It’s still unthinkable – I’ve been living it & still doesn’t seem real. Faith No More not only are playing live again but have gone from doing sporadic shows (mostly outside the U.S.) to actually releasing an LP of all new material and hit the States earlier this year for their first full-scale tour anywhere in almost 18 years.
Never say never right? And after the Pixies finally found their way back to each other & David Lee Roth is back in Van Halen it would give you hope on just about anybody regrouping – Anybody save for two of my other faves – Talking Heads & most certainly Faith No More.
Back in 2009 I was fortunate enough to be in London for their first live performance at that time in over 11 years and even a few months before that was even announced they were still talking shit to each other in the press (maybe as a cover up?).
They made their way to the States the next Summer for all of 9 shows in four cities. Three in their hometown of San Francisco, two in Brooklyn, one in Philadelphia, 2 in Los Angeles & an appearance at Coachella & to make up for lost time I was at all but two.
Then for the next couple of years they played festivals even more sporadically (this time exclusively outside the U.S) and then nothing.
So imagine everyone’s surprise when suddenly they were announcing a full return with a new LP & large scale tour in support of it.
Sol Invictus – came out in May, their first LP since 1997’s Album of the Year & they started the tour in support of it in their hometown of SF a few weeks prior to it’s release. I couldn’t make the SF shows but they were immediately followed by four in a row in Los Angeles so it was their I would make my way to bear witness to their first tour in the States in 18 years. This is my week with Faith No More in 2015
Apr 22-24th – The Wiltern – Los Angeles
First up was a highly anticipated residency at the famed Wiltern Theatre – A gorgeous building dripping with history & prestige that I hadn’t been to since I was last here with Ween in 2011.
Night One – April 22nd
I met my friend Bill who had come all the way from NYC to attend these shows (he was also at the SF shows a few days prior) outside the venue & I was super excited for the evening ahead. Grateful to finally see a show here without being responsible for the show or anyone else and that I was seeing Faith No More for the first time in 5 years who will no doubt be playing new material live for the first time in almost 20 years and this was before the LP’s release. As people piled into the venue for this mostly general admission show, they were treated to music provided by DJ Mexican Dubwiser
The first noticeable thing was that all the amps and monitors were covered in white sheets. All of Faith No More’s crew were similarly dressed in white pants and gowns. They then began to bring flowers and place them at the edge of the stage, as well as on top of the amps and around the drums. The band walked onstage in all white gear &, Mike Patton taking it up a notch as always, walked out with BDSM hooks in his mouth and nostrils (in addition to restraints on his wrists) to a thundurous applause & set the tone for a weird night.
It was impressive that he was able to sing like that, but it was nothing short of what we would expect from one of the most unique and influential frontman in rock and roll history. They started the set with the first single released from the new album, Motherfucker.
I wouldn’t say I was skeptical, but when I initially heard the recorded version of this song I didn’t quite get it, but after hearing it live as a set opener, I completely get what their going for and it’s a perfect beggining as it built up throughout the duration of the song, and got the whole crowd to sing immediately.
From there, they went through a set filled with old songs as well as 6 new songs that the majority of the crowd had never heard before including the live debut of
Black Friday during the second encore.
In addition to the beautiful stage settings, excellent light show, strong and diverse setlist, and use of props such as megaphones, there were other things that made the set unique. The banter between the band members was funny to watch and listen to solididfying that they were truly back indeed.
Setlist –
Motherfucker
From Out of Nowhere
Caffeine
Evidence
Epic
Sunny Side Up
Get Out
Midlife Crisis (with Boz Scaggs – ‘Lowdown’ interlude)
Everything’s Ruined
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Easy (Commodores cover)
Spirit
King for a Day
Ashes to Ashes
Superhero
Encore:
Sol Invictus
Separation Anxiety
This Guy’s in Love With You (Burt Bacharach cover)
Encore 2:
Black Friday (live debut)
Show poster by Alan Forbes (left)
Opener – HO99O9
H09909 – Pronounced “horror,” was interesting to say the least. It is near impossible to place them into a genre, but the group called themselves Experimental Thrashcore Rap/Crossover Punk.” Calling their members theOGM Eaddy, the band was made up of one drummer and two singers, one of whom controlled a midi pad for sound effects. The music flip-flopped all over the place, going from monotone to peppery Rap to angry, screaming vocals and then to a heavier Metal sound. It was clear that the audience, who were impatiently awaiting the headliners take to the stage, were not very excited by this performance. Their set was not as put together and well executed as it could have been, but was nonetheless entertaining.
Night II – April 23rd
Of the three nights at the Wiltern, this was the night (& one of the best I’ve ever seen) & I think they knew it too. I think this was the first date announced because I didn’t recognize anyone at the first night but suddenly here tonight I saw a ton of famous musicians & celebrities.
For whatever reason this was the night they ALL picked to come, as I saw:
Actor Matthew Gray Gubler, Comedian Brian Posehn, Producer Matt Wallace, Rage drummer Brad Wilk & Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell just to name a few.
The black leather-clad gimp that’s a visual component (that what I had previously assumed was just a pre-selected fan from the audience) at this show was Duff McKagan from Guns ‘N Roses, which many thought was a joke when Mike Patton mentioned his name but it was later confirmed that the gimp was indeed McKagan.
The setlist alone made this show something special with them playing Land of Sunshine, Cuckoo for Caca and I’ve seen them play two dozen times & I’ve never heard them play As the Worm Turns – My friend Bill who was at the special hometown shows the previous week that started the tour said that the Wiltern residency was actually more inspired and were playing deeper cuts.
Setlist –
Motherfucker
Land of Sunshine
Caffeine
Evidence
Epic
Sunny Side Up
As the Worm Turns
Midlife Crisis (with Boz Scaggs – ‘Lowdown’ interlude)
Chinese Arithmetic
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Easy (Commodores cover)
Cuckoo for Caca
King for a Day
Ashes to Ashes
Superhero
Encore:
Matador
Ugly in the Morning
We Care a Lot
Encore 2:
From the Dead
Even Carson Daly was there as this show was pro-shot for footage that later aired over two nights on his show Last Call w/ Carson Daly which you can see below.
Production notes backstage w/ Patton (left)
Bill & I (right)
Comedian Brian Posehn
Openers – The Urinals
Opening the show was legendary Southern California punks The Urinals – While I can’t list them as an influence, their footprint is everywhere & not lost on me & I was excited to get to see them.
Post Show Shenanigans –
It seems everyone had Faith No More fever tonight as my friend Matt who’s place I was crashing at also picked tonight to want to see them & at the last minute brought along his friend Damon, so I was scrambling to find Damon a ticket also. Bill & I being the nerds we are, showed up to the venue right when the doors opened, sober and giddy as children throughout the entire show. These two (Matt & Damon…get it?) show up right after the band starts, both barely able to stand from being so wasted. We met up with a few other friends of theirs and after the show I drove everyone over to the Rainbow (as Bill had never been before) and we did the touristy Rock & Roll thing and sat at Slash’s table.
Damon works in Adult Film (& Matt sometimes works security) and as the drinks were piling up things started to get a little out of hand, when suddenly (of course)
Ron Jeremy walks by who we proceeded to harass & somehow blame that Lemmy wasn’t holding court at the bar as usual. Good times.
Night III – April 24th
All these shows, hell any show on this tour is special, but each of these Wiltern shows had some a little extra. The third and final show at the Wiltern in Los Angeles happened to fall on bassist Billy Gould‘s birthday. The show started with actor Danny Devito (a long time Faith No More fan & a fixture at their LA shows) & Mike Patton dressed identical with bandanas around their faces. Devito spent the entire show doing what he calls “Trollfooting” around the stage.
An already weird scene to be sure, but like while the band was playing, Devito would just casually walk through the scene ado of nothing.
He roamed everywhere there was to roam so he make his way up to the drum riser where it appeared that drummer Mike Bordin made it clear that his area was a Trollfooting-free zone. Great stuff from the band tonight and the pulled out Digging the Grave in the encore.
Setlist –
Sol Invictus
From Out of Nowhere
Caffeine
Evidence
Epic
Sunny Side Up
Surprise! You’re Dead!
Midlife Crisis (with Boz Scaggs – ‘Lowdown’ interlude)
Last Cup of Sorrow
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Easy (Commodores cover)
Be Aggressive
King for a Day
Ashes to Ashes
Superhero
Encore:
Motherfucker
Digging the Grave
This Guy’s in Love With You (Burt Bacharach cover)
The official tour poster for this night was designed by Huck Gee and is available to buy at Secret Serpents. A second poster was designed by Enrico Maniago the vocalist from support act Flattbush.
Openers- Flattbush
An awesome noise band on Gould’s label Koolarrow Records complete with Mortal Kombat character.
Night IV – Apr 25th
The Observatory – Santa Ana, CA
The only way to describe this show would be as uncomfortable – Especially by comparison to the gorgeous & pretigious venue the Wiltern where apparently I got a little too comfortable the last three days because this place was positively a shithole (& quite possibly a fire hazzard) with the worst crowd ever.
While I shouldn’t complain too much as I was looking forward to seeing them in a different, smaller (& hopefully more intimate) venue along with tonight’s opener (see below) and I had waited a long time for this, not to mention the venue had invited me & gave me free tickets so who the fuck am I to complain?
But I do insist on explaining the experience and while I was so happy to be so close to the band that place was like 20 pounds of baloney in 5 pound bag and all I could think of was locating the exits in case of an emergency (because I’m a huge nerd).
The crowd again was insufferable which is so strange to me because Faith No More are one of the most original, weirdest, perplexing groups in history with a wicked sense of humor, yet the worst people I’ve ever been around are the garbage that patronize their shows, why is that?
One good thing about it being assholes to elbows is that it left no room for that moshing horseshit and the band decided to start the show with playing the entire new LP (minus Rise of the Fall) that hadn’t been released yet so it was unfamiliar to them. I loved it and it forced to them to actually be still and fucking listen for once.
This did come at a price however because by the time they did play something familiar, they were ready to kill each other.
Setlist –
Sol Invictus
Superhero
Sunny Side Up
Separation Anxiety
Cone of Shame
Black Friday
Motherfucker
Matador
From the Dead
Caffeine
Evidence
Surprise! You’re Dead!
Midlife Crisis (w/ Boz Scaggs – ‘Lowdown’ interlude)
Epic
Ashes to Ashes
Encore:
King for a Day
We Care a Lot
I Started a Joke (Bee Gees cover)
Another issue at this show (as it is sadly common at any show these days) was the goddamned cell phones. This one burly, wookie motherfucker stood right in front, chest to the barricade, the band mere feet from him, & he watched the show through his fucking phone the entire time.
This naturally angered Patton who in his usual fashion did his best to make an example out of this moron but nothing could deter him. Patton even dumped water on him & threw the bottle that knocked the phone out of his hand & he just kept on filming, seemingly enjoying drawing Patton’s ire.
That ire cost us a second encore asshole – thanks.
And of course I’m not one to support such bullshit (& it’s not the wookie in question’s footage, but if you must, some other guy decided to watch the show through his freaking phone and the footage is below.)
Show poster for The Wiltern by Justin Walsh (left)
Show poster for Observatory by Robert Bowen (right)
Opener – Philm (w/ Dave Lombardo)
One of the coolest things about a Faith No More tour is they really get into hand selecting many different openers (sometimes each night) of their favorites & man they really got it right tonight with legendary Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo‘s band Philm (Lombardo also plays in Patton’s noise band Fantomas).
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
…so I returned to Texas where I was anxiously awaiting their arrival, where they would begin the second leg of the tour.
July 26th – Austin Music Hall – Austin, TX
The band began the second leg of the tour with three shows in Texas with legendary hardcore band Napalm Death opening starting in Austin.
These shows were even more highly anticipated because although since their semi-return in 2009 to their current full active status before tonight I had seen the band a dozen times during that period on both coasts & in the U.K.
But now I was going to get to share that excitement with one of my oldest friends Tony & it was our shared passion for the band that united us in the first place and the last time he has seen them was when I took him backstage to meet the band on his 21st birthday way back in 1998.
It’s still unthinkable how much time has passed because we still talked about them every time we got together during that entire stretch & now we were road tripping down to Austin to reclaim something that has been missing for far too long.
While I was comfortable during the Wiltern run & beyond inconvenienced at the Orange County show, it was an unspoken thing that we were hear to reclaim a part of our youth and that meant going to the front and letting it all hang out. Even though I had seen the band a half a dozen times already this year, I still felt skeptical that it was real until those five guys took the stage. And when they did, the place erupted.
Their was a scary moment when drummer Mike Bordin rolled his ankle pretty hard and ran offstage writing in pain. As a testament to their solidarity it was pleasing to see Patton & Roddy rush to his aid to make sure he was ok.
Other than that, nothing too insane to report, other than we had a freaking blast and probably the most fun I’ve had at any show in years. The crowd wasn’t too band to manage and Tony & I laughed at when was the last time we purposely went up front and left a show with our shirts soaked. Youth reclaimed.
Setlist –
Motherfucker
Be Aggressive
Caffeine
Evidence
Epic
Black Friday
Everything’s Ruined
Midlife Crisis
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Easy (Commodores cover)
Separation Anxiety
Spirit
King for a Day
Ashes to Ashes
Superhero
Encore:
Matador
We Care a Lot
Encore 2:
This Guy’s in Love With You (Burt Bacharach cover)
After the show we ran into my old friend Kelly & her friend – Austin is such a fun town but we had only planned to come down for the show and just head right back after.
We tried to get a drink at the infamous “Christmas Bar” LaLas, but when we drove by we saw that Santa (or anyone else) has visited the place in years.
July 27th – South Side Ballroom – Dallas, TX
Now back in Dallas, it was on for Night 2 & we also knew that in the spirit of youth reclamation that we were gonna run into people that we hadn’t seen in a very long time. Right when I walk in I see my buddy Mike D. & with him is Trace & his wife Amber. Even a year before Tony & I met, my first year of college Trace sat behind me in a few classes and so we started going to shows together and on the strength of our mutual love for Faith No More. I see him at other shows every few years and the last had been awhile and he joked that “special plans had been made with a babysitter” to make sure he was here for this.
However while they remained in the back, Tony & I, gluttons for punishment once again headed to the front.
The band came roaring out seemingly with even more steam than the night before in Austin and bringing Land of Sunshine & Cuckoo for Caca back to the mix.
While we were no doubt having fun and feeling unstoppable, this had to be one of the worst crowds I’ve ever endured in my life.
Sadly, if you’ve ever been to any show by any heavy band in Dallas their’s this group of assholes whose name alone will give you douche chills called the Pitbulls (meaning they rule the mosh pit or whatever). These assholes even wear shirts that say Pitbulls just so everyone can know who the assholes are.
They were exceptionally violent at this gig to the point where I had to punch one of these jerks. Since they travel in packs, as soon as I did I took it pretty hard on the jaw by one his buddies who blind-sided me and had to fight my way out all while this 300 lb girl was leaning on me. Every time I would back away from her she would follow and adjust her weight for me to support her like I was a brick fucking wall. Besides that misery (that ultimately I asked for) we had a blast.
Setlist –
Cone of Shame
Land of Sunshine
Caffeine
Evidence
Epic
Black Friday
Everything’s Ruined
Midlife Crisis
Cuckoo for Caca
Easy (Commodores cover)
Separation Anxiety
Spirit
King for a Day
Ashes to Ashes
Superhero
Encore:
Motherfucker
Matador
We Care a Lot
Austin poster by Lil Tuffy (left)
& Dallas poster by Neal Williams
Openers – Napalm Death
Tony said it best about these guys, that he wanted to be introduced to the Death/Grindcore etc genre but every band he saw just “seemed like clowns” and this was the one band that didn’t. That’s how I felt about Napalm Death too & though I’ve only ever owned one of their records, the first one Scum I had always wanted to see them live.
Let me be clear: I am a fan for life after seeing these two shows from ND – They were punishing in the way I’ve only really seen the Melvins be, they were articulate like Fugazi and they just fucking killed.
Tony & I (Austin – left)
and in Dallas (right)
Was seriously thinking about heading to Houston the next night to complete the Texas trifecta with Napalm Death but we were home, it was a Monday (& who wants to go to Houston ever especially on a Tuesday? haha) But I do plan to see them again soon down the road.
So happy their back and when they released the new LP Sol Invitcus back in May, it was clear we weren’t the only ones who missed them.
Good times.
Photos –
Roy Turner
Ross Halfin
