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.

Van Halen

Just this last Tuesday night I was at it again. Dan was going to a concert; as if I wasn't still stoked about the Marilyn Manson and The Smashing Pumpkins concert. I was ready to travel back in time to the 1980s to experience one of the most flamboyant front men along with the greatest guitarist there ever was; or at least a guitarist who has been featured on many many top list of greatest ever. A true electric guitar ninja, and the bands namesake; Eddie Van Halen.
Van Halen back at it again, a David Lee Roth fronted Van Halen with Alex Van Halen on drums and Wolfgan Van Halen on bass. Where's Michael Anthony? Well, according to Eddie Van Halen, he was taught most of his bass lines and wasn't that important to the band. However, that's Eddie Van Halen speaking, through his fake teeth. I'm not going to dive into the politics of Van Halen because it's not a very nice timeline and people still have a hard time getting along.
I'm just gonna take in the fact that it was. Myself, my girlfriend, my buddy James (squirrel), his sister Allison, Danielle, and my mom and pops. I even knew a slue of other people in the audience that night. A band so dynamic in the 80s that despite much action and success in decades, we were all brought together to witness a band that hit their stride and sat on top during the decade of 80s hair and screaming guitars.

David Lee Roth is still David Lee Roth, and anyone who knows his personality knows exactly what I'm talking about. He was cocky, big headed, and full of energy. And he put on the best performance he could but while also not hesitating to  ramble on a few stories, and dawn a couple different outfits.
Then there's the band behind David that makes the whole package come together. It's what people generally feel comfortable with. Everyone fell in love with a Van Halen fronted by the ice cream man. Hit after hit, music was tight, and David Lee Roth hammed his way into the hearts of thousands. He certainly couldn't sing his way there anyone. But that's okay!

My parents recently challenged me to perform a rating system to give to the people. There are so many criteria in which to rate a band. I have to take into account my own feelings, who is and isn't in the band, stage lighting, set design, song list.
I'm gonna give this show
2 out of 5 David Lee Roth screams
5 out of 5 Melted faces
2 out of 5 Audience power
5 out of 5 Legendary
3 out of 5 Story Telling
3 out of 4 Van Halen's (ah... see what I did there?)

End Times Tour

We are back. Yes, it's been a while but we are BACK. I write this in the afterglow of last night's epic concert. Marilyn Manson and The Smashing Pumpkins brought their End Times Tour to Irvine Meadows, Irvine CA last night and it was plain AWESOME. It was the second performance of the tour and I couldn't have been more pleased. This is the 3rd round of Marilyn Manson for me, and my first time getting a chance to see The Smashing Pumpkins.

 


Marilyn Manson has a new vigor I haven't seen before. This show was by far the best of the 3 Marilyn Manson performances I've seen.
His recent success with The Pale Emperor,This album brought him back to the headlines and I think critical acclaim has been good for him, however, he deserves it; he worked hard. He seems to have a new outlook on life. If you watch his interviews over the past few years you'll find a Marilyn Manson who grew up in a sense, instead of being lost in a depressive drug induced world of split ups and heartache. Now he has seemed to reflect on the death of his mother bringing him closer to his father. You find a Marilyn Manson finally staring into the eyes of Brian Warner. I think he's come a long way emotionally over the past few years and I think it's fantastic, he's a brilliant artist and has a brilliant mind. He's always been on a mission to stir up controversy in the name of individuality and open mindedness. I feel people disregard his profound impact, people like Bill O' Riley warned us of his negative impact. But in reality Marilyn Manson has become a Christ like figure.

I'm struggling to find what to say about the show, it was just a really solid Marilyn Manson concert. Stilt walking, bible burning, costume changes and a revived Marilyn Manson. Favorite song of the night was Lunchbox, but the entire set list was top notch. This concert felt like a Marilyn Manson concert should feel. It was fabulously wicked.
I could have done without the two cover songs. I love his covers of Personal Jesus, and Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This. But it always bothers me when an artist has a massive body of work and they lace in any more than one cover. I wanted more Marilyn Manson songs, but that's okay. The audience enjoys the covers and I'm pretty sure Marilyn enjoys performing the songs. So it's all good!

The Smashing Pumpkins, what a treat. What a tight sound. Now I can't reflect too much on Pumpkins. I genuinely care about Marilyn Manson, and have followed him ever since I was a young "disposable" teen. But I've always like a number of Smashing Pumpkins as anyone who is into good 90s alt. rock should be. Songs like 1979, Disarm, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Cherub Rock, and so on and so forth.

But what a massive performance, the delivery that Billy Corgan still has is brilliant, he still feels like an artist in his prime. The light design was fantastic, as was for Manson. You can tell these two 90's powerhouse bands got together and put together a joint budget together and gave themselves a very fun tour. I felt like these two artist touring together is about as good as it can get. These two fit together so well.

Not only do the bands fit together, so do the front men of each band. Manson and Corgan being essentially best friends. Now that I reflect... we were awfully close to LA... I'm surprised Johnny Depp didn't make an appearance. Manson and Depp are also good buds.
What more do I put down on this post? I just really really enjoyed the performance okay? LOL

Photos grabbed by http://consequenceofsound.net article.