I do album and book reviews sometimes, so I might as well do concert reviews while I’m at it. Also, I’m a bit burnt out on writing/pondering global and domestic economic/financial matters, so this presents a nice diversion. I went to four concerts so far this year and I have one coming up in September (Rockstar’s Uproar Tour). In the future, I’ll try to review them more in depth and be more current with them. This post covers the first three concerts. My next post will cover the fourth, and then I’ll do one for the fifth soon after.
The first was Aaron Lewis performing acoustic. I talked briefly about this during my review of his album, but this was a fun performance. Being acoustic, it was pretty much just him sitting on stage playing, sort of like just tooling around on the porch and was a fairly intimate show in that sense. He did several Staind classics, a couple songs off of his acoustic album, and some covers over about a two-hour span. We’ve known since the early days that Lewis has very strong acoustic talent, and this show didn’t disappoint in the slightest.
Second was Credence Clearwater Revival back in June. This was a Father’s Day gift to both my dad and my girlfriend’s dad since the dads are rabid fans. If I recall correctly, only two members of the original band were there and I think they said the band’s been together for over 40 years (which blows my mind considering I’m not even 30). CCR put on a great show and rock pretty hard for a band of their age. Just a good, old-fashioned, no frills and flash rock session. They played for around two hours. If I described Lewis’ performance as playing around on the porch, this had the feel of a garage rock session since it wasn’t unplugged. They did well at making a mid-sized venue feel both big and small in good ways at the same time.
The Rockstar Mayhem Tour was third. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the entire day, so I didn’t get there until the main stage opened up with Trivium. I’d never heard of them coming in, but they put on a good performance. They weren’t anything blockbuster for me and provided a good start for the main stage. After Trivium came metal legend Megadeth. They’re not my favorite old school metal band and I’ve never seen them live before, but I was very impressed. Megadeth took the momentum from Trivium and ran with it, firing the crowd up even more. They showed why they’re rightly considered one of the pioneer bands in metal. Megadeth played several of their classics, including “Symphony of Destruction.” The price of admission was well worth Megadeth alone. The stage was pretty spartan for both of these acts, creating that no-flash rock vibe.
Next was Godsmack. I’ve been a fan of theirs for a very long time and they were very high on my list of bands to see live. Godsmack absolutely tore the house down. From start to finish, Godsmack rocked and rocked hard as they worked the crowd into a total frenzy. It was unbelievable. One thing I was particularly impressed with was Sully’s versatility as a musician. The man was singing and playing the guitar simultaneously, but he also rocked out on the drums for a while. And it’s not like he was doing easy stuff on the drums, either. He did quite the drum performance. Godsmack did pretty much all of their big hits past and present. I will try to see them again, no question. They totally stole the show and were truly one of the best performances I’ve ever seen.
Disturbed was the main event. As I hinted above, I thought Godsmack would’ve been the better pick for the main event. I’m a bigger fan of Godsmack than Disturbed. Disturbed’s music tends to blur together and is generally not as rich and diverse in sound as Godsmack’s, and as such, Disturbed was a bit of a letdown for me, but still solid. They were flashier than the rest of the bands, which makes sense, and they made effective use of the flash. The monitors and the lights were well-done. Disturbed just doesn’t really have the stage presence to captivate the crowd.
I have a whole separate post on its way for the fourth concert, which was A Perfect Circle. I’ll put that up later this weekend.
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