I was thinking about concerts today, since I recently bought tickets to see Overkill with a bunch of other bands, and there are three other concerts this year that I am considering, but not necessarily definitely attending. I have been to several concerts in my lifetime. I want to briefly review them, even though many are not metal concerts due to Nebraska being a somewhat popular place for nu metal concerts some time ago when The Royal Grove still existed. I won't go into all the jazz concerts, since I don't remember all of them. I saw The Count Basie Band, Wynton Marsalis, and Arturo Sandoval as a result of being involved in jazz band in high school, but I don't remember much about those individual concerts. I only want to cover the rock and metal concerts.
JACKYL
I saw Jackyl outside of Homer's in Lincoln my senior year of high school. They were on some tour to play 50 shows in 50 days. Lincoln was one of the last stops before they stopped playing in different cities. Jackyl has never been a band I was much interested in, they play 1980's style hard rock, but it was a free concert. It was okay, but the sound quality wasn't terribly good.
SEVENDUST/ DISTURBED/ TRUST
My best friend and I went to see this concert at The Royal Grove our first year in college. I remember that P.O.D. and Fu Manchu were supposed to be there but couldn't for some reason. Disturbed was completely unknown at the time but broke huge pretty much the next week.
Sevendust was a favorite band of mine at the time. They were pretty decent. Lajon Witherspoon has a pretty good voice. The only thing that really stands out was the playing of Pantera's "Walk" and Lajon asking for weed. Disturbed stole the show. David Draiman was wheeled out on a gurney in a straightjacket and a muzzle. They let him out and he put on one hell of a show. Very impressive for the time. Trust was awful.
STATIC-X/ GODHEAD/ ENDO
Static-X was again a favorite of mine. They were supposed to be in Omaha earlier with Powerman 5000 but the show was cancelled. My same friend, who I went to almost all of these concerts with, and I got tickets because we both liked Static-X. This was prior to their second album being released and they played a bunch of songs off of it. Godhead was decent, the singer wore a gasmask for a lot of the show. Pretty trippy stuff. Endo was awful.
MARILYN MANSON/ STAIND/ MONSTER MAGNET/ BUCKCHERRY/ COLD/ STABBING WESTWARD/ OLEANDER/ SALIVA/ PUDDLE OF MUDD/ FROM ZERO
This was a big concert festival in Council Bluffs, IA. My friend and I and several other people travelled out there to see the outdoor all day event. I may never do that again. Water prices were ridiculous, food prices were ridiculous, and I had heatstroke the next day.
I don't even remember much about the individual performances. I did not actually see Puddle of Mudd or Saliva. No loss there. I remember a lot of girls taking their tops off. That's about it. From Zero was awful. Oleander was awful. Buckcherry was really awful, and disgusting. Monster Magnet had strippers wearing pasties and thongs. Staind singer Aaron Lewis kept stopping the show to beg people in the pit to stop feeling up the girls. Cold singer Scooter Ward said that he didn't get out in the sun much, it was pretty obvious with his pasty skin. We did not stick around long when Marilyn Manson started, didn't really want to see him much. All in all, I remember this as kind of a waste of money. Monster Magnet was at least decent.
ROB ZOMBIE/ SINISSTAR
My friend and our respective girlfriends at the time (his future wife in fact and the girl I dated throughout the last half of college) went to this concert in Lincoln at Pershing Auditorium. It remains one of the most visually spectacular concerts I have seen. Rob Zombie is known for including pyrotechnics and elaborate stage costumes in his stage show. He played a large selection of White Zombie songs as well, making this a very good concert experience. Zombie performed even though he had a lingering throat infection. Very impressive for a singer.
Sinisstar was awful. They tried to use the lame "our record label didn't want us to play this song" shit at one point. The song was terrible. So was the rest of the show.
The most interesting moment came before Zombie's part of the show. A bunch of girls were flashing the crowd and my friend kept standing up to look at them. His girlfriend got tired of it and grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled him back into the seat. It was hysterical.
METALLICA/ GODSMACK
My best friend and I saw Metallica with Godsmack opening in Omaha at the Qwest Center. Metallica was on tour on some sort of greatest hits package. This was some time after St. Anger was released, but the band did not play many songs off that album. They played a lot of their earliest material, which was great. Godsmack did not leave much of an impression honestly. I think they were okay, but nothing compared to Metallica.
METALLICA/ DOWN/ THE SWORD
The second time I saw Metallica was in Des Moines with my friend and a bunch of his colleagues at Iowa State. Metallica was supporting Death Magnetic. This show was awesome and is one of my favorite concerts I have been to. I was also very impressed with the doom metal band The Sword, which is often derided for being hipster metal. I didn't see any reason for this. Down was awesome as well, even though there was a point where Phil Anselmo's microphone was not working.
TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA
My fiancee and I went to Kansas City to see this band for a Christmas program the weekend after Thanksgiving. This was one of the first trips we had taken together. This was also an incredible visual spectacle. The first part of the concert was for the most part their Christmas section. The second half was neo-classical power metal/hard rock. A very good show.
OPETH/ ENSLAVED
Last spring, my fiancee went and saw this concert in Omaha. I did a full review on it back then, so I won't go back over it this time.
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