Kari is a contemporary Christian music songwriter who all of her songs are written about "Him" and "His glory". If you pray and are religious, that's fine for you, but I don't get it -- people go to watch live music to get away from the world's problems, why pay to attend a show just to get sold something you probably don't really want. The opening act spent half of his 30-minute set telling us about starving children in Africa that don't have any drinking water, and then pressed and pressed for people to 'sponsor' a child for the "Feed the Children" organization. Meanwhile, Kari is sponsored by Grand Canyon University, a large Christian college in Arizona, and during her set, she spent some time trying to get the high school students there to sign up for their mailing list to be contacted for a free 1-night trip so they can see and experience the campus. In between all of the selling, every single word of every single song was shown on the video walls so that everyone in attendance could sing (pray) along. I had to cleanse my ears after the show with Slayer, Behemoth, and any other demonic metal music in my iPod!

Besides seeing a show with a great production, my one other favorite type of show is seeing a big band in a small club. This show had both! Since the return of Rob Halford to the band in 2003, I can't remember the last time I saw Judas Priest in such an intimate 3,000 capacity setting. Though touring with enough gear to fill an arena stage, Judas Priest don't need the extra stage risers and lights and pyrotechnics to bring a great show. They didn't even really need to give Steel Panther an hour to warm up the crowd. The only thing they needed was their setlist of many of the classic songs that they are expected to play, like Breaking the Law, You've Got Another Thing Comin', and Living After Midnight, combined with 4 new songs from Redeemer of Souls, and a few others that haven't been performed in some time!

Maynard James Keenan may be a weird dude, but he sure knows how to create an extraordinary visual production for his show!

I could almost watch a KISS show with my eyes closed and know exactly what is going to happen. Gene is going to breathe fire and ascend to a platform in the rafters, Paul is going to fly into the crowd to a little stage at FOH, Tommy is going to have smoke come out of his guitar, and Eric's drum riser is going to rise 20 feet. Every time, every tour. The new 'spider' lighting rig was a nice addition, but if they didn't have an overwhelming amount of production, pyrotechnics, and a fire-breathing, blood drooling, bat-like Demon, KISS would probably not be worth seeing. Also, surprisingly, Def Leppard did NOT bore me to sleep and I actually enjoyed their set.

It was nice to finally have a good rock show on my birthday. The travesty of this tour, though, is that Alice Cooper had only a 45 minute set and not a lot of real estate on the stage to move around. He did his best with what he had, but should have given at least 60 minutes. If it wasn't for Alice Cooper, there might not even be a Mötley Crüe! Speaking of, Vince Neil still sings only every other word of every song. Get a teleprompter if you can't remember that "at the" comes between "Shout" and "Devil"! Tommy Lee can never seem to leave his DJ persona at home and just be a heavy metal drummer, and so he still calls us "bitches" and says "fuck" every 4th word. Awesome production, with crazy amounts of pyrotechnics and lights. Unfortunately, Shoreline is not equipped to rig a rollercoaster from the stage to FOH, so we did not see the crazy drum solo that other indoor venues got.

The Beatles' last ever show was at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966. Fast forward 48 years, and with the empty stadium up for demolition, Sir Paul decided to have one final concert here to help say "Farewell" to Candlestick Park. Although there was some fireworks at the end of the show, Sir Paul does not need any flashy production at all. His 3+ hour setlist says it all. During one of the songs, there was some images on the video wall of the Beatle's last show, but otherwise, Sir Paul did not really talk about the significance of the show and treated it like any other on his tour (although the "Farewell" commemorative merchandise sold out real quick!).

This would be my third Weezer show in just over a month, and this was definitely the best one. The first 45-minutes was an acoustic set of 9 of their hits, followed by another 45-minute electric set of their entire new album Everything Will Be Alright in the End. After a quick one-song encore, the show was over... and quite frankly, sometimes I just get a little tired of waiting through 4 opening acts just to see the headliner. Weezer started promptly at 8pm and ended at 9:45pm, and I was home by 10pm!

My 48 hours with Death Angel...

Day 1 -- 4:00am alarm, 6:30am rehearsal studio in Oakland, 7:30am trailer packed and hit the road, with a few pit stops along the way, 3:00pm arrive at Whisky A Go Go, 6:30pm merch counted-in and set up by doors, 7:00pm six (!) opening bands, 11:30pm Death Angel performs, 1:30am merch counted-out, 2:30am trailer packed and hit the road, 4:00am arrive at Motel 6 in Gorman, CA, 4:30am asleep!

Day 2 -- 8:00am alarm and shower, 9:15am Jack in the Box and hit the road, with a few pit stops along the way, 4:00pm arrive at Slim's, 5:30pm merch counted-in and set up, 7:30pm catering, 8:00pm two opening bands, 11:15pm Death Angel performs, 1:30am merch counted-out, 2:30am trailer packed and say goodbye to road crew, 3:00am luckily catch a ride home, 4:00am decompressed and asleep!

Prince... in two small venues! He doesn't play his hits, so I couldn't tell you most of the songs on the setlist, but it doesn't matter -- you know Prince is going to astonish with his amazing guitar work, and his band 3rdEyeGirl are remarkable in their own right!

True story: I worked The Fillmore stage load-out after the show ended, and sometime while I was coiling some cables or doing something at upstage right, Prince himself happened to walk out of the downstairs dressing room and through the stage right curtain. I looked up at the same time he looked over to the stage, we had a split second of eye contact, and he smiled and nodded. I thought it was funny because all I could think of was those stories about mega-stars where you're 'not supposed to look them in the eye'....

The last time I saw King Diamond was October 23, 2003 at The Edge in Palo Alto. He all but disappeared from the scene in 2007 due to a herniated disk and in 2010 for triple-bypass surgery. Yet despite his 11 year absence from touring, King is as big as ever! This show sold out way in advance and there was 2,200 people who couldn't wait to see his return to the stage. Truthfully, I am not a huge fan of his music and I know hardly any of the songs by name or can sing the lyrics, but DAMN, that was a great show! The cemetery gates, the multi-level riser above the backline with the inverted crosses and the Baphomet Pentagram, along with some theatrical character moments (like cremating his 'Grandma') that complement some of his songs... it was a show worth waiting for!

The start of this amazing tour was here in Oakland. Even though the L.A. Forum would be their next stop and official hometown show, the fact that Slayer personnel is 50% Bay Area now, and Exodus is local, made these two 3,000 capacity sold out shows basically like hometown shows for everyone and a great way to begin a tour. One of the highlights of both evenings was that Gary Holt performed with Exodus and Slayer (he is in both bands), and both sets were amazing. Exodus should have had more than a 6-song 30-minute set, or maybe even the direct support slot, but Suicidal Tendencies would have that spot to offer Gary Holt a break before performing another 90-minutes with Slayer... and I don't need to tell you how amazing the Slayer sets were, because you should already know!