I thought of this after sharing a youtuber’s take on coachella last week, why not tell the tales of some of the great shows and festivals that we’ve been to? There’s no need for it to be electronic music, but let’s try and keep it music shows, and feel free to tell us about a show that you performed if it was the best you ever felt.
I went to the San Antonio stop for NIN Tension Tour 2013.
That isn’t my video and the sound is meh but if you look closely at the closest member on stage, you might recognize them. @ 1:15
Anyway, the opening band was Explosions in the Sky. Which sounded awesome. After that show, I had to look them up and have followed them a bit since. Last thing I remember them doing was the sound track for Lone Survivor with Mark Wahlburg.
As to the show itself. Amazing. They had multiple screens, no idea what you would call it. One front, one behind. And different things would happen to introduce visual effects around them jamming. In front and behind. Was crazy. I will say, even though Hesitation Marks is not my favorite album, they mixed so much of my favorite stuff, that the new material worked well there.
Probably the biggest show I’ve been to in terms of production. And one I had to get off my bucket list of people to see live.
Also, if anyone remembers Ozzfest, that was some kick ass shit back in the late 90s early 2000s. I think there were two stages. I went in 99, in Dallas. So many bands I wanted to see play. Good stuff.
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One of my favorite festivals of my high school days was Lollapalooza '96. I had to been to ONE concert before this. It was Aerosmith when they were doing all those Alicia Silverstone videos on MTV back in the day.
Anyway, pretty crazy lineup. I remember people complained that there were too many rock bands, but whatever.
Rancid:
- Didn’t care for them then or back in the day but it was a great show and every song sounded almost exactly like the album. I was impressed by that.
- Saw Tim Armstrong in the backstage area which was roped off with a rope… Asked him to come over to talk and he said “Why?” And we were like, we just want to meet you. He was very nice and shook our hands and said, “Hi, I’m Tim Armstrong.” I was pretty starstruck even though I didn’t care for Rancid. For as nerdy as we were and the shitty place we were (Rockingham NC, think Nascar), he was very civil and nice. Shit, he even took the demo of my shitty high school nu metal band.
Rage Against the Machine:
- Gnarly as fuck. Played all the hits at the time. Absolutely killed it.
- First time crowd surfing. Lost my wallet. (It had a chain too… Lame.)
Soundgarden:
- Bass player threw up over the side of the stage. Rad.
- Second time crowd surfing. Once one of the songs was over, the people dropped me, head first…on the asphalt.
See, this festival was on the dragstrip grounds next to the Rockingham Nascar Arena. But at least it was the back of my head. My friend helped me up as I was a little dazed. He showed me some blood on his hand, and as the music started again, I couldn’t hear what my friend was telling me. I thought I would go sit the next song out. I felt a little drip going down my neck. Felt the back of my head and I had busted it open. As I was 16 and feared the fuck out of my father, I didn’t want to 1.) go home. or 2.) even worse, go to the hospital. I sat under under a semi trailer for a while. It was also hot as fuck. Summer in the south can be like that.
Melvins
- Watched their set, it was awesome.
- Got to meet Buzz as he was walking around. Just said hey, as the next band was about to play.
Ramones
- They were awesome. I didn’t care for punk at the time but they put on a good show and it was fun to watch. Honesty don’t remember much about it. Just remember it being cool.
Metallica
- This was during their Load album. So yeah it, but I wasn’t a Metallica fan anyway, so it was just cool to see a metal band live.
- I got through about half of the performance until a redneck chick screaming and kicking around (having fun) crowd surfed over me and kicked me in the back of the head. Right where I had fell earlier. Felt woozy again,
and went to my car and passed out until my friends came.
After I dropped off all of my friends at their house, my car broke down on the way home. Oh, well.
It was a great time to be 16!