8 September 2021 Summer of Seether Day 5 AFTERSHOCK! Friday
Aftershock is in a 275 acre field called Discovery Park. I wondered how they were going to have rock/metal/punk bands playing in the same areas, but the two main stages, Kolas and Jack Daniels that were closer to each other, had the bands staggered, sometimes overlapping 5 minutes to keep the schedule tight, but not playing over each other. The Coors Light stage we never did find. The less well known bands played for 30 minutes. Later in the day, the bands had 40 minute slots, then 50 minutes. Metallica, unchallenged at the top of the rock metal mountain, had 2 hours all to themselves at the end of the night. But I'm jumping ahead.
We came though the Garden Highway entrance. The VIP line snaked through metal dividers like cattle guards set over straw. Moo-ooo! We walked through and got body scanned again. Only car keys in my pocket. Good thing I left my Swiss Army knife back at the hotel. Huge stage to the left (Kolas), bar stall on the right with a good 12-15 points of service. Then the Merch section. About 100 people lined up. Maybe I'll wait till later to get the Seether hat my daughter wanted. This was a big mistake. Seether merch was only at the large main area and when I went back there were lines with about 500-700 people. Nope. Rounding the corner on the Northwest side was a smaller merch station with Aftershock and Metallica only. Artists painting tall walls with cans of spray paint. We found the VIP section, but with my unerring sense of direction, we were at the exit, not the entrance. The Jack Daniels stage was on the right of the VIP area in blue on the map). What happens is, there are two huge LED screens on either side of the two stages. One band starts on the Jack Daniels stage and is broadcast on those two screens and the screens on the Kolas stage, too. Once you are back far enough, or to the side in the VIP section, you really can't see the tiny little people playing on stage without the screens, so you'll see them just as well on the screens at the other stage. We watched Ayron Jones and the Way (pronounced A-Ron, not Aaron, like I was saying it) on the Jack Daniel's stage. Great songs and wonderful musicians. They were a "newer" band (the band was actually formed in 2010) and only had the 30 minutes, but they made good use of the time. Favorite song was Take Me Away an amazing and intense song; I had to concentrate very hard to follow the beat of the guitar, bass and drums. We liked them so well, we will try to find a show close to us to go to. As they finished up at 1:50, Crobot started on the Kolas stage at 1:55 and the folks corralled in the vip blue section tromped on over to the other side of the pen. As the day went on, the crowds slowly grew, the lines got longer and the seating was politely shared by fans waiting for the magic Metallica hour.
So, about the VIP section in the middle. They have their own bathrooms, which are trailers with stalls, flushing toilets, sinks, soap and paper towels. You go in one door and exit the other. With the sun in my eyes, I opened a door only to apologize to the gentlemen trying to take a whizz in their designated trailer. Whoops, wrong icon. The guy that had to apologize after trying to enter the women's side made me feel less like an idiot. We commiserated briefly and went on our way. In the stall, I overheard a lady saying, this was the first time she'd gotten VIP and she'd got it for the toilets. YES! A woman after my own heart. As I made five trips there over the course of the afternoon, I was also happy paying more. I don't know what the "General Seating" was like, but I asked the lady at the gate and she said I may want to wait for the VIP section as the port-a-potties by the entrance had been in use since the morning. The bands should have their own tour buses at this point, but they've paid their dues, toilet-wise, from the early days when "excrement" was a description of the condition of the toilet rather than it's intended contents. See the photo array Dale created of toilets around the world in the liner notes of the Seether album 2002-2013. It's terrifying.
Our next "starred " band (Aftershock phone app) was at 4:30, Skillet (which I like to pronounce as "Skill-A", just because I'm a brat) December 2024. I sound like an idiot, but I'll leave it in for authenticity. Saw Skillet in a triple bill with Saint Asonia and Theory of a Dead Man in October 2023 and they were great. They just finished a co-headlining tour with Seether this past October and they've been around since 1996. We listened to some other bands as well. Musicianship was great. Music not always our cup of tea. "Too punky, I don't like Punk." "What's with the red outfit? That wasn't a wise choice." "Too much screaming, you got to sing, too." Everybody's a critic. Enjoyed Skillet. I'd buy a CD of their music. I only really know the song Monster well, but they sounded great. When I was returning from the bathroom again, my husband called me over to listen to the Dropkick Murphys. Irish folk music- flavored rock. Very good.
I had wanted to ditch my clear plastic, concert-size-approved backpack so I went to get a locker. Another thing to remember to get early so you are not down at the bottom. I actually had to have help getting it back open because it was too low down for me to see the little numbers to line them up in the boxes. Graduated lenses are a bitch sometimes. Other people are very kind most times. Another concert goer tried to help me and then called the man running the lockers booth to help when I tried to give him my combination. I knew I was going to turn in the lock, but he didn't. What a gentleman.
I have a theory about the VIP vs GA sections. They tempt us with nicer bathrooms, nicer food (we had killer BBQ tri-tips for dinner with potato salad that my husband said was about as good as his mom's) and shorter lines. Seating. We had park benches in several areas and the radio station even had upholstered chairs and loveseats scattered on the lawn in front of their smaller concert screen. Very front yard chic. However, we were not closer to the stage. We were off to the side and really further away from the stage than the first 1/3 of the GA area. Leaving the young, attractive fans with less disposable income up front to mug for the cameras and get the drumsticks, picks and setlists. Well, perhaps a somewhat inaccurate view from a bitter, swag-deprived and less photogenic fan. If I want earn that guitar pick that Shaun Morgan sweated on, I'll have to pay my dues like the rest of the GA soldiers! Stand firm, you deserve to be rewarded for your bravery.
Seether was scheduled for the Kolas Stage at 6:00, so we went over a little early to make sure we were not too far back and waited with the rest of the Seether fans, watching the GA section fill and fill and fill until the audience was back further than we could see from where we were standing. John, Corey, Dale and Shaun came out and took their positions and crashed into Gasoline, taking us through as many songs as they could in 50 minutes. I actually emailed myself the setlist as it was going down and took some pictures, but mostly from the big screens. I was feeling more relaxed, just enjoying the experience. The guy next to me was singing out Gasoline and I said, "If you're going to sing all the words, I'm singing with you!" Us and hundreds of others. It was great! I feel so fortunate to be singing along with all the other fans that love their songs. It's like a big Seether concert choir directed by the Seether guys.
Gasoline
Fine again
Country song
Nobody praying for me
Rise above this
Bruised & Bloodied
Wasteland
Let you down
Dangerous
Fake it
Remedy
Got some interesting photos from the screens as they were changing, sort of double exposures. Somehow, I never did get Corey's face, but the man has great hair and can really play the guitar.
The crowd that you see in the two last pictures spread back several yards. I love the music and enjoy watching the guys play. It's also fun seeing the interaction between songs. I have a confession. I have a slight crush on Shaun's guitar tech. I've seen him at four concerts now and I think his long white beard is lovely. Don't tell him I said that! I think he was backstage listening to Ayron Jones as well, but it may have been some other gentleman with a long white beard. He may be a sound guy too? He was at one of the huge "tables full of switches and levers and stuff" at the Ace of Spades. If that's too technical for you, I apologize. Oh, it's really called a sound board.
After the last "Remedy" was done, I was ready to call it a night, but my husband said, "OK, but you owe me a Metallica concert." We listened to Rancid, who I rather liked. I don't know their songs well, but definitely Punk. Sounds like The Clash. We had the aforementioned Tri-Tips and potato salad and got our second wind and decided to wait it out for Metallica. Our legs and feet, however, were in sit-down mode only. While deciding what line to pick for dinner my Fitbit pitched a fit. I looked down and it was showing fireworks. For the first time wearing it, I actually got up to 10,000 steps in a day and I have Aftershock to thank for it. Damn, our feet hurt. We slowly gathered for Metallica, some listening to Volbeat, many, I think, gathering and waiting for Metallica. My apologies to Volbeat, my ears had been hearing metal music since noon and by that time I was getting fried.
However, my husband wanted to see Metallica and I did also, to a lesser extent, and I was afraid there wouldn't be too many more chances and I wasn't sure I could make good on taking him to a Metallica concert in the future. I mean if David Lee Roth can retire. You know how this goes. One person at work retires and then everyone thinks they can. But the guys in Metallica are just a few years younger than us and David Lee Roth is 10 years older, so I guess it's not time for Metallica to "leave the building".
We were looking for a place to sit and a very kind man who had brought his two teenage daughters to see Metallica, made them give up their park bench seats for us. We felt rather guilty, but he insisted and said they planned on standing on the concrete pillars holding up the pergola over the park benches. There were people everywhere. Vast crowds in the GA area, people packed from the fenceline back past us and others just planning to watch the LED screens on the next stage over. We had trees on our side so the view was uneven. I was thinking the people in the Kolas stage probably had a better view that we did, but really, it didn't matter. The crowd was so excited, even the guitar techs doing a last check got a cheer.
Although I really didn't recognize any of the songs, and wasn't my husband appalled. And didn't he tease me until he decided I'd probably know them if I heard the studio versions that were played on the radio. He knew the songs because he listened to Metallica while I was listening to The Who. We listened to Metallica on the way out of Sacramento Sunday and he kept asking, do you know this one? Nope. How about this one? Nope. "Nothing Else Matters." Yes! I know that one! Finally.
Metallica came on the stage, the crowd roared and they were off. I may not know much about Metallica, but I know excellence when I heard it. Man, those guys can play. Every single one amazing. The feeling between the band and the crowd was amazing as well. One of the most memorable parts was when Mr. Hetfield paused to let the crowd sing. Hundreds if not thousands of people all singing the words together. I'm sure they could have sung the song beginning to end. It was magical.
I had been looking at the tall cranes 50 feet high behind the stage all day. Were they lights? Machinery to move equipment or part of the stage? No, even better. During the Metallica concert they shot flames, REAL FLAMES, ten feet in the air! What more could I want. The little firebug in me was thrilled. Flames up in the air, more on the stage. Spectacular musicians. Being part of a crowd of people that felt like family.
I think it's taken me so long to finish this post because I didn't want to let it go. Back to real life as I know it. And, sadly, this is the last Seether concert for this year. The last live one. Well, not that they won't be "alive" for the November streaming, but I'll be watching on my laptop so they will be confined to a small screen. Of course, Seether will probably look bigger than they do in the last picture, which was my view from the vip-pen. I also signed up for the live Q&A with the band. I was tempted by the private 1-minute Meet & Greet, but I don't think Seether wants the 40 bucks to listen to me breath, trying to not have a panic attack, for 60 seconds. This is why I'm not a rock star. Stage fright. And the fact that I don't have the talent, the drive, the interesting in traveling constantly and being away from my home. I can't do the iconic "hair flip". It makes me nauseous. My musical mediocrity is epic, people!
EM
PS. There's a great little retro motel in Wells, Nevada that reminds me of the motels when I was a kid. All one level with real keys on a plastic fobs. We pulled in and my husband said, "Oh, we're staying at the Bates Motel." But it was very clean and the beds more comfortable that the places we had been staying for the past week. Patchwork bedspreads, coffee in the office in the morning, peaceful and quiet. Sharon Motel 635 6th Street. sharonmotelwells.com And, no, I'm not a professional endorser, I just really loved the place.
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