By jhs5150

The first concert(s) of the year, for me anyway. It promised to be a good one. This would be the first time I had been to a festival-type event since the 80s when I attended the Monsters of Rock tour. I’m somewhat ambivalent towards festivals; an all day event where crowds of people, alcohol, and the weather can make for strange bedfellows.

I had a game plan for this day. There were actually two events that I wanted to get to see, both of them unfortunately occurring on the same day. The first event was the “MMRBQ”, sponsored by the local Philadelphia rock station — WMMR. Slash was the headliner. I had never seen Slash but had been wanting to for a while now and I also wanted to get some more video footage of The Pretty Reckless and a newer band for me – Halestorm. This was a chance to see three or four bands that I liked while still being able to tolerate the others I wasn’t crazy about (Stone Temple Pilots, Seether and Breaking Benjamin). A local band called “Cold Roses” opened the event. The other event was across the bridge in Philly where HS’ (our resident 80s girl) favorite band from the latest wave of hard rock bands; Santa Cruz were the opening up for the band Amaranthe. The plan: see The Pretty Reckless and Halestorm, catch a 10-minute train ride around the dinner hour over to Philly to catch and record Santa Cruz’ set, then get back on the train to Camden to catch the remainder of the MMRBQ bands (STP and Slash.) Was this mission impossible? I think not, Mr. Phelps but we shall see.

12PM: The plan is put into action. On the first ninety-degree day of the year, I board the train (with two accomplices) for the one hour ride south to Camden. Yes, THAT Camden — a city notorious for lawlessness, second only to Detroit in its reputation. Much progress has been made in the last few years to bring this town back from the brink of being little Detroit to a level of respectability through history, entertainment and the arts but there is still a ways to go. Would this become a factor in my carefully laid plans? Stay tuned.

1PM: We arrive directly outside the venue where the MMRBQ is taking place. I can hear music playing as we make our way through the parking lot; it was Cold Roses, I’m told. It seems to me Slash should have named his band that after the split with Axel. Of course people are partying out in the parking lot and the beer flows like water. We make our way towards the venue, past the beer drinking table games with the girls trying to keep up with the guys, whose intent wasn’t to win the game but to get as much beer into the girls as possible. Not one to spend the day drinking in the hot sun, I watch but don’t partake but WAIT A MINUTE!!! One of my accomplices has been holding out, she breaks out two tall cans of some kind of premixed margarita concoction and offers me a sample. I take a few sips, smile and politely hand it back to her. Now, I like Margaritas but this was an abomination. One sip of that stuff and Santa Ana would have been begging the Yanquis for mercy. Moving on and since I had planned to leave the venue and come back later I needed two tickets to accomplish my mission. Luckily I bought a four-pack at a discount and my two accomplices bought the other two tickets. We approached the gate and got ready for the contraband pat-down. I assumed the position and passed with flying colors; the attendant not noticing the small video recorder I had stuffed into my back pocket. Mr. Phelps would have been proud.

2PM: Having found some seating under the pavilion and hoping to get close enough to get some decent video, we settle in and listen to Rival Sons’ set. Not being familiar with the band, I found them tolerable but nothing to write home about, even if that home was only an hour away. The next band up would be The Pretty Reckless and since it had been a long time since I’d seen them (November, I think) a reunion was long overdue. I wanted to get video of them doing songs I hadn’t recorded before so I talked the others into getting a little closer. Ah, this was much better. We were seated about a third of the way back towards the left-center of the stage. No worries about stealing someone’s seats — it was general admission until 5PM when they would kick us all out and reseat everyone. We, the slovenly lawn seat ticketholders would then be relegated outside the covered area and forced to watch the rest of the acts with THOSE people. Ah, but we had other plans…

3PM: The Pretty Reckless comes on. Yes, one of the bands I actually came here to see. Seeing a band that you’ve seen twice in darkened indoor venues, then seeing them outdoors in natural light does make a difference. I could actually see Taylor’s face and the set took on a less dark (figuratively speaking) and more rocking characteristic as they played a more aggressive set with more crowd pleasers. Taylor looked to be having more fun as she twirled and danced in between delivering the lyrics with her sultry voice. She reminded me of Stevie Nicks, though less sheep-ish. They wound their way through a set list that included “Follow Me Down”, “Since You’re Gone”, “Sweet Things”, “Miss Nothing” as well as the more well known songs such and “Going To Hell’ and “Fucked Up World.” It was a really good set for them and I would have loved to hear more. I got video of “Sweet Things”, “Miss Nothing” and “Make Me Wanna Die“; so far, so good.

4PM: Now it was Halestorm’s turn. This band out of PA/NJ rocks hard and singer/guitarist Lzzy Hale has one of the most gut-wrenching voices I’ve heard in a long time, even from a male singer. In fact, Lzzy belts it out in such a way I think most male singers in this day would end up singing soprano by the time they got done trying to match her, checking to make sure all of their “parts” were still there when they got finished. I like their attacking guitar approach and though Lzzy doesn’t have the sweet voice that Taylor does, hers is more bluesy and she makes up for it with that ingredient that is a big part of what rock and roll is to me – attitude. They played most of their hits; “Love Bites”, “Freak Like Me”, “Apocalyptic” and a new one – “I Like it Heavy”, in which Lzzy delivers the lyrics in more of a country style. Where TPR plays their songs with a little more finesse, Halestorm is much more “in your face” but both are melodic in their approach. All In all, it was an entertaining and lively set from these locals who are making it big on the national level.

5PM: We, along with the others seated under the pavilion get the proverbial boot. About this time, I’m getting hungry and since the next act doesn’t come on till 6PM our mission is the can, dinner and finding a place on the lawn to sit – in that order.   With #1 out of the way, we go on our quest for #2 (hey, is this a Monty Python skit?) Anyway, I’m thinking; “let’s hit those barbecue stands and see which one looks the best”. So, we’re walking and looking, looking and walking and there isn’t a barbecue stand to be found. What??? No barbecue stands at a barbecue? Did I read this right? Isn’t this called the “MMRBQ”? I found myself asking the age-old question: “Where’s the beef?” Surely this can’t be true. I mean, I’ve been to other events that advertised barbeque and music and both were supplied in ample quantities and here we are… music-check, beer-check, barbecue? Uh, sorry…WHAT??? I’ve been baited and switched, call the authorities! Finally, after seeing plenty of $13 dollar beer, $6 dollar popcorn, $9 dollar burger/dog stands and seemingly every other kind of consumable I spot exactly ONE barbeque stand. “Mecca” I thought to myself, though I don’t know if it was facing east or not but when you’ve had barbeque on the brain for the better part of the day it could be facing the North Pole for all I cared. So we made the pilgrimage and waited in line with the rest who were seeking the promised land until we finally reached the altar of seasoned beef (or pork for that matter, I really didn’t care.)

6PM: The second part of my mission begins. I wouldn’t be seeing Breaking Benjamin or Seether to my dismay (feigning disgust.) I began my journey to get across the bridge to The Trocadero in Philly to catch Santa Cruz’ set. I had the route all planned out. I would walk what looked like five or six blocks to the train station to catch a “local” to the train station two blocks from “The Troc.” Everything looked great on paper (or Googlemaps anyway.) I exited the venue in Camden and began walking. It was hot. I asked a cop standing outside the way to Broadway (no, not that Broadway) to verify I was going in the right direction: I was. Well, I walked and I walked and I began to realize that this train station was a lot farther away than I had envisioned. I found myself walking along desolate streets but that was OK because there were police cars on every corner, or so it seemed. I was cool with that until I got about a block from the train station when it seemed like a bunch of derelicts were hanging out on the street. I walked past them, not looking at anyone and them not seeming to pay attention to me. I looked over at the outside of the train station a half a block away to see what looked like more derelicts hanging out. I thought to myself; “I do NOT want to be walking these mean streets in this desperate part of town at night on the way back from Philly.” “ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!” I thought. Mr. Phelps would not be pleased with my failing this part of the mission; neither was I but I had to think of more people besides myself should something happen.   As much as I wanted to get some video for our 80s girl, I didn’t think it was worth the chances I would have to take. Sadly, I turned around and walked the gauntlet through Derelict’s Pass the six blocks back to the venue. Upon my return, I checked the train schedule at the stop in front of the venue and learned that the train stopped at the “local” station only three stops down. I could still get there; I could, except the next train wouldn’t leave until 7:45. The supposed ten minute train ride and ten minute walk two blocks to “The Troc” would mean I wouldn’t get there until probably 8:05 and with all likelihood it would have been closer to 8:15. Santa Cruz went on at 7:30. I wouldn’t make it in time – epic fail. Where’s Martin Landau when you need him?

7:30PM: I go back inside the venue (I heard one of the event staff there that saw me leave say “he’s baaaaack” in that Poltergeist voice, which made me laugh) and proceeded to try to find my other two accomplices. It started to drizzle at that point and after trying to find them a few times I took a break. By this time I had been walking around for the better part of an hour and a half and I was getting pretty tired. I sat on the railings coming down from the pavilion to the food court and listened to part of Seether’s set. Seether is one of these bands that is known in the area and nationally but I’m really not sure why. None of their songs stick out particularly in my mind and at this point they’re mostly known for doing a cover of the song “Seether” written by another band and for the lead singer being the ex-boyfriend of Amy Lee from Evanescence. I think at this point I would have rather heard Evanescence and Amy Lee is a lot easier to look at. I decide to get moving again and try and find the others. Traipsing through the underbrush while hacking away at it with my trusted machete’ (in my mind anyway), past the hordes of “those people” seated on blankets and lawn chairs, eventually I found them and sat down. By this time, they had been joined by a friend of my accomplice’s sister.  She seemed nice enough but by this time the rain had started to come down more steadily.  So, we’re sitting there in the light rain and I look over and this new girl is taking selfies of herself in the rain. “That’s strange”, I thought. Then she takes more selfies and more selfies and I’m thinking to myself “I have a new name for this girl – Selfie Girl.” Now it begins to pour. My buddy is sitting there in the rain with nothing to cover him, his sister has on a windbreaker and an umbrella that she is trying to shield both me and her brother from the rain with; it wasn’t exactly working and Selfie Girl is sitting there with a hoodie on playing with her phone in the rain (trying to take more selfies, probably.) By this time it had begun to thunderstorm and me being the dork that I am, I had bought three cheap ponchos for 99 cents each at the dollar store that morning, just in case it rained. When we got to the train station parking lot in the morning for the trip I took one for me but the others declined. OK, I’d be a dork but I’d be a dry dork. I tucked mine into the small of my back under my shirt and walked around with it like that the whole day. Now, after sitting there in the rain for the better part of an hour and trying to remain macho, I finally said “to hell with it” and took the thing out of its plastic wrapper and put it on. We’re sitting there in the pouring rain on top of a wet blanket with three lawn chairs that someone had rented and abandoned when the thunderstorms came — I look like a lime-green Popsicle. The music was stopped after the last act and with the thunderstorm the promoters delayed the next act (STP) from coming on for what seemed like an hour. Are we having fun yet? After sitting there and getting drenched we decided it wasn’t going to stop raining anytime soon and we made for the concessions indoors.

9:15 Finally, Stone Temple Pilots came on and we decided to stand at the back of the pavilion for ten or fifteen minutes, barely missing the rain that was still coming down. We could hear STP but could not see them. After several more minutes the rain had begun to let up, which surprised all of us. We then hopped up into the last row of seats and caught the rest of their performance. I was a little surprised. STP was really kind of mellow. They didn’t create a whole lot of excitement though the crowd seemed into them. The replacement for singer Scott Weiland (Chester Bennington) was solid if not spectacular and worked the crowd well, letting people in the front row sing lyrics into his microphone and actually going down into the crowd and singing for a short time. They played an assortment of their hits: “Vasoline”, ”Plush” and “Interstate Love Song” among others. They weren’t bad but they weren’t great. On the whole, I would rate STP as slick but a little low on horsepower.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAaMp5qz2gE

10:30PM: By this time, Selfie Girl had left. I turned around and she was just gone. Maybe it was the rain, maybe it was the company, maybe she just wasn’t into Slash or maybe her phone died and she couldn’t take any more selfies. I thought that was a little strange but no stranger than this day had turned out to be. Slash and his band finally took the stage. This made the disappointment of not being able to get to Philly and sitting for an hour in a rainstorm worth it. Slash and his band led by Myles Kennedy took us through some classic Guns and Roses songs such as “Night Train”, “You Could Be Mine”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” as well as some new songs like “You’re a Lie” and “Anastasia” (one of my favorites) before wrapping up an abbreviated set with “Paradise City.” Slash was everything you expected him to be; co-leading the songs with his guitar, playing with the utmost skill, making the songs Slash’ songs and not just the band’s songs. He played a beautiful black double-neck guitar for “Anastasia” and was mesmerizing on it. While they only played an hour set, it kind of made you forget about the heat, the rainstorm and all the challenges leading up to their performance; they were well worth the wait.

Although my best laid plans didn’t work out exactly as I had hoped and I ended up using someone else’s videos here instead of my own due to technical glitches, it was still a fun day. I would have to answer to Mr. Phelps for my mistakes but being a new member to the IMF, I’m sure this will not be my last mission.

If only I had taken more selfies…