Helmet and Fu Manchu live in Anaheim 11-12-08

We got there right after the doors opened and snagged spots by the stage. I took my sons and one of their friends. The venue’s at Disneyland. The House of Blues. It’s a venue I try to avoid when at all possible, but this was Helmet w/FU MANCHU.

We thought only those two bands were on the bill, and we were all really excited for Fu. But the curtains opened, and it was another band called Bullets and Octane. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Oh except the singer targeted my son and his friend at one point. They weren’t enjoying the set very much so he sort of called them out, getting down in their faces and singing right to them, wagging his fingers in one’s face, tapping on the baseball cap bill of the other. I pretended to be into it so he wouldn’t start singing right to me. My youngest son had the worst of it, though—every time the guy squatted down right in front of us, Elijah had nowhere to look but right at his crotch.

And he squatted down right in front of us quite a bit.

Fu came out and tore it up. They opened with “California Crossing.” I’ve seen them live a lot (I think this was my 8th time), and they never fail to deliver. They’re music is heavy, they basically define the term “riff rock.” I think of them as a gateway band to the world of stoner rock. They’ve been doing it a long time and really know how to put on a good show.

Their set list was about the same as last time I saw them—oldies like “Mongoose,” “King of the Road,” “Weird Beard”, and newer stuff like “Squash That Fly.” I don’t remember them doing “Start the Machine,” but they may have. They played a long time too. I kept thinking they’d end soon but they didn’t, just kept playing. It was awesome.

The crowd was super into it. A mosh pit formed with mostly older drunk guys. My son and his friend went in and my son quickly fell down. He didn’t get hurt though. One drunk guy came over by me and my younger son, and he was totally thrashing around. Another totally drunk guy came over to protect me from him. Why do I always attract the drunkest guys around? A fight also started to break out, but security immediately dove in and broke it up.

Helmet were tight. I’m not a musician, but it seems to me that their music is pretty challenging to play. There’s a lot of stopping and starting, changes in rhythms and tempo (I think). Towards the end of the night I thought, “How do they remember all these songs so well?” The band’s been around for almost 20 years, with Page Hamilton (singer/guitarist) being the only consistent member.

He’s kinda weird, too. They did something I’m always impressed with—took requests from the audience. It was when they came out for the encore. Of course everyone was yelling for “Unsung,” but they didn’t do it.

That’s right. They didn’t do “Unsung.”

Page would point at people who weren’t calling for it and try to make out what they were asking for. He ended up saying they’d do “Role Model,” something from their first album, and one other song, I forget what. When he announced that, the young kids standing next to me left. I had thought about leaving early because it’s a school night and I have a lot of work to get done this week, but it sort of became a challenge. Were they going to play “Unsung,” or not? So we stuck around till the bitter end.

One song someone called out for he considered doing but then said it was too hard. In the band’s wikipedia entry, there’s a quote from him saying he’s not sure he’ll keep doing Helmet after a couple years, because by then he’ll be 50, and it’s really demanding physically to tour and deliver good shows. So I’m glad we got to see them now.

After those three songs, they did two or three more, including “Ironhead,” which someone had called out for earlier. Then they put their instruments down, but instead of leaving the stage, they came to the front and started shaking people’s hands and handing out guitar picks. Elijah got one. I asked the guitarist for a set list so he snagged me his. Here it is:

No cameras allowed at the venue. But it was a good show. Great night.