Anguyen, that Self Help Fest looks interesting, A Day to Remember blew me away at the Warped Tour (I had never heard them before) with their energy and crazy crowd. Let me know if the singer gets people to surf the crowd surfers 
I think that is so far my #1 concert moment of the year.
Yes, he did. He did get people to surf on the crowdsurfers before Better Off This Way. It's something they always try to do in every show they play in around the world, the singer stated.
Anywho, I had a good time at the Self Help Fest. Long drive though to San Bernardino. The setup wasn't too complex in comparison to the meccas of big rock/metal festivals like Download or Wacken or even the Danny Wimmer Presents festivals in the states. Just one outdoor stage, one indoor stage, and a lot of concessions for merch, food, drinks, etc. There's a lot of room to move around and there were plenty of spots on lawns to relax and sit and still get a good view of the stage. I think like around 15k-20k people showed up at the festival at one point. It's hard to tell when people are coming and going.
I did think it did took a while for me to really enjoy the festival. I didn't enjoy the first two bands on the main stage. One of the bands had a vocalist with such a squeaky voice for me to take seriously when he says "I want to see you guys moving and getting pits going." The other band looks to be a old-school punk band and that's not really my thing. That stated, from This Wild Life onward, I started to really enjoy the festival. This Wild Life had a mellow vibe and the vocalist did a thing where he wanted the most toughest looking guy in the crowd to dance with the woman he is with the whole way during one of their songs. They also did a cover of Wonderwall to top it off.
Periphery were good from what I can catch, but I feel asleep on a lawn spot in-between them setting up their stage and like 10 minutes of their set. I can't help it. My brain sometimes get so bored to an extend where I just doze off out of nowhere and this applies in any setting whether it is at my computer at home, in the break room at work, etc. I think Periphery might have played like four songs in their 30 minute set. Unfortunately, the festival found itself overrunning and behind on schedule they set, so I didn't catch Motionless in White as a curio on the other stage, because I was too invested in Animals As Leaders. Sure, I didn't know the songs they played, but it sounded really good all instrumentally. In fact, I think the guitarist might have forgotten for a brief moment on what song they were supposed to play. I think the crowd appreciated them even though it's hard to really get pits and crowdsurfers going for an all instrumental band and they started coming in more masses as the sun sets and the more named bands for the (Beartooth, I Prevail, Underoath, and of course, A Day To Remember) is coming next.
I was disappointed in Beartooth's set though. I liked various songs from their Disease album and the vocalist's live vocals were way different than what I heard in the studio version which was leaning more towards his screaming voice than his melodic voice. My hypothesis gathers that he may have suffered minor damage in his voice due to screaming a lot. It also didn't help that I felt he was trying too hard getting people into them. I did really enjoy I Prevail's set the most so far in the festival. They had a good blend of one guy doing the harsh vocals and the other guy doing the more melodic vocals. I wished they played more from their Lifelines album (which I liked) instead of focusing heavily on their latest album Trauma (which I didn't like as much). In hindsight, I do regret not seeing them at their show in Anaheim had I know I was going to like their set. Live Nation had a deal where they were offering $25.00 tickets for that show. Oh well, next time.
Underoath was good as well and they came in relatively at the last minute (a week before the festival) as the request from A Day to Remember (since ADTR were the ones that organized the whole thing) and they were on a break at the time from touring long throughout the year. As a result, the lead singer told a story of how he needed to get to a flight from home in Tampa, to Southern California at the last minute and they told him that a direct flight would be on Sunday which is no bueno since the show is on Saturday. So he had to take three different flights to get to LAX and then took the trip to San Bernardino just to make it to the festival. I presume there were no ways to get to the airport in Ontario since that's the closest airport to San Bernardino, because f' taking a two hour trip from LAX to San Bernardino.
Anywho, A Day to Remember put on a very solid set albeit a short headlining set (around 80 minutes). They had it all. The energy. The songs people can singalong to. Lots of pits and crowdsurfers. A video screen for custom visuals and shots of the band and the crowd. Steam and pyro. They had some beach balls for people to pass around shown in the picture below.
The one thing I wished would have been better was during the encore when they played "If It Means A Lot To You" where the crowd should have reached their peak of singalongs for this song, since it's a song where the lyrics are literally "Now everybody is singing La. La La La. La La La," but it didn't here. Oh well. I still like the performance.
I wouldn't mind coming back to this festival, next year, depending on the line-up. The one thing I should have done was wait just a bit longer for tickets to get to a certain point. The website had it regularly for $75.00. I bought my ticket on Stubhub for $60.00 about three weeks before the festival and then I saw that the festival was doing a discount for $44.00 the week before and even like two days before the festival, Stubhub was having tickets go for $40.00 fees included. That's was just my bad and I will be patient and wait until tickets get to that price range now that I know it can be a thing.
Three more shows left in the year for right now for me. I still need a show in December. I do see that Thrice is playing at the local House of Blues in Anaheim, but it looks like it's their only remaining show in the states for the year, and it is sold out and the resale ticket is too expensive for me right now. I also do note that Sublime with Rome is also at the HOB and tickets look reasonable at $48.00 for all GA. Do I want to go? Maybe. One more band I note at the HOB playing in December is Falling in Reverse, but I read that their frontman is a dick that has been incarcerated in the past before and their music is already polarizing enough. I only know of them because the producer for their last few albums was produced by the same guy that produces all but one (the first one) Alter Bridge albums. Anywho, I'll find something. I would think KROQ would announced their Almost Acoustic Christmas at the Forum as of now, but that's not the case yet. If worst comes to worst, that will be my December show if there is an announcement about it and the tickets are not sold out instantly which they probably will.
The Who with Liam Gallagher opening - Hollywood Bowl - Los Angeles, CA. October 24th, 2019.
Switchfoot - Fox Performing Arts Center - Riverside, CA. November 5th, 2019.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Toyota Arena - Ontario, CA. November 30th, 2019.
Topic: Your concerts for 2019 (Read 30319 times)
