Another Irvine Show! Sublime+

I've spent the last 3 concerts at Irvine Meadows (previously Verizon Wireless) 

July 9th was Marilyn Manson and The Smashing Pumpkins. 

July 14th was Van Halen 

July 17th Sublime w/Rome, Rebelution, Pepper, Mickey Avalon. It's a shame that they are going to take this venue out. If you're local to the Irvine area you already know the tragic loss of Wild Rivers, now they are taking our concerts away from us because houses are more profitable, and that's exactly what we need in Orange County... More people. I've seen so many acts at Irvine too, probably more than I can even remember right now. It is so convenient and nearby too. It will be missed, kinda. There are definitely better venues, but you can't beat the convenience.

Anyways,

Let's see how much of this show I can remember... hah...It was just this last Friday that I saw Sublime w/ Rome show. It was fun, but unfortunately it wasn't that good. Mickey Avalon is a lesser known artist, not really generating any smash hits and he opened the show. There are definitely people familiar with Mickey Avalon, but only about 20% of the audience was there for his set. I'm personally a fan of Mickey Avalon, but he is kind of a creepy older 30s no name making some funny songs. His dancers were probably the only thing the audience was watching, and that wasn't even high quality material. You may remember this Gem from Harold And Kumar 2 My Dick (song) :-p

I feel like I'm being cynical, but the show fell short due to many reason.
The biggest reason being the pricing. These tickets were overpriced and it was obvious. The lawn was packed and the seats were empty. Rebelution came on before Sublime. I didn't go in really knowing them and there was too much going on to really absorb/ I didn't care. To be honest I know this show doesn't make for great blog content. I wasn't there to take the show seriously. I was there to have a good time. I had fun all in all, but that was more hanging out with my girlfriend and making fuzzy memories.

The Lawn kept getting out of hand with several fires. Truth be told I was mostly there to see Sublime, and I don't know what happened but it was not easy to hear Rome. For some reason his Mic volume seemed to be way too low. I will take into account that I was at the very upper outskirts of lawn. So that could have played a role, but I feel it's not substantial. The bass to me was very distorted and muddy, which made the rest of the sound fall flat.

This wasn't the first time I had seen Sublime either. I caught Sublime when they played with Pepper and Cypress Hill. That show sounded a lot better. So I'm pegging the blame on Irvine's venue. Especially because the past two shows sounded a lot better, and I know it's because they were higher budget and able to bring in their own equipment and staff. Acts like Sublime w/Rome have to fall back more on what the venue already has to offer. April 29, 1992 was my favorite part of the night, cop lights flashing, and the audience felt like they were on the edge of a riot. Man, what I would give to see Bradley front the band. Respect to Rome, but man... R.I.P. There would have been a riot if Bradley was there.

I missed Pepper, but I've seen Pepper so it wasn't a big miss. I also never really got that into them. I spent the first two hours of the show with my friend John and the remainder of the show with my lady friend because there was no way to get through the lawn crowd to find John again. The show wasn't that great but at least I had a good time with good company.