Rock Around the World

I left Glendale around 8:15 PM because my red alfetta was getting waxed to help it cut through traffic better. I was inside the theatre just as Filter was going on at 9:15PM. I think I did 70 the whole way up. You can actually smell the air change once you get past Camarillo. It's odd how you can get accustomed to the smell of the Big Smoke.

Listening to this album two months ago, I wondered who the two guys in the album credits would use when touring in support of their album, Short Bus. I walked in the theatre and was hit by the movement of the air inside. However, the air was not the only thing that moved. The floor was vibrating to an extent that I thought these guys were separating the foundation from its moorings like a bunch of masons. Three lead guitars, bottom, and drums. The closest experience to this would have to be the way the sound hit people at Ohio Stadium when Pink Floyd played the Buckeye Bowl in '86 or '87.

As far as I could tell, every song on the startling album, Short Bus, was reprised by these Reprise recording artists. I'd imagined Mr. Patrick and Mr. Liesegang hiring Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield to play some stuff because some of Filter's material skirts the hair-shaving intensity of Metallica. However, the fellas for the gig I heard in Ventura were quite handy and rather boisterous in live performance.
Filter is better live, than on the incredible album. Some bands sound impressive on an album, but when you hear them live, you are left with the feeling you get changing a flat tire on the side of a dusty, hot road in the middle of August with no traffic going by so that you're in virtual blackness on a moonless night.
Hey Man, Nice Shot reminds me of the Great Unknown "Goat" who dominated the difficult New York City blacktop basketball scene and held court at The Hole in Brooklyn. The Goat would dance on Jordan's shiny head if we could put them both in a time machine at equal points in their prime. Ask Jim Carrol if you think I'm not down. That is what the song does for me. To hear it Reprised live is to recall the days when I had one of the better Freddie Brown jump shots before there was a 3 point line. The kid who holds the 3 point record at my high school can't write... that is my Only comfort. Yet I digress... music does that to you.
These guys cook. I am not aware of any controversy surrounding the band with comparison to other bands, but I think this band is one of the best swirling out there in the alternative abyss. They can throw down.

The Ventura Concert Theatre is one of the best venues in Southern California.Filter's Soundman was as flawless as a live mix technician could be.

Performance Rating:

Emery Columna
La Crescenta, CA

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