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.

Spurs Update

Gregg Popovich - 2011-2012 NBA CoY - Image Source

Just prior to game-2 against the Utah Jazz Wednesday night, the Spurs head coach and general manager was presented with the 2011-2012 NBA Coach of the Year award by David Robinson and Tim Duncan. A nice little humble ceremony to precede game-2, it was. However, game-2 against the Jazz is the only game of the 2011-2012 season that I missed entirely, so since I can't really provide my own review without cheating, I'll just link you to the Associated Press's recap of Spurs/Jazz game-2, which is exactly the same at both ESPN's and NBA's websites.

What was so important that I missed it? Well, the Mass Chaos Tour with Godsmack, Staind, Halestorm, and Man Made Machine. But that's for a later post. Believe me, I was very UPSET when I found out the NBA had scheduled the first three games of this series Sun-Wed-Sat.. rather than say Sun-Tues-Thu, or Sun-Tues-Fri.. knowing that the concert, for which we had bought tickets several months ago, was on this night.

At any rate, I expected to be able to hang out in the foyer of the Alamodome's Illusions Theater from tip-off (6pm) to about 8:25 when Staind was supposed to begin. Would you believe that despite nearly 11,000 residents of the San Antonio area at this concert, there wasn't ONE friggin TV with the game on?

So I called my Mom a couple times, and found the game-center on my "stupid" smart phone. I noticed the 20-0 run because I had just noticed it was 31-26 before going outside to have a smoke, and check again. Upon my 2nd call to my Mom, it said 46-26, and we talked while Danny Green hit a three. So when I hung up it was 53-28. I checked a few more times, while waiting in line wayyy tooo
Kawhi gets my game ball (17pts. on 6 of 7) - Image Source (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

long for beer, and once I saw 101-66, I stopped worrying about it. I took solace in the fact that I missed a sweet blowout - rather than a sweet nail-biter.

No Jazz player had more than 10 points, although they did have 7 players with 8+. On the other hand 7 Spurs scored in double-figures, plus one with 9 points. Looking at the stats and the play-by-play, it was obvious that we were determined to prove our defensive abilities, as the Jazz shot just 34% for the game, and only 1 of 6 from three. The Spurs' dominating 114-83 WIN was our 12th win in a row! Here is the boxscore..

Game-3 is Saturday in Salt Lake City at 9pm CDT, and game-4 is Monday, with tip-off time still TBA. I expect much more energy from the Jazz, as well as a hostile crowd. It's always tough to win in Utah.

NY Knicks' Amare Stoudemire's Hand

As you're probably aware, the Knicks' Amare Stoudemire punched one of those glass-encased fire extinguisher thingies after their NBA Playoffs game-2 loss to the Miami Heat in the Miami visitors' locker room area. Many of us have no doubt wondered, how bad could it be that he's not playing? Well.. now we know! Apparently the deep gash nearly took out a nerve critical to hand functioning. Thankfully it did not. But wow! As barefootBam has pointed out, his hand looks like a baseball! Very, very nice suture job, too.

Via / Source: Amare Stoudemire at Lockerz.com

Marvin the Martian

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I used to love this guy when I was a kiddo. He and Wile E. Coyote were my favorites.

Just Some Cute Kittens

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Speed Trials at Golfsmith

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The Store of Good Things

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Beautiful Downtown San Antonio at Sunset

My wife took these from the north entrance area of the Alamodome last night at dusk.. with her phone.

These are mine.. Click 'em to enlarge!

Poor Orange

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Here's Eminem's take on the topic:

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Exclusive

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How About a Quadruple Shot of Godsmack

...as a preview of tomorrow night's Mass Chaos Tour

What If? (LIVE) - from The Oracle (2010)

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Re-Align (LIVE) - from Faceless (2003)

Source     Like that little "Mistakes" intro? I thought you would!

Mistakes(LIVE) - from Awake (2000)

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Bad Religion (LIVE) - from Godsmack (1998)

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The Whole of the Internet

Here you go Joanne!

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One would think I could find a bigger resolution, but I failed this time..

Drink-Drunk Shot Glasses for all Occasions

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Spurs Update

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The Spurs begin the 2012 playoffs against the Utah Jazz. We have the home court advantage against every team except the Chicago Bulls, who lost reigning MVP Derrick Rose to a torn ACL yesterday. I learned today that we hadn't won a series opener in 6 straight series. Gulp!

It was the usual starters for the Spurs, except Boris Diaw started at center - rather than DeJuan Blair or Tiago Splitter. It didn't matter because Diaw had 5 early points. Jack and Manu had 4 each off the bench as 8 different Spurs players scored in the quarter. Both teams appeared a little rusty after 1-Q: 28-22, Spurs.

Having a highlight dunk already, Manu came out and did it again, but after building an 8-pt. lead, the Spurs allowed the Jazz 6-straight to come within 2, 32-30. Jack would then nail a three, and it was now that we would finally see Tony get going. He would have 12 2nd-Q points to lead us to a 54-47 halftime lead.

Both defenses were tighter as the 3rd-Q began, but the 7-pt. halftime lead was quickly extended to 11 about halfway through the 3rd, as Tony, Timmy, and Kawhi all earned it at the line. Gordon Hayward, Al Jefferson, and Paul Millsap were really the only ones scoring for Utah, so Pop was in the process of changing his focus well away from Devin
It's what he does - Image Source (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Harris, who seemed non-existent. For the next four minutes, we would see some serious brilliance out of the Spurs' big three. Pick 'n' rolls galore, and all three continuing to create scoring opportunities in the paint, including this beautiful Manu assist to Timmy. Then with a 74-66 lead, Neal, Jackson, and Bonner would all hit threes, and along with a super lay-up by DeJuan Blair in his limited minutes, the lead became 15! Bonner's aforementioned three happened late enough that it was a GIGANTIC crowd boost as the quarter wound down.

Leading 85-70 through 3 quarters, Tinsley, Carroll, and Burks were the guys scoring for the Jazz. Then Jefferson & Tinsley made 5-straight to pull within 8 at 89-81 with 7:31 left. For the next 6 minutes, Tony, Manu, Bonner, & Jackson would outscore the Jazz 15-6 with a few
MVP Tony Parker, again - Image Source (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

key steals, and bad shooting by Devin Harris. Tony would follow-up his 12-point 2nd-Q with 12 more in the 2nd-half, leading the team with 28 pts., 8 assts., and 4 reb. on 10 of 19 shooting in 37 minutes. Time ran out on the Jazz, and the Spurs grabbed the 106-91 WIN, and while it wasn't our best, I'm not worried. We were out-rebounded 45-39, we shot only 35% from three (6 of 17), and we missed 8 FTs (20 of 28). But with only 10 turnovers compared to Jazz's 16, and their 6 more fouls, we were able to pull out a game that wasn't our best - by 15. Here's ESPN's boxscore.. Spurs lead 1-0.

Game 2 is Wednesday at 6 CDT, again in San Antonio.

Highlights of the first weekend were Durant's game-winner against Dallas, and an incredible Clippers comeback from 27 down in Memphis.

Four Seasons

CTE!

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Sometimes the Beer Prescription is the Only Good One

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OK so yeah.. it's a koozie, and you can learn more about it or get it HERE..

Come to the Beach!

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SICK Chemistry

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And how's this for a stat:
The Spurs scored 48 points from inside 5 feet in their win Sunday, the most by any team in a game in the last 2 postseasons. --ESPN Stats & Info

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