In the meantime, I will quote that British band: "Let The Music be your Master, will you heed The Master's call?"... and with those words, here's my 2008 scorecard:
01/04/08 - Social Distortion - The Fillmore- 01/10/08 - The Head Cat [Lemmy and Slim Jim Phantom] - The Independent
- 01/18/08 - High On Fire - The Blank Club [San Jose]
- 01/24/08 - Gallows - Slim's
- 02/19/08 - Iron Maiden - The Forum [Los Angeles]
- 03/29/08 - Y&T - The Fillmore
- 04/12/08 - Taste Of Chaos Tour with Avenged Sevenfold / Atreyu / Bullet For My Valentine / MUCC - San Jose State Event Center [San Jose]
- 04/19/08 - The Sword / Slough Feg - Slim's
- 04/24/08 - Black Cobra / Saros / Mendozza - Annie's Social Club
- 05/25/08 - Death Angel / God Forbid - Slim's
- 05/28/08 - Iron Maiden / Lauren Harris - Concord Pavilion
- 05/29/08 - Arch Enemy / Dark Tranquility - Slim's
- 06/11/08 - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden [New York]
- 06/16/08 - Biafra 5-0 Show with Jello Biafra / Melvins / Drunk Injuns / Los Olvidados - Great American Music Hall
- 06/21/08 - Vans Warped Tour - Pier 30/31
- 06/27/08 - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Greek Theatre [Berkeley]
- 07/06/08 - Tidal Wave 11 - McLaren Park
- 07/12/08 - Mayhem Tour with Slipknot / Disturbed / Dragonforce / Mastodon / Machine Head / Airbourne / Black Tide, etc. - Shoreline Amphitheatre [Mt. View]
- 07/26/08 - Flipper / The Avengers / The Mutants - The Fillmore
- 08/12/08 - Wolves In The Throne Room / Ludicra - Slim's
- 08/15/08 - Vans Warped Tour - Shoreline Amphitheatre [Mt. View]
- 08/23/08 - Raven / Stone Vengeance - Rock-It Room
- 08/31/08 - Metal Masters Tour with Judas Priest / Heaven And Hell / Motörhead / Testament - Shoreline Amphitheatre [Mt. View]
- 09/02/08 - Motörhead / Valient Thorr - House Of Blues [Anaheim]
- 09/09/08 - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (electric set) - Great American Music Hall
- 09/19/08 - Carcass - The Grand
- 09/19/08 - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds / Red Sparowes - Warfield Theatre
- 09/20/08 - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds / Red Sparowes - Warfield Theatre
- 09/24/08 - Uli John Roth / Blind Illusion / Sentinal Beast - Annie's Social Club
- 09/25/08 - Bullet For My Valentine / Bleeding Through / Black Tide - Warfield Theatre
- 10/06/08 - Opeth / High On Fire - The Grand
- 10/10/08 - The Sword / Black Cobra / Bison b.c. - Slim's
- 10/12/08 - Wolves In The Throne Room / Saros / Embers - DNA Lounge
- 10/17/08 - Metallica - Death Magnetic Tour Rehearsal - Cow Palace
- 10/26/08 - AC/DShe - Dirtbag Challenge
- 11/11/08 - Skeletonwitch / Saros / Conifer - The Knockout
- 11/21/08 - In Flames / All That Remains / Gojira / 36 Crazyfists - Warfield Theatre
- 11/30/08 - Dir En Grey - The Grand
- 12/02/08 - AC/DC - Oracle Arena [Oakland]
- 12/03/08 - Oasis / Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Oracle Arena [Oakland]
- 12/18/08 - High On Fire / Drunk Horse - Great American Music Hall
- 12/20/08 - Metallica / Lamb Of God / The Sword - Oracle Arena [Oakland]
- 12/31/08 - Butthole Surfers / Negativland - The Fillmore
My favorite gig moments would be a tie between being introduced to Steve Harris by Rod Smallwood backstage at Maiden in Concord and having a casual business meeting with Lemmy in his Anaheim dressing room.. DOH x2.. If you had told me when I was 16-years old that I would be meeting my heroes under those conditions I would not have believed you.
Musically, my favorite gig moments were Plant & Krauss launching into 'The Battle Of Evermore' in New York City, Maiden hitting the stage with 'Churchill's Speech Intro' > 'Aces High' > '2 Minutes To Midnight' in L.A. and Concord, but especially Tony Iommi's guitar TONE during Heaven And Hell's set in August. Holy fuck... The TONE. Unreal... The TONE seduced me when I was a kid and inspired me to go left instead of right on The Road of Life.. The TONE!
My biggest concert regrets for 2008: Missing Testament at The Independent ('cause I was at the lame Y&T show at The Fillmore... Sorry Dalia.. Sometimes my expectations for nostalgia bite me in the ass..) and Dethklok at The Fillmore ('cause I had to fly to NYC for work..).
However, my biggest Music Geek moment of 2008 BY FAR was being thanked in the liner notes of the new Motörhead album... If you had told me when I was 16-years old that would happen I would not have believed you. Lemmy has been one of my heroes for so long, man.. ANYTHING for Lemmy!
Also, it was kinda cool on a personal level that I became a legitimate fan of Metallica again in 2008.. Those who know me are aware of my history with the band, but I've been following them on autopilot and simply out of habit for, like, the past 15 years or so; nothing they've done in that time has engaged me the way their earlier stuff did... No, Death Magnetic isn't as good as their pre-1992 stuff, but I do think Death Magnetic is their best work in a LONG time in a riff-tastic way. My generation of fans can nitpick and debate the band's post-Cliff Burton merits forever, but it's pointless here in the 21st Century... IMO it's simply cool to still have Metallica around in this age of Guitar Hero and Rock Band wannabes... Better Metallica than Nickelback, dyaknowhatimean? Welcome Home, Sanitarium.
1992: Metallica will never do anything crappier than 'Nothing Else Matters', right?(Pic by Meals)
Anyway, I'm gobsmacked by how many people actually read the crap that I post here... THANKS y'all! The support is MUCH appreciated, especially since 2009 will mark the 5th (FIFTH!) Anniversary of this so-called "blog". Five years!? To quote Bowie "We've got five years, my brain hurts alot..."
As I'm typing this, the first music playing on my stereo here in 2009 is good 'ol Roky Erickson... Perfect. I would like to state for the record that I'm listening to my STEREO and NOT iTunes (Marantz receiver > JVC CD player > Bose speakers); keep it Old Skool, goddamit..
Anyway, as far as the year ahead is concerned: Into battle I ride... See you on the other side!
