GODSMACKED!!!

Godsmack was absolutely amazing last night, probably one of the top 3 or 4 concerts I have ever seen. Last night, I also think Godsmack supplanted Metallica as my #2 band. If I have any complaints about the concert it isn’t about Godsmack, it is the venue. The doors opened at 7PM but the band did not go on until 9PM, two hours of standing and waiting. I think the venue just wanted to get some beer money from all the attendees. The good thing about getting there early, though was how close I got to the stage. At the end when Shannon (Larkin) was giving high fives to the crowd, I was close enough to shake hands – only one (smaller) person was between where my wife and I stood and the stage. Mrs. Blog ‘o Stuff is kind of in love with frontman Sully and she was ecstatic to be so close.

When Godsmack came out at 9PM, they started off with Asleep (Awake as it appears on The Other Side) and the crowd was 100% into it from the opening. They went on to play most of the songs from The Other Side as well as Realign, Serenity and an amazing version of Voodoo. Usually at Metal/Hard Rock concerts there is a mosh-pit, but before Godsmack even came out, their manager asked us not to form a mosh-pit, this was going to be a different concert. The band was in top form throughout, from Robbie Merril’s bass solo, to the dueling drums of Shannon Larkin and Sully (on bongos), something I’ll never get tired of seeing, to Tony Rombola on guitar, everything was great.

They ended and came out for the obligatory encore, though in pretty cool move, Sully introduced Lee Richards and John Kosco of Dropbox (the band Sully signed to his own label, Realign records) on vocals. Lee, one of the original members of Godsmack had been sitting in on many of the songs throughout the night. John and Lee performed one of their own Dropbox songs and my god does Kosco have a powerful voice, similar to both Chris Cornell and the late Layne Staley. Sully then came out again and everyone performed Touche. The last song was an awesome blues jam, something about a reefer, a woman from above and whiskey, with Sully on harmonica and singing with Kosco. Tony did a nice guitar solo in the middle of it and the song, to steal a cliché, really blew the roof off the place, sending everyone home happy and satisified.

When their manager told us the show would be different, he was right. A couple of points during the concert, Sully had a Q&A session with the crowd, allowing lucky members of the audience to ask questions. Probably the most important question was when the next album will be released. Godsmack 4, as they are calling it right now, will be released, they hope, in Fall 2005.

Like I said, of all the concerts I’ve been to, this is probably the #3 concert for me – it was different, you could really see the amazing talents of all these musicians on vivid display and they made you really feel like a part of the show. Anybody passing these guys off as knock off’s of Metallica or Alice in Chains (as I’ve seen people critical of the band say) really, really needs to see them perform live. They have an incredible passion for their music and it shines through in their performance.

As we were all walking out we were given free tickets to a metal tribute show, with tribute bands to the following bands: Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Pantera. I just might attend that one since it is a Friday.

On the reading front, just finished with Robert Buettner's Orphanage today and, moments ago posted my official SFFWorld review posted (http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/165.html). I really enjoyed this book and I’d definitely read the next one in Buettner’s saga.

It's been a long work week and it's only Tuesday, Shit.