Godsmack & Staind - Mass Chaos

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 my wife and I had the pleasure of attending the Mass Chaos Tour, featuring Godsmack, Staind, Halestorm, and Man Made Machine! We had bought these tickets several months prior, and yeah - we wouldn't miss an event like this. Both Godsmack & Staind are two of our favorite bands. In concert together? You better believe we're there. This would be our 5th time seeing Staind and 4th time for Godsmack.

The San Antonio Spurs playoffs were also going on at the same time, and let me tell you how mad I was when I found out that game-2 against Utah in the first round was scheduled for THIS NIGHT, instead of Tuesday, after game-1 was Sunday. So we got to the Alamodome Illusions Theater, and I was hoping to watch most of game-2 on one of the many screens the Alamodome would have going. But that was not the case. Screwed, I called my Mom a few times, and had to check the game on my dumb smart-phone.

So I was able to see a couple of Man Made Machine's songs. And they're a pretty good band. I also saw most of Halestorm's set. And let me tell you, Lzzy Hale is an incredible front-woman. She can really sing! Her brother is their drummer, and he's a monster at the set. I watched him flip a stick around his neck, and that was something I had never seen. Halestorm deserves a lot of credit - they really have a great sound, and write some great tunes. And yeah, she is hot! I envied the guys who were standing in the general admission area, because although I couldn't see great detail, she wasn't wearing much.

I respect event planners more than most people might. They have a lot to do! After a disaster last week at Siesta Fest for Korn, I was expecting so much better on this night. Our seats were great! Stage-proximity-wise, anyway. We were about the 8th row of seats from the ground-level, and just outside right from the middle. The bad thing is we had seats 16 & 17, and the nearest aisle was 17 seats to our right. So yeah all night we had to crawl through 17 people to get to/from our seats. And by the time Staind took the stage, it was a full house! We had already waited in line for a t-shirt (which we eventually aborted), and I had waited in a beer line for 10 minutes when I heard Staind take the stage 10-minutes early. And I missed almost half of their set waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

Staind

I love Staind and all, but I justified it that I'm here to see Godsmack. This time I bought two beers - I wasn't waiting in line again. Finally making back to Steph, Staind was kicking butt, as usual. So thirty minutes pass.. we're blown away by Staind.. I have to use the restroom, so I leave during Mudshovel - which is always their closer. I got lucky, because they played another one. By this time, there was no one in line for beer, so I took a leak, and bought another one.

Here was Staind's set-list:
1 - Raw
2 - Right Here
3 - Eyes Wide Open
4 - Spleen
5 - Failing
6 - So Far Away
7 - Now
8 - Country Boy (Aaron Lewis song)
9 - For You
10 - Paper Wings
11 - Outside
12 - Not Again
13 - It's Been Awhile
14 - Mudshovel
15 - Something To Remind You

Godsmack

The Godsmack set was perfect! They opened with Awake, and Straight out of Line. Followed that with several from The Oracle, and the highlight of the night was getting to see live "The Oracle", which is an instrumental. I never left my seat again until it was over, but that hour and 15 minutes was absolutely incredible! This was one of the best shows I've seen, and without a doubt, one of the loudest I've ever experienced. The ringing in my ears is just now (more than 48 hours later) back to normal.

Here is the Godsmack set-list (updated):
1 - Awake
2 - Straight Out of Line
3 - The Enemy
4 - Good Day to Die
5 - The Oracle
6 - Cryin' Like a Bitch
7 - Keep Away - (with an incredible medley)
8 - Speak
9 - Love Hate Sex Pain
10 - Voodoo
11 - Batalla de los Tambores & more
12 - Whatever

Encore:
13 - I Stand Alone

We obviously didn't get many good pictures this time. No cameras were allowed. But we had our phones. I have two videos that are terrible, but I may post them. Who knows. It was an incredible concert, and that's all that matters.