Last night, I waited for my older sister Angie and her husband Joe to pick me up to go to the Alltel Center in downtown Mankato, about 2 miles from my house. We waited in the below-freezing cold for ages until the doors opened, eagerly anticipating the warmth of the building's heater and the amazing show we were about to see.
Due to Saving Abel's little "incident," a band from Minneapolis called Throw The Fight opened the show. They weren't too bad. I think playing such a massive show might have made them a bit nervous, though. Angie, Joe, and I were all the way up in the risers. We stayed seated for that band's set, and then Papa Roach took the stage.
I stood up and screamed and cheered for Papa Roach. They were... incredible. Jacoby liked to tell everybody to scream, and as a slave to that man's awesomeness, I had to oblige. I partially blame him for my lack of a voice. I gotta say, Shaddix has serious balls. The whole city of Mankato goes crazy when anybody good comes here, because nobody good ever comes here. I say he has balls, because he ventured up into the risers. Alone. To sing to us. He was about 7-10 feet away from where I stood with Angie and Joe. Some of the songs they played were "... To Be Loved," "Last Resort," "Forever," "Scars," and a new song from their "rock & roll baby" due next month, "Lifeline." If you ever get the chance to see Papa Roach play live, go. They're phenomenal.
Avenged Sevenfold played next. It took an extra long time for everything to be set up for them, because there was a problem with the barricade out in front of the stage. They showed up onstage and started with "Critical Acclaim." They played a lot from the new album, and a couple of songs off City of Evil. I was actually disappointed in not hearing anything really old, like "Darkness Surrounding" or "Eternal Rest," for example. Syn played a solo, just to show off for the crowd, and I was reminded again why I look up to him so much. He's my guitar hero. And Angie was amazed at Johnny's shortness.
I must say, I wasn't impressed with Buckcherry. They sound good on their recordings, but it seemed like they didn't make any effort to sound good onstage. I couldn't understand their vocalist, even when he was speaking. The playing was a bit sloppy, but at least their drummer can hold a beat pretty well.
I found the crowd to be very amusing. It was mostly young kids and preppy girls that were only there for Buckcherry. There were 3 or 4 preps a couple rows in front of me, and I liked to see their faces during the Buckcherry set. They obviously weren't expecting the band to be as... "inappropriate" as they were. Oh, and they bought matching A7X tee shirts at the merch tables and wore them, gushing about how cute they looked. I laughed.
All in all, it was great. I spent $25 at the merch tables on a Papa Roach shirt with the tour stop locations printed on the back. Plus, I got a couple of killer snaps of Jacoby on the risers. ;)
Some great things that were said at the show:
"Welcome to the stage... somebody's fuckin' shoe." -Jacoby Shaddix
"Light that phone up. Light that lighter up. Light that joint up." -Jacoby Shaddix
"Take. Your shirt off. Please." -M. Shadows
"I know that was kind of weird, but we can play some normal stuff now if you want? Or maybe not." -Synyster Gates (after the first part of his amazing 3-part guitar solo)
"Look, they have a short guy up there! Look at the short one!" -Angie (pointing in the general direction of Johnny Christ)
Sadly, I was too far away to get any good perfomance shots with my old-skool camera with freakin' film in it. I can show off a really great shot of Jacoby!
