Audioslave -
The Warfield, San Francisco
May 16, 2005
Tickets for this sold out show were selling for up to $125 each on Ebay. Umlaut wasn't interested in seeing Audioslave 2 years ago when they made their S.F. debut... Truth be told, I was going through a rough patch at the time and Lock 'N Loll took a backseat for a bit (Getting laid off from your job will do that). If you ever get lonely you can just go to the record store and visit your friends (Name that movie..).
Chris Cornell is one of those guys who can wear a wife beater and not look like a wife beater, know what I mean? Tom Morello plays the guitar like others operate power tools. He's like the Norm Abrams of Lock 'N Loll. This machine kills fascists.
The Audioslave vs. Velvet Revolver comparison is easy and obvious. All Umlaut will say is that Velvet Revolver spend more money on their stage clothes but Audioslave didn't have any fucking commercials from their tour sponsors playing before or during their set. However, that's a heavily biased opinion since I spent way more Music Geek energy on Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine than I ever did on Stone Guns Temple 'N Pilots Roses.
The Soundgarden numbers were nice but I wasn't inspired to wear a flannel shirt (For the geeks: "Spoonman", "Outshined", "Black Hole Sun" acoustic).. I got more of a kick watching Morello play a Les Paul and holding it up high like he was in a 60's British Invasion band instead of having it slung low like any other bullshit Rock guitarist.
The Rage numbers were nice but I wasn't inspired to drop everything and fly to Chiapas. However, the doubleshot of "Bulls On Parade" (Instrumental) > "Sleep Now In The Fire" was pretty cool... and that was only surpassed by "Killing In The Name". Funny how folks will get all fired up about social change while sweatily moshing and slamming into each other, but after the show their memory quickly fails and they can be just as fired up yelling "RAIIIDEERRS!" at the sight of a football. I would guess that the band's merch sales for the night doubled after the Rage songs. If you bought one of every Audioslave merch item you would have spent around $450. Or you could have bought a bootleg shirt for $10 out on the street afterwards. Viva le Revolution!
BEST QUOTE - Skychick: "They weren't as good as Green Day."
Iron Maiden shirts = 1. On the way back to the car some pimply-faced teenagers called us fags. It's kinda funny watching concert security trying to prevent people from using camera phones by shining their Maglites at them. Remember when concert security was more concerned about alcohol getting into shows? Me 2.
