YOU PEOPLE SO TALL? My shoulder is deader than Sara right now, and the video is trash. I mean it's good for the elements I as dealing with. I mean, no slam dancing broke out near us but because I had to have my arm fully extended to reach over the Rutgers Basketball team plus people up front holding up their iPhones blocking my angles. All the videos are a shaky mess, and these Youtube trolls are going to destroy me in the comments section. The Stone Pony's Summerstage set up is nothing short of terrible. It's a slab of concrete, it's basically a parking lot with a stage. No incline at all. You move back it's not like there's a better view. Saw Social D here last May and remember hating this place. We need to do size order at these things-like back in 5th grade.

After “Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?” I turned to Pam and Janine and said “The acoustic is out, 'Why Don't You Get A Job?” has to be next”. And it was. What a song. Hope you can't hear me singing on the video of that one. “You're Gonna Go Far, Kid” is a song I loved off their last record that I had totally forgotten about. “Pretty Fly For A White Guy” was my ring tone for years at one point. That song is about me in Junior High School minus getting tattoos. Then “The Kids Aren't Alright” completed the Quad-Phekda of songs that made up for the crappy Stone Pony Summer Stage. They ducked off at 10 o' clock.

They came back out for the encore and played “Americana” then another forgotten favorite “Can't Get My Head Around You”. Now the running theme through this show is how close to home these song hit me on a personal level, and nothing sums that up more than the final song of the evening: Self Esteem. This is a song about every part of Jay Porks. Seriously. My girlfriend in High School used to cheat on me with all my friends, and I never dumped the girl I just “made her dessert” in a sense and would let it go. Shows the kind of person I am. Anyway, as Dex starts the line “Late at night she knocks on my door, drunk again and looking to score” I remember that about a week or two ago I received a text message from this very same High School flame who cut me loose 7 or 8 years ago saying that she was outside my house and I should come out. Now, I'm not saying that she was “drunk again and looking to score”, but hell I'm going to pretend that was the case for this instance as the Offspring are telling the story of my life on stage. The perfect end to a unique evening. Late. [gallery link="file"]

The Vaselines Hit The Bell House In Brooklyn 08/30/12

The Vaselines - 08/30/2012

The Bell House - Brooklyn,  NY

Words, Photos and Video by Jay Porks

As someone who's never been to Glasgow, it's odd to be a veteran of Vaselines shows. In '09 I caught them in at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg in Hipsterville. Then in 2010 out of nowhere they drop this awesome record, “Sex With An X”, then tour in support of it-successfully melting my face at the Webster Hall stop. Well tonight, it's back to Brooklyn to a venue called 'The Bell House'. Only good things being said about this place, and it seems pretty simple to get to: One bus, one boat, one train. Took the day off of my crappy day job to prep for this. Remember folks, this was a band that wasn't together for almost 20 years. Is this a comeback of sorts? Let's sure as hell hope so, because there are a handful of bands that certain people need in their lives to keep them sane, and the Vaselines make short list for this guy. You always know it's going to be a good time when you know the band's entire catalog off the top of your head, and if you're seeing a killer photo above this paragraph, then my bitchin' camera was worth every penny. So what do you say, shall we get the 76th edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series rolling along? Thought you'd never ask. Got off the train, took a big inhale and said aloud "ahh Brooklyn". I walked a few blocks and found the Bell House: 147 7th Street. They say it was a warehouse in the 1920's. I believe it by the look of the outside of it, now it serves as a bar/restaurant with a back room for concerts. I got inside like 730 and waited by the merch table for the "doors" to be open( slated for 8PM). There are a few folks hitting up the box office for tickets, which are still available. They let us into the room contains a stage with two chandeliers dangling from the ceiling and a bar far left side. I notice in back of the room there is this area that's 2 steps up and has bar stools and tables. Like the type of spot that would be roped off for VIP if there was any VIP here. Of course I grabbed that spot, right next to an outlet to charge my phone. Awesome. After I picked up my Vaselines tee shirt (for ten bucks!) a guy walks up and asks if there's an extra stool for him, something with his leg. I let him know there was 3 others up here that's no ones claiming, then he said hes "gonna be shooting video". That makes two of us.

The opener is set to come on at 9, and at 926 the lights finally dimmed for 'Schwervon'. The two piece came on stage and I was surprised that the hot chick is not only drumming but singing lead on songs, as both members sing too. So the guitar player sings one, she sings one, they harmonize and stuff. Pretty cool. "This next song is called American Idol". The male/female dueling vocalists dynamtic of these two fits in perfectly with the band they're opening for. It was whatever song that the lyric "fuck yourself" was casually thrown into the chorus, that was the point I officially proclaimed this band as cool. The two are dating or married I'd assume, as the next song had story about riding the Cyclone at Coney Island on their 2^nd date( The song was called Cyclone). She sounds a little like Kim Deal. They had a song called "Cougar Pride", and don't worry folks, it had nothing to do with the college football team Mike Leech is the coach of. Then towards the end Frances McKee came to lend some vocal assistance one of the last songs of their set. They went off at 10:03 having won ignorant snobs like me over. Not a bad band.

After an extended wait for gear to be set up, The Vaselines came out like gangbusters at 10:31, jumping right into "Sex Sux(Amen)" and "Oliver Twisted", two of the harder hitting songs in their catalog. Glad to see Frances and Eugene haven't lost any of their sense of humor- the banter between songs is hysterical. Its all innuendo- you don't hear any stories about cramped tour buses with this crew. Speaking of sex,, next song up was "Monsterpussy", and during the opening riffs I'm starting to notice Eugene Kelly's little underlying riffs that sort of fiddle into the songs when he's not singing. This third time seeing them is anything but a let down at this point, as the three guitar onslaught buried the Bell House with fuzz and feedback while sustaining that melodic sort of "jingle-jangle" that has always been their signature. "Such a Fool" gave us our first Vaselines song recorded post-1990 of the evening. "The Day I was a Horse" followed, if you don't know, it's a song about tripping on LSD and pretending you're a horse. 

Did I mention that Frances Mckee looked extremely sexy in the leather jacket and sundress? Well I just did, I had noticed it since she came out with Schwervon maybe I just never had a good enough camera to notice. By the time the band was ripping through more newer tracks like "I Hate The 80's" and "Devil Inside Me", I was using that bar stool I was sitting on as a ladder, this crowd seems predominantly taller than others. The Devil Inside Me is such a dark jam for a these guys.

http://youtu.be/0_YHKO0sa28 All the songs off “Sex With An X” are incredible-so amazing to be able to capture all this footage with a real deal camera. I was already getting every single song on video so far, I was on fire. So when the guy to my left says “You getting the whole show?”.. I paused and said “Hell yes I am”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHVPB7hzj3Q&feature=colike The beauty that is "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” was preceded by Frances getting into an anecdote about the“Wankerchief” (see Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam video). It's filthy and brilliant, as was tonight's version of this legendary track. “Hairy” followed... http://youtu.be/rdIeVl37d7c then I called out "Molly's Lips” a second before they busted into it. I knew it was coming because Schwervon was on stage with bicycle horns for this one and back at Webster in 2010, Jeffery Lewis (the opener)played bicycle horn on that song. Then came Sex with an X is the title track from the bands latest effort. Can't help but think there's deeper meaning in that title with Frances and Eugene then they're letting on. Because they don't look like a band up there cashing it in, just touring because they know that since Kurt Cobain was a fan people will come out and see them. It's actually quite the contrary  as they're having tons of fun up there, like kids who's parents left them home alone for the first time ever. The cartoony riff of this song is bouncing around the room while heads in the crowd are swinging back and forth with smiles on the faces of Frances and Eugene. The lyrical lovey-doveyness of “Slushy” is counteracted by the confrontational lyrics in “Poison Pen”. http://youtu.be/VDIlHmx9cJw “Bitch” and “Rory Rides Me Raw” followed “Son of a Gun”, the 5 or 6 folks in Nirvana tee shirts headed to the door as the last of the songs they know were played. 

Probably told you this many times in the previous paragraphs about other songs, but “Ruined” is seriously the best track off this new record. It's face paced, simple, heavy. http://youtu.be/TFC7JSk55KI “Lovecraft” and “Let's Get Ugly” went down before they ducked off stage for the encore at 11:49. Frances is mad because she wanting to play “Dying for it (Blues)” tonight, and they instead were going with “Dum-Dum”. Everyone cheered when they heard Dum-Dum was the choice, and Frances spurts out “I thought you were my friends!”. After they had a false start on it they killed it, then the final song of the evening was, as it normally is, “You Think You're A Man”. The re-worked Divine song that they turned into awesome. http://youtu.be/0ySRlWI8XeI  

 It was 12:02 when they were off stage and I was off to try and catch that 1AM Ferry.  Seduced and sodomized once again by the Vaselines, and I loved every minute of it.[gallery link="file" orderby="rand"]

Toadies/Helmet (w/ Ume) 08/02/2012
 Webster Hall – New York City
 Words/Photos/Videos By Jay Porks

I can honestly say that I've been waiting to see the Toadies again since Sept 2010, the 1st and only time I saw them live. So when news broke right here at Concert Confessions that they were to co-Headline tour with Helmet I was more than stoked. Helmet too? It's impossible for one not to be pumped for something like this, and a promise that can hopefully be fulfilled in these next few paragraphs-we'll try and find out how exactly the opening band Ume is actually pronounced. The songs I looked up on YouTube were pretty cool, so we got three solid bands lined up here tonight at Webster Hall for the 75th Edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series. Let's hope there are no former members of the Cro-Mags here, I don't want to get stabbed or anything. Doors are set to open at 6PM and Ume suppose to go on at 6:45.. I think it's Ladies Night here at Webster Hall so I wouldn't be surprised if they push us scum rockers out by 11 or so. Anyway, let's roll.

Got a 32oz soda at the ferry because Mayor Bloomberg can kiss my ass. It wasn't until I got in the line outside Webster Hall, 20 minutes til doors open that my bladder decided it was annoyed by the mass intake of beverage and let me tell you folks, that was the longest 20 minutes of my life. The only Starbucks near by had an "out of order" sign on the bathroom. As I stand around they open a door and I sneak a peak at the set times for tonight: Ume: 6:45, Helmet: 7:45, Toadies: 9:15. They let us in about 6:15, I find my way upstairs so I can lean on the rail and take some sweet pictures. Notice not a lot of people up here

Ume

The Austin trio scampered on stage at 6:45 and started things off with "The Conductor". Boy were they loud. The ferocious guitar playing of Lauren Larsen led the way, powering through each song without a break in the heavy. The room isn't even half full, but the people here are rocking out to no extent, this writer included.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psqUKKCq1g8&feature=youtu.be All their songs have this 'smash you in the face' type aggression, like an angry Dinosaur Jr-the distortion was all I've ever asked for in a band, the drumming was sexy as hell.  After "Chase It Down" had me sold mid-set, I started to wonder why someone didn't take the time out of their day to make this band a Wikipedia page, I got their names(first names anyway) from their Facebook page, Rachael on drums, Eric on bass. All killed it... They're from Austin so they'd be a perfect band to open up for the Meat Puppets on a tour(wearing my Pups tee, of course).

Being an earlier show (with Helmet due on 745 and Toadies at 915), they unfortunately were only able to get into seven songs..but with they time they had they were able to deliver everything the early arrivals could have asked for. They went off a little after 7PM leaving me wanting more.

Helmet

The buzz outside while taking in a cigarette was "can't believe the Toadies are closing this show". I'm just happy to have two cool bands co-headlining a tour, not gonna nit-pick the order here. Then I got a text from a buddy that said "I'm shocked they played before the Toadies". I headed back in and at 7:45ish Helmet began what was to be a little over an hour of punching me in the temples with riffs. I hadn't been deafened like that in a while, come on now the last show this guy attended was Summerland. Helmet has some great banter, they were joking on superfans who ask them to "play b-sides from like 1990", also mentioned that this show was earlier due to some sort of "disco" happening afterwards. The aforementioned club night. As I'm laughing at this dudes funny commentary, I get a text from Pam, she's outside. Sweet. Pam is the one who got me to see the Toadies in the first place in a Cake for Toadies ticket trade off and it was so worth it. So now we're headed back upstairs (Helmet isn't deafening me any less by me being in a hallway), and one of the security guards is giving Pam a hard time so I'm just turn to dude and say "She's with me, it's cool", and it worked. With the likes of Maura Johnston from the Village Voice in attendance, confidence can go along way with "Wilma's Rainbow" as a stellar background soundtrack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDyPm9glm9E We grab drinks, 10 bucks for a Jack and Diet in a dixie cup. As we're paying for the drinks, Helmet is not letting up and Pam (who's in the building for about 10 minutes) turns to me and says "This band is pretty rocking" or something to that extent. Hell she knows less about the band then I do, I know "Unsung". Man do I love that song, it's such an important song in the canon of 90's Rock & Roll tunes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_JDbVINpv4&feature=youtu.be Well, rolling near 9 o'clock the last song they played was "In the Meantime", leaving us Unsungless. No one seemed to care but me, as between sets I ran out for a smoke and saw a bunch of Helmet tee shirted folk talking, then turn towards the door and see people just arriving with printed out tickets-I guess only here to see the Toadies.

Toadies

Two totally different atmospheres in the room as I returned to my spot. The Helmet tee shirts sort of drifted towards the back of the room, and the few fellows wearing plaid shirts made their way up front. Toadies came out promptly at 9:15 and kicked things off with some "Heel" action, followed by "Backslider" and "I Come From The Water" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT46Ja3u9co&feature=youtu.be and that place was jumping. The last time I saw this band, I said something to the effect of "where have the Toadies been?". Well, those questions were answered in an interview with Clark Vogeler  over at AQ, and then this past Tuesday they released a new record called "Play.Rock.Music." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9ONzvN1w9Q&feature=youtu.be I admit I have yet to grab the new album but I know they played "Summer of the Strange" off the new release, and that song is a keeper. They say the NSFW music video is pretty cool. The room was really settling in now, not many people seemed to have left after Helmet by the way everyone was fist pumping during songs like  "Sweetness" and "Waterfall". That man Clark Vogeler over there is tearing up this place-bouncing feedback off his amp Scott Lucas style really gets my juices flowing, I love that stuff. At like 10 o clock, I turn to Pam and tell her I'm gonna head to the other side to catch some pictures from different angles. "Song I Hate" was just ending, so what do you know I'm over here experimenting angles with my camera when I hear that "Possum Kingdom" riff. Okay, let's roll film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTgVodIk-40&feature=youtu.be That version of Possum Kingdom I got at Gramercy in 2010 on video with heads bouncing in front of me needed to be trumped. And if you check
belowabove, it has been in terms of quality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikC3VfBP-ws&feature=youtu.be

After that they jumped into "Mister Love" and after that it's 10:23 so Lewis says that since they're pressed for time sort of, they're not gonna do the run off stage for a minute thing and come back for an encore, instead just saying they had two more to play. "Rattlers Revival" kicked off the "encore" in fine fashion. Then, all of a sudden there's four drums on stage and one of the dudes from Helmet along with the drummer from Ume are on stage to help out on this one. I turned and said "What is this Applied Science or something?", of course making a 311 reference. Then, Lewis, messing with my fragile emotions teases the first few chords of "Unsung" and looks up into this window upstairs on the side of the stage where the lead singer of Helmet is at the window, flipping the bird to everyone on stage. So after all the jokes "I Burn" was the last song played and they headed off stage at 10:32. Not a soul left unsatisfied. 

That was fun times. It's rare to get two great bands together, let alone three with tonight's enlightenment to Ume, which is pronounced "ooo-may" by the way. Hope they come around again. Hope all these bands come around again. And props to Webster Hall for having that Air Conditioning blasting at an obnoxious volume. Keeping a chubby kid like me from sweating, you made everyone I sat near very happy people. Anyway, I'm out of here for now. Thanks to to ones who made it this far down. 

LATE

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Summerland 2012 @ PNC Bank Arts Center 7/21/2012

Summerland (Everclear, Sugar Ray, Gin Blossoms, Lit, Marcy Playground) 07/21/12

PNC Bank Arts Center - Holmdel, NJ

Words/Photos/Videos By Jay Porks

Since late March the buzz has been huge for what people are dubbing the 90's throwback experience of a lifetime. It's Summerland! Everclear, Sugar Ray, Gin Blossoms, Lit and Marcy Playground. With the exception of Sugar Ray, these are all bands I was too young to see when they were popular, so for them to be getting together and bringing this carnival to one of my favorite venues, PNC Bank Arts Center in Homdel, NJ, is just the bees knees. According to the post breaking the story here at Concert Confessions, I was suppose to find a Big Dog shirt, bleach my hair and grab a wallet chain. Well, all the bleach in my house is being used soaking my work attire, I don't own a wallet chain, and I have misplaced my Big Dog tee. But it's cool, I found my Meat Puppets tee-shirt to make up for it.   PNC Bank Arts Center has a funky way of doing things with the prohibiting of tailgating. It's as if you never know until you show up if it's allowed. Well, this time after reading the FAQ on the venue's website I decided to call up and ask what the deal was. It was communicated to me that tailgating WILL be permitted and the parking lot opens at 5PM. Good to know, I'll pack my cooler. Rolling with a crew, and that's always more fun. We got my friends Pam, Ray and Lisa. Pam's is a veteran to the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series by now, having been along for many of our 74 installments.  It was actually a year ago to the day that Pam, Ray, Lex and I scampered across the Garden State Parkway just to miss Sublime w/ Rome.   My irresponsible planning and driving directions that took us in circles around Staten Island for a extra hour or so, we finally pulled up to the parking lot at almost 7PM. That's when show is set to start, I'd assume. But we decided that we'd walk in on "Sex and Candy" and it'd be no harm, no foul. We're trying to drink our beer at supermarket prices here in the parking lot. so we were about to start the trek towards the venue, when a yellow school bus suddenly appeared. The door was open and they were shuttling people to the main parking lot. It was like a Summerland miracle..

Got to the gates, after being frisked like criminals we headed up to the Lawn to hit a beer line where someone gave me props on my Meat Puppets tee shirt. Anything to spread the brand. Still on this line at 8:29 is when the chords of "Follow You Down" kick off. Now we're boozed up headed back to find a spot, which we found a good one. Not the best spot overall, but there was a path for a guy like myself to run up to the railing to get good video of songs I found important. So much weed was being smoked EVERYWHERE by the time "Found Out About You" came on. I turned to Pam and said "They're gonna do that Allison song next", and sure enough, here we are into "Allison Rd".. Towards the end you realize: Wow, the Gin Blossoms are really kicking ass right now. None of their set disappointed, as you can certainly hear on my video of "Hey Jealousy" where it seems as if I had walked into a crowd of teenage girls, who proceeded to scream every single lyric. I'd do the same thing if I wasn't wielding a camera. I finally got to see the Gin Blossoms, all those songs that represented all those shitty relationships I've had in my life I got to see live. That's what this tour is all about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvVlcVcHiZI&feature=youtu.be You've figured out by now that we've already missed Marcy Playground AND Lit. That's a bummer. But then again, I'm chalking this up as a victory with the Gin Blossoms-and I got Everclear later. Speaking of Everclear, at about 9:15 here comes Art Alexakis on stage, thanking everyone for coming out and talking about how awesome the 90's were, and explaining a story about how he first met Mark McGrath in 1997 on acid (not sure which one of them was on acid). He then introduced Sugar Ray.

First song we hear is the Saved By The Bell theme song, I think it's being played over the loud speaker. Ray and I are screaming the lyrics aloud grabbing the attention of a chick sitting in front of us (yea, we're sitting on the grass for Sugar Ray), then the band played Wipeout and Mark McGrath appeared in a white sport coat on stage. McGrath has this cocky personality about him that anyone who's seen him live will tell you something to the effect of "you hate him but you love him". So I spent this set focused on not letting this douche nozzle win me over. After "Every Morning" and "Out The Window" almost made my head nod. I recognize way too many of these songs for me to openly admit. They broke into "Mean Machine/Blitzkrieg Bop" mashed into one song sort of-they've been doing that on this tour. The two fans were pulled up on stage, to sing verses on some more covers. The first dude got "You got to Fight For Your Right (To Party)" and it was pretty neat, then with the second dude the whole band got into "I Got A Feeling". Yeah, that Black Eyed Peas song. I was this close to enjoying that set until I heard that non-sense. He handed them each a shirt by saying "Here ya go, a Collective Soul Tee for you, and a Third Eye Blind one for you". Where are they on this tour? They closed out a crowd pleasing set with "Fly" which I taped and afterwards kept rolling for the first verse of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song he did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3gjlvVx2QM&feature=youtu.be   So around 10:15 McGrath comes back out to introduce Everclear, proclaiming them "The ONLY band that can close out Summerland!". Damn right. The people who think Sugar Ray is the band on this bill need to have their heads examined.

So a few minutes later Everclear hit the stage and kicked things off with "Father of Mine" and "Everything to Everyone". I know people who disagree with my last paragraph will find joy in this, what bothered me was the mass amounts of people leaving while Everclear was just kicking off their set. It's bad enough that the seated area between the lawn and the pit was half empty, but by the time Everclear was into their 3rd song the place was getting scarce. Then at about 10:45, Lisa says "hey, why don't we sneak by that security guard into those seats". I finished taping whatever song I was (because I have a railing to lean on the camera isn't so shaky) and tapped Pam and said we were about to make moves. As soon as 3 hot girls passed in front of this dude, we walked right passed him with his back turned to us. That was bad ass.

So now we're in what, $50-$60 seats for the duration of the show, which wasn't too long but was everything we needed. "Wonderful" and "I Will Buy You A New Life" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFgblH8iOqw&feature=youtu.be were beautiful and for all these people who say Art's voice is "shot" and they're "terrible live" please, comment below and tell me how that is fact? These songs sounded exactly as they did on record. Humor me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeMQwlSc6Sk&feature=youtu.be Then they jumped into a Led Zeppelin cover(Rock And Roll) that they had the lead singer of Lit come out to assist with. But during this while I'm recording a fight breaks out between these two drunken heavyweights a few rows up. Typical Jersey rock concert, people get drunk and argue over which one of them is the father of Snooki's child. But wait, why is my 5 foot 2 friend Lisa over there now? She's breaking up the fight is what she's doing, for reasons none of us, including her are able to explain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AUYEfYx3c&feature=youtu.be Dudes are covering Zep and I had to make sure some guy twice my size doesn't toss Lisa to the side like a discarded napkin. It was a conflict that resulted in me NOT being man and heading over there, and the video sucks anyway because I had my eyes on the brawl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr0umiD_Qu4&feature=youtu.be The last song of the evening was of course "Santa Monica", which is personally the only song I can play on guitar-barely. But there were kids on stage, I believe the lead singer of Lit (who was still hanging on stage) brought his kids up to partake in the awesomeness. Show ended about 11, that was after Art said "See you next year, tell a friend!". Well, I'm the friend that just told you.   What a moment. Been waiting since March for this, and even with missing Lit and Marcy Playground this still was such a great experience, no matter how cheesy some may view it as. This cost me $25. In this economy, I'll take it! Anyway, those who stuck around to read I thank you, and hope you keep up with us at Concert Confessions because there is nothing but good things going on over here. Keep your eyes peeled.   LATE   [gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="post_date"]

Childish Gambino @ Central Park Summerstage 06/25/12

Childish Gambino - 6/25/12

Central Park Summerstage - New York City

Words/Photos/Video By Jay Porks

Damn, I wish I could keep this streak going of hitting epic shows every freaking night. What goes on people , welcome yourselves to the 73rd episode of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series. After two days in Atlantic City at the Orion Music + More festival, it was time to get back in the New York groove as they say with a visit to Central Park, for Childish Gambino. Since this is Concert Confessions, I have a small confession to come clean with right now: I introduced ALL my peers at CC to this guy over a year ago! Then all of sudden Reverend Justito gets him at Coachella, then the entire NW chapter got him at Sasquatch in WA, even a confession from Mr Sparkly from a show in Moscow, ID on thenaturalstoner's birthday. Then Jakob got him at Bonarroo. I've read way too much about my new favorite rapper on this site not from me, it's about damn time this Central Park show came around. Openers are Schoolboy Q and Danny Brown- "doors" at 6, show at 7 at the Summerstage, as a killer storm was just cleared up upon our arrival. I don't know if my head isn't on straight or what, me and my buddy Chach got to the city at 6:30 and I took us all sorts of out of the way missing a bunch of trains. I'm the one who's been to shows here after all. So we got in at like 7:30 and we heard Danny Brown on stage as we were entering. I thought it was going to be reversed and Schoolboy Q would be on first but it wasn't the case. Danny Brown is a little too weird for my taste anyway. I can take him in small doses, and I'm sure he'll be out here sometime later on tonight.

Schoolboy Q hit the stage at like 7:45 and was spitting lyrics to a hyped, packed out crowd who didn't seem only into the headliner. During his set Danny Brown was walking around like the front of the stage by the crowd, taking pictures with people and stuff- like right when Schoolboy Q is up there trying to do his thing. I'd be pissed if someone was kinda stealing my thunder. His last song was “Hands on the Wheel”. He was off by 8:13PM

At about 8:32PM the stage was filled with smoke as Childish Gambino came out to a roaring ovation. Most of the crowd was chanting “Gam-Bino Gam-Bino”, just like they scream for Jay Z with the “HOVA” chants . Unreal. I never thought I'd see this many people as excited as me. Then like the 2^nd song up was “Firefly”, which is a sick song. This guy is such a pro at what he's doing. “Freaks and Geeks” hit us up next, the song containing such epic lines like “I'm in the back of the bush like Gaven Rossdale's drummer”(get it? The female anatomy + 90's Alternative rock band? Awesome). They're was a video screen that I couldn't see do to the fact I went far right to be as close to the stage as I could. He did a song or two off 'Culdesac', his first record (or mixtape). Besides a few people cutting in front of us and pissing me the hell off before they moved I was genuinely have such an awesome time. Even though I'm cramped in with a bunch of people being bumped from all sides-I feel like this is family.

Everywhere we looked there was weed being smoked..and not the typical “let me duck down and use this one hitter” type smoking. Everyone was smoking right in front of the event staff, they were watching and really could care less. There's this couple in front of us (who earlier I was pissed at the dude for being in front of me, but he has since moved over) turns around and I see him talking to Chach and then he hands him half a joint, and it's fat as hell. Chach goes “I don't know, he said he was done smoking or something”. Sweet. Myself, not the type to shy away from the recreational use of the herbal, enhanced the night a little more by joining in with the rest of Central Park's Marijuana Bonfire. People never share at shows, these are some good times right here.

The thing different about Childish Gambino, besides the way his punchlines emphasize the punch, is that he plays with a full band. These guys rock out. At one point during the set he says “Listen guys, this isn't a Rap concert-This is a black rock concert!”. And tearing through “All The Shine” (tearing through it to epic proportions) and the “Rolling in the Deep” remix he does, with the two guitar players, two violinists, drummer and all of the above with one drum in front of them at all times creating all sorts of cool elements. Like, the guitar player bangs the drum for a little, hits the keyboard on another part of the song. All these guys are full with as much energy as Gambino. “L.E.S.”, “Heartbeat” and “Bonfire”(which was, like many tonight, full crowd sing-alongs as we all know the every single lyric) were all played before 9:27 when he said goodnight and headed off stage. I thought it was over before I looked at the time, because it felt like he played it all.

Comes back out like 3 minutes later, and says “I said it was a black rock concert, well now it's time we turn this to a rap concert!”, then kicked a freestyle over the beat for a song called “Rack City” by Tyga. Then he said “Ya wanna hear some new shit?” before jumping into songs recently released like “Eat Your Vegetables” and “Unnecessary Roughness” which Schoolboy Q was called out to perform his verse he has on the track. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP9rnuXQoa0&feature=youtu.be One problem for Schoolboy Q, his mic seemed to be low or totally out. So Gambino, so aware of the situation, goes from just ad libbing the line to outright rapping Q's entire verse for him. What a save. Now it's Danny Brown time, I knew that weirdo would be out sooner or later. They drop a beat and Danny Brown ripped a freestyle, followed by Gambino ripping one of his own and then Schoolboy Q's mic was fixed in time for him to rock one out too before the night was closed out with “Lights Turned On”. 9:55PM, right on time for the Summerstage curfew.  

Wow. Seriously, wow. Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino comes home to destroy this place. Left it all on stage like he does in every town every time. I can't wait til July 4^th for the new mixtape to drop! This was some fun times tonight, so much fun had. If you've been keeping score at home, that's two nights of Metallica followed by a barn burner by Childish Gambino. I'm wiped. Thanks for taking the time. Leave some comments! We have a new comment thing down there as of a few weeks ago. It's cool tits.   LATE

Orion Music + More Day 2 Recap (6/24/12)

Orion Music + More Festival (Day  2) - 06/24/12

Bader Field - Atlantic City, NJ

Words/Photos  by Jay Porks

Orion Music + More Festival Day Two Recap 6/24/12

Orion Festival- Day Two: Running later than yesterday because my alarm didn't wake me and I just happen to have drank enough fluids on day one that I had a built in alarm clock as a back up. But wow, do you know how much worse that could've been? I coulda woke up at 4 and missed Ghost! Or The Black Dahlia Murder! Well luckily, in the 72nd edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series, I was at Bader Field here in the beautiful Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the Fuel Stage right on time to kick today off with A Place To Bury Strangers.

You see an editors note on yesterday's recap about me writing this review at the show. That's true. With memory card space and battery life on my mind, instead of filming all I can I'm taping one song per set, therefore leaving me more time to take little notes and stuff.  Hence why some of the wording seems as if it's happening live. It was at the time.

A Place To Bury Strangers

Who's the one who told me to check this band out like 3 years ago? Anyway, thank you whoever you are, because they ain't too shabby.  You'd think with a name like A Place To Bury Strangers, they come and rip your heart out with the death grips of metal. I mean, they're loud as fuck, and quite heavy-but the elements of distortion (I don't if that's an effects box on the drum set or what), they're more "alternative-ty". They kicked off at 1pm and a few songs in I'm thinking "wow these dudes are wrecking shit up, what time is it now?" It was only  1:18pm.  I caught maybe 6 or 7 of their songs before I headed cross the field to the Orion Stage to get a good spot(behind the empty VIP area) for Ghost.

Ghost

Yesterday, Lars and Kirk introduced  a few of the bands that they said they were fans of. Well, Ghost got that same treatment today, only from James Hetfield. I was chatting it up with a fellow rail rider and a security guard in front of us. Kid next to me mentioned that they changed from all black to all white for this tour "so they look like Klan members". The security guard happened to be black, so I said to him "so don't run when you see them!" jokingly. It was all fun and games- even when Ghost came on. These guys definitely have a sense of humor. The costumes, the whole thing. When they walk out you can't help but chuckle. I was no longer afraid, but intrigued.  And they don't seem to me to be this "heavy death kill your face" metal as assumed.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFyVnuZLOs&feature=youtu.be Ghost rocked. We got that cool ass "Here Comes the Sun" cover, and I think that last song was called "Ritual". I noticed their drummer was kicking up something wicked over there. Awesome band- now go take those outfits off boys it's hot at hell out here

Gary Clark Jr

 Fuck yeah! I had and still have no idea who this guy Gary Clark Jr. is, and you know what, that's a bad job on my part. Shame on me.  Apparently I was the only one  who was new to dude, because the crowd really packed in for this one. If you're a fan of awesome  bluesy crazy guitar work- emphasis on awesome-then you need to see check this guy out. The solos were freaking epic- some take you to space type stuff.  Kirk Hammet introduced him as "one of my new favorite guitar players" and praised his interesting sound. Well, as Kirk watched from the side of the stage the riffs from Gary Clark Jr were hitting me in all the right places song by song. I got the name of one cause the lyrics were easy "If You Love Me Like You Say". Seriously, where'd this guy come from? Does Jack White know about this guy? Because I can guarantee once he hears him they'll form some sort of awesome side project for Mr. White.

Best Coast

Yesterday saw the indie acts the likes Modest Mouse and stuff. Today leans more towards the metal side of things- therefore, more drunk metal fans, hence peaking my interest to see Best Coast  get stuff chucked at them. While I walked over I heard Soul Rebels doing a jazzy version of "Enter Sandman" wish I could have caught that. But instead I was catching these wusses. With their soft, boring music. How old is that chick like 14? They're like emo kids who heard a song with a distortion pedal and started a band with their parents money. I'm chatting it up with this female security guard as they play.  Forget these losers. Such uninteresting songs I could write in my sleep.

The Black Dahlia Murder

Ghost and The Black Dahlia Murder are the two acts of Orion that Reverend Justito has been in my ear about. I'm on the rail at 4:46( their set is at 5:15) and as they're setting up at the Damage Inc. Stage one of the guitar players screams to the crowd "Take off the glasses so I can see your eyes!!". These guys have a sense of humor they were joking around with fans the whole time they set up, and between songs.  Once they started, it was the fastest played instruments I've ever seen in my life. THIS band, is the first band at this festival with the exception of Metallica that I'd hear one second of and immediately say "metal". The lead singer has the full growl going, I don't know how that can be done night in night out without killing your voice box. Few songs in dude tells the crowd he wants to see the biggest circle pit of all time. So this, already rawkus crowd with some epic crowd surfers just got a tad more violent. Awesome. Thought I enjoyed the band, not sure if it's something I can do full albums of.  I got out of there 10 minutes to 6, I have to find a spot with some shade.

Eric Church

 Back to the Orion Stage and another act introduced by James Hetfeild, this one being Eric Church. I'm giving it the blind listen for the first 2 songs, I found an shaded spot where I can sit on the floor behind the handicap seating( I need a breather!). I can say this much- I didn't need Hetfeild to tell me this dude is from Nashville,  because from the first lyric he sang his voice conveyed  the sounds of he south. He said "We're from Tennessee, we just wanna drink and party like you guys". Sweet. His voice would fit in well with country music- but his band sounds like they belong at a place like this. Songs I didn't hate, even if it is country music. Church mentions he drinks "94 proof, single barrel Jack Daniels" while holding up a red cup and says "I wrote a song about it, for those who won't remember all this in the morning.. called Jack Daniels". Did I mention there is no liquor on sale here? Just beer and I saw wine. With this crowd, probably a safe idea.

Titus Andronicus

While everyone heads over to the Fuel Stage for Avenged Sevenfold, a band I tried so hard to get into but couldn't, I figured I'd check out Titus Andronicus at the Frantic Stage. Of course now that the sun is setting I'll make my first trip to the tented stage. I know Titus did one of those covers on that Spin magazine Nirvana Nevermind tribute album that I didn't hate. So there's one I'll know if they play it.

Once they started I'm thinking: "Now this is more up my alley". Three guitar players, front man who's looks like his girl friend dumped him and they're here to tell you about it type of band. Slightly whiney, but I can't blame them they're from  Jersey and they get loud enough to make up for it. They're more punky than anything else. Really enjoyed their set, it was fun- made me bounce. Towards the end the lead singer is like "Metallica is up next.. never thought I'd be saying that".

Metallica

Now let me preface this following paragraph by saying I think it's really cool what Metallica did here with this whole “inviting bands outside the genre of Metal” to a festival thing, and I loved it. Orion Music + More was something I'm going to remember. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXpqTUSp9BY&feature=youtu.be   They're set to hit the stage tonight at 8PM tonight as oppose to 9PM, it is a Sunday after all. Once their set started I received three texts from three people who shall remain nameless (thenaturalstoner, Mr. Sparkly, and I made up the third one it was only two) asking me if Fuse is running a repeat of last nights show on the stream. Add an hour more of daylight, and I kind of felt the same way. They went with  "Ecstasy of Gold",  “Hit The Lights” and “Master Of Puppets” to kick it off again. Last night I played the role of “first Metallica show” guy. The guy who'd never seen the band before and I just sat back and really was able to take it all in. . But can you tell me something? What the hell guys?? What the hell? If you exchange "Ride The Lightning"  with "The Black Album" tonight was basically almost a carbon copy set of last night.  Okay, at 8:42 we got "Fuel", I'll give you that-it was freaking awesome. But even the way Hetfeild worded everything exactly the same way as he had did the night before, as if he had all that stuff memorized. He keeps saying stuff like "Orion and Metallica are family" and making us chant it, as if he's taking this Orion Music + More brand and trying to pitch it for next year already.  First of all you're Metallica, if you wanna have a festival I'm sure you can afford to have one every single year. And second off , dude, if you book good bands, we'll come back again-stop forcing it on us.

I was really happy to be able to grab footage of Metallica doing my favorites though, even if they were played last night. This new camera is such a beast. Last night my battery died before I could get pics of any of their pyrotechnics fireworks explosions that started with "Enter Sandman" (on both nights that's where the bombs went off). 'Unforgiven' was epic, thank the sweet lord they didn't play versions II and III.  It wasn't til after 9Pm when we got into the Black Album-backwards. I don't listen to albums in reverse order unless I'm trying to find out if Paul is dead, so what the hell is up with that? They did the same thing last night. And don't call me a noob, because  when I got in the cab after the show and I asked the people I shared it with if they stayed for the entire encore, the answer was a quick "No way they played all the same songs". And don't talk my word and the word of someone I asked for it, as the Concert Confessions peeps who were watching the stream and had their own thoughts: Jakob: -"They could at least switch up the intro! Don't do the Ecstasy of Gold two nights in a row at your festival" -"It's your own festival! Switch it up! Jesus christ" TheNaturalStoner: - "Are you shitting me right now???? apparently Metallica still has some shit to learn about playing multi night stands" -"Seriously... did we get last nights feed? this is weird" -" Jesus christ they got like 15 albums of songs, why they gotta do this?? If Phish did this all hell would break loose" Mr Sparkly : -"Just play a two-hour long Enter Sandman...call it a night." -" Yes, James...you are at Orion and your band is Metallica." -" Alright, playing the Black Album was cool and all, but there was so much more they could have done with the second night." -"A wasted opportunity"

Ooooo look they're encoring with "Seek And Destroy".  Yeah, like a lot of stuff  during this set, I got this last night. During that encore I was heading towards the exit. Tonight Metallica set was kind of a let down all things considered. Last night they seemed like cool guys, like changed men. Tonight all I see on stage is a band looking at a sea of about 22,000 fans while calculating profits in their heads.

At least I saw Metallica two nights in a row-I mean in the general scheme of things having never seen them before this weekend. But I do have one last question. Metallica has a song called "Orion" right? This is Orion Music + More festival right? Why not play that song, do you guys think it sucks? Then why name you're festival after it? But besides a 2nd night headlining let down, the whole weekend was really great and I got to branch out my musical tastes a little bit from stage to stage, set to set. First "festival" I've attended was a success, even catching that 4:30AM bus back to NYC at Ballys.

Notes: The Medical staff gets all the blame when shit goes wrong, well let's slurp them when shit goes well. Their were tents everywhere if you were feeling even the least bit dehydrated or anything. Drunken passed out people on the floors were quickly scoop up brought into the tent and revived in time for Metallica.

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