Godsmack

For my last birthday present (sniff), my wife got us tickets to see Godsmack at the Wiltern Theater. OK, I STRONGLY hinted that I wanted to see them a couple of months ago.

The wife and I met as undergrads. At the time I was program director at the campus radio station and her roommate had a show. The wife joined her for a shift one night and got hooked. Since we were also taking some of the same classes we got to know each other and once we extricated ourselves from other relationships, REALLY got to know each other. But, I digress....

We are both really into music, though probably more so then. In those days we listened to a lot of punk and metal (still do, to an extent). Since I was able to get tickets to just about any concert through the radio station, we saw a lot of great, and not so great, bands. It kind of sucks that we don't have the opportunity to go hear as much live music any more, especially rock.

Back to Godsmack, they played well, but there were a couple of thing that were weird. First, at the beginning of the show they played a video to AC/DC's For Those About to Rock which showed them just being regular guys, with their kids, loving their fans, etc. Seemed like victory lap thing that a a 20 y.o., rather than a 10 y.o. band would do. Also, they seemed, well, in too good of a mood. The wife and I joke about one band we saw in a blues club. The lead singer was chatting between songs and he said, "We are so happy to be playing the blues for you tonite." What? HAPPY to be playing the blues? Godsmack just seemed a little too happy for playing most of their songs. Lastly, the final 20 minutes of the show was spent doing a medley of covers and just goofing around (more *fun* stuff) when they could have been playing some more good songs off of IV. Overall, we dug it and it feels good to have 'heavy' ears again.