Slayer

The start of a perfect weekend. The DaBicas showed up in a surprise visit, dinner at Cuba Libra, and then on to Slayer in Camden. I’ve never been to a bad Slayer show.

Tomorrow night

Slayer tomorrow night.

Metallica

Somehow we swung two shows in a row with floor tickets, and definitely worth it. Metallica is still going strong…

R.E.M.

We went to see R.E.M. last night in Philly. Somehow I’ve made it this far in my life without ever being to one of their shows. Even though they made some questionable albums over the last few years, word on the street was it was a good show with a good setlist. That was the case, despite feeling really old looking at the crowd of old people around me, it was incredibly good and the band actually looked like they were having fun doing it. Their tour site is all driven by crowd photos, video, and Twitter feeds which is almost expected at this point but still a cool thing to check out.

Tiger Army

We headed back for our 4th night this week into Chinatown to see the second greatest band on my list right now. Tiger Army and Mike Ness at the Troc in the same week is as good as it gets.

A broken nose and a broken heart, an empty bottle of gin

Last night was a great night. We shot into the city for sushi in Chinatown with Ramon, Wendy, and her mom and wasted no time getting into non-stop barrage of sake bombs and food. Dinner was great and I got to learn a little Korean and gear up for our upcoming trip. We had a show to get to, but before that we had to check out the top floor karaoke space. That lead to more sake bombs and luckily, a temporarily busted karaoke set up. It went too quick so we’re gonna find ourselves back there soon enough.

Timing was perfect and we headed over to Trocadero, the best venue anywhere to see the greatest band anywhere. We generally have bi-annual appointments to go see Social Distortion, but this time around it was Mike Ness solo for the first time in 10 years (with most of Social D as his band anyway.) Holy fuck it was a good show, and if my schedule wasn’t such a nightmare I’d be on my way to NYC later this week to see it again. If the tour is coming anywhere near you, go. And in case you think the iPhone is a perfect device, the shit quaity photos below speak for themselves, it’s still a camera phone. Even with that blurred mess of a photo though, you can tell Mike Ness anywhere.

Tiger Army

I got off the plane from LA and went right to amish land in Lancaster to see Tiger Army because I missed the Philly show. So good.

Slayer

We saw Slayer the other night, excellent as always. They co-headlined with Marylin Manson which made for two very clear camps in the crowd. I wanted to like the Manson show but we only made it through 5 or 6 songs and ended up leaving. Watching the scene any time before the show where people randomly scream out "Slayyyyyer" and then others randomly scream it back is almost as good as watching the show itself. No other crowd gets as amped up as it does for these shows.

The sea of horns:

Old school:

Social Distortion

Despite all signs showing that this show was going to suck due to pouring rain (with a venue that’s half outdoor) and plenty of other issues, it was as good a Social D show as ever. They’re one of the only bands that could be around this long and just keep getting better. I could see them every day of the week.

Tiger Army

Get the new Tiger Army. Super so good.