This is a recap of what was supposed to be the San Diego show and the show in West Hollywood, which actually happened. With the usual nonsense in between. I'm splitting the two days into separate posts so you can find the LA review easier if you don't feel like reading about the San Diego cancellation. Then the third post contains the full BG setlist and a partial Symphony X setlist. Sorry! I am behind on my Symphony X acquisitions although I do love everything I've heard.

12/14/2002 - San Diego

We made it to San Diego in 4 hours. Lubo (my brother) drove like a maniac... He and his friend Pete who came with us almost killed me with their cigarettes. Easily found 4th and B. Looked kinda deserted, but we spotted a near-by parking lot, parked, paid, and went back to the club to discover cancellation notices plastered all over the marble walls. *sigh* Amazingly enough I was not as upset as I had thought I may be. The notices were a copy of a fax saying something about a mechanical failure (Hmmmm... fishy...) and that there will be a free show by local bands Cage and Teabag. I took one - memorabilia, you see... The box office had a note about reopening at 6:30 for refunds and since it was a little after 5 at the time we figured we'd go explore. My rotten San Diego streak continues apparently... We strolled down 6th street until we found a little neighborhood-type bar and stopped for drinks. We took our beers outside so the boys could smoke and because it was a beautiful evening weather-wise. While outside we observed a bunch of cars and people going by over and over again - moving around in circles must be the "in" thing to do in SD... Following this we headed up fifth back to the venue intending to harass the box office workers. We got there a bit past 7 and I chatted with the nice lady behind the glass for a bit, but she had no extra info on the cancellation. Whoever was doing sound check was sounding fairly decent, so we figured we'd go in since it was free anyway. Our ID's got thoroughly inspected being from out of state and all and then we were in. I headed straight for the ANATO poster on the wall and took it down with authority - MINE! GIMME! The venue seemed very cool - small, yet big enough, with some chairs and tables on the floor for the drinkers who don't want to stand. There were two more ANATO posters and I unleashed bro on one of them. We got drinks and sat at one of the tables awaiting the freebie's start. Teabag was warning up now. Pete's Sam Adams had something wrong with it and he went to exchange it, then the boys went back to the car to unload the posters.

At 8, Teabag promptly took the stage. Their guitar player had the size, posture, manners, and stage presence of Danny Spitz (formerly of Anthrax) but looked more like Frank Bello (of the selfsame diseased band). He introduced the band: "We are Teabag. We are local. We've been local for a long time." After the show Pete remarked "And now we know why." They were interesting enough to want to hear on an album, but in general were all over the place. Apparently they subscribed to the "every man for himself" theory... The singer had the ability to alternate between growls and clean vocals seamlessly, but other than that there isn't much more I can say about them. They did have a small but dedicated following. They played for about 20 - 30 minutes.

Enter Cage! This must be one of the most cliche-looking bands EVER!!! Musically they were quite nice to listen to, but their lyrics rivaled Manowar's, the singer thought he was the reincarnation of Rob Halford, except he was twice the size, one of the guitar players was the muscular Kane Roberts type, the bass player was the Goth boy, the other guitar player was unremarkably normal. Lubo and Pete loved the drummer - twirling drumsticks, raised drumsticks, everything you remember from those hair metal videos - he did it all!!!! I liked their show to the point when they got mean and started talking with German accents pretending to be a prissy German band that had problems with its bus. Yeah, maybe I was a bit touchy, but they were dissing my boys, after all. That's when we got up to leave and by the time we got to the door the show was over. The set was about 40 minutes long.

Something was horribly wrong with the sound at the club - I was almost relieved I did not get to experience BG and SyX there. There was a screen on one side and trash cans leaning on it and when the bands were playing the trash cans would reverberate on the screen... I hope it's different when the place is filled to capacity.

Then it was time to eat... We were resigned that we'll have to eat at a Denny's (ugh) but lucked out - spotted an open BBQ joint driving around. It turned out to be the place where the "Sleazy scene from Top Gun" was filmed. Apparently it's a tourist spot because a ton of tourists came in on different intervals, looked at it and left. We ordered too much food but it was good! Then we found a hotel.

12/15/2002 - West Hollywood

We spent most of the day in Laguna Beach celebrating Pete's sister's birthday with part of his family. Then we drove on to LA. After a futile, useless, albeit somewhat exciting (due to the fact that I was offered to squeeze a guy's ass) Amoeba run, we drove by the Key Club to see if I can pick up our Will-Call tickets. The box office was closed but there were people lined up already (it was 4:30 - 5). Music was coming from inside but I wasn't paying enough attention to notice who it was. We drove to Pete's brother's house and hung out there for a while... Of course, Lubo and I left for the show kinda late... My brother operates on different time than most people.

We were late... *sigh* We missed Onward completely... They must have started early - we got there at 8:45 and they were already done. The show was supposed to start at 8:30! Almost unbelievable. The Key Club is a strange place. In the middle of the floor is a staircase leading to a lower level where the merchandise was sold. Space was tight! I expected it to be bigger for some reason. We should have gotten there earlier! I wormed my way closer to the stage and found a nice spot on a stair by a column on the left side - excellent view.

Symphony X took the stage and were easily one of the bestest live bands I've ever witnessed. I cannot even think of anyone at this moment who was more impressive than these guys. I was expecting that already based on the excellence of their music and the reputation they have with fans. The cutest moment of their set was when Russell said hello to his mom up on the balcony. We were treated to wondrous performances of Evolution, Egypt, King of Terror, Smoke and Mirrors... a guitar solo, a mini drum solo, brief keys solo, nice bass vs guitar duel and nice bass vs vocals duel. All done exquisitely, with precision, yet from the heart. WOW!!!!!!! Wow, wow, wow!!!!! Symphony X alone would have been worth the drive to SD, suffering through the cancellation, the drive to LA the next day and the miserable return drive on Monday and Lubo and I were ready to do it all over again as soon as we got home at 1:30 am on Tuesday.

I was a bit pissy because TicketMaster and The Key Club web sites both said cameras were not allowed in the venue, yet lots of people had brought theirs. Humph... In any case, I wasn't close enough to get anything good. And then it was BG time again! A month to the day I saw them live for the first time I was about to experience the spectacle that is BG again. *elated*

(Note: Please understand that although I am about to list a whole bunch of not-so-nice things this was again one of the best performances/shows I have witnessed. Alas, my perceptions were slightly clouded by the Atlanta experience, which to me was more special and better overall.)

I kinda wanted a spot on Marcus' side this time, but it surely seemed more crowded at that end so I settled for almost exactly the same spot I had for Symphony X. Unlike Atlanta, where I was on the rail, this time I got to experience the audience reaction, as well as the band. War of Wrath started and everyone went nuts! The band came on stage and launched into Into the Storm - a pit was already forming. Hansi looked as if he had gained some weight - damn American food! And he was wearing the same Wacken shirt he wore in Atlanta and apparently has been wearing at every show on the tour judging from pics I've seen.

The guitars and the bass and the keys sounded perfectly, but the vocals came out kinda thin. The drums were a but iffy, as well... Hansi did an excellent job interpreting the songs, since he sounded a bit hoarse at times - possibly that cold he caught in the Midwest. He toughed it out! Go, Hansi! Marcus and Andre looked again as if they were having a wonderful time. Thomen had that serious expression on his face...

The setlist disappointed me, I have to admit. I was expecting something nice and different for the last show of the tour (because that's what bands usually do and because BG has been changing it throughout the tour) but they didn't play anything special for the LA crowd. On top of that they took two of the older songs out... At least they played a longer encore than most (all?) other places got. I still think they should have let us sing more of The Bard's Song - both in Atlanta and LA. Under the Ice did not come out very well, but was good enough. It was great to hear some different songs, although I would have LOVED some more older stuff.

It was incredible watching the crowd react - seemed like almost everyone knew the words to just about everything. And the chants before the BG set were loud, sustained, enthusiastic. The encore was well-deserved! The pit got a little rough to the outside observer but upon closer inspection I discovered that amid the mayhem people were taking good care of each other - a rarity these days.

After the encore Lubo and I went to the car for the camera, but didn't wait long enough for the bards to show up. There was a bus trying to make a turn onto Sunset that got one of his wheels somehow up in the air and couldn't move and there were cop cars blocking most of Sunset and people with wood planks trying to lodge them underneath the wheel to get the bus moving - was it the ill-fated BG bus? - but we didn't stay for all of that either... It was cold, we were tired, Hansi promised they were coming back, so we figured we'll just have to meet them next time.