Shows > Smokeout Festival
Deftones Soar, Slipknot Roars And Sublime Whores Their Legacy At Cypress Hill Smokeout
By Johnny Firecloud
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
30,000 people descended on the San Manuel Amphitheatre in San Bernardino, CA over the weekend for the Cypress Hill SmokeOut festival, a two-day binge on hip-hop with a headlining side of supercharged Rock from The Deftones and Slipknot.
Having arrived late at the venue and thus missing sets from Living Legends, Pennywise, Hieroglyphics and Swollen Members, I’d planned to scrap coverage altogether in a fit of self-disgust. But the sets by Slipknot and the Deftones were so dynamically powerful – and so thoroughly eclipsed those of host Cypress Hill, Goodie Mob and every other act we did catch – that it demands covering.
The SmokeOut featured the much-debated return of Sublime, with a guy named Roman filling in for the trio’s long-deceased singer/songwriter. It was a display of feel-good sacrilege that, by many accounts, should never have happened; Bradley Nowell’s family and estate holders, the rightful owners of the Sublime name, have expressed their distontent. “It was Brad’s expressed intention that no one use the name Sublime in any group that did not include him,” they said in a statement, “and Brad even registered the trademark ‘Sublime’ under his own name.” But a District Court judge allowed the show to go on, and remaining members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh returned with their own catty missive, which read, “While we all mourn the passing of our brother and bandmate Bradley Nowell some 13 years ago, Sublime still has a strong message of hope and love… Brad’s heirs apparently do not share this vision.” Or capital ambition, is more like it.
The crowd, largely oblivious to the controversy, were just happy to revel in the ’90s nostalgia overload. Roman held his own, but Bradley’s rambunctiously mischievous presence was a key missing ingredient in the memory-lane walk. Promoter and Guerilla Union mastermind Chang Weisberg was beyond excited about adding the new version of Sublime to the show. “The last minute addition of our very special guests Sublime is crazy. We always strive to make our shows a once in a lifetime event. I know Bud, Eric and Rome can’t wait to tear up the Smoke Out stage.” Gotta hand it to Chang – he’s a great guy, and he sells it well, but come on. This is like Meg White carrying on the White Stripes without Jack, or Nirvana getting a new singer. Some bands’ formulation doesn’t allow for history to be written over. Sublime was one of them.
Cypress Hill were introduced by Cheech & Chong, whose forced caricatures of their former characters were kept to a thankful minumim. Taking the stage to the sound of gunshots, B-Real, Sen Dog and Co. began their set with a new track, Get ‘em Up, which fit snugly with signature tracks like Lick a Shot, Hand on the Pump and Dr. Greenthumb.
Their set, while heavy on celebrating the skunky, funky, smelly green shit and familiar to nearly all in attendance, felt muted. Perhaps the ’90s Latin lingo funk the group embodies has finally run its course even among the blazing devoted – or maybe it was just shoddy production. Whatever the case, they were blown entirely out of the water by the Deftones and Slipknot.
Chino Moreno joined Cypress for set-closer Rock Superstar before his own band took the stage and wound the clock back to a time when Chino was a lean, mean screaming machine. Notorious for their varying live-show quality, the Deftones blasted all expectations out of the park with a blistering set heavy on the palpable sense of triumph and determination. They kicked off a nearly-flawless set with a brand new track, Rocket Skates, which sounds like a supercharged outtake from their White Pony album. Speaking of Pony, some of the strongest songs in their set came from that album, including Knife Party and Passenger, the latter of which found Moreno pulling double vocal duty, tackling Maynard James Keenan’s verse and chorus with excellent results.
Shit-grinning and pogoing around the stage, Chino led the band through classics such as Root, Nosebleed and an utterly brutal rendition of Hexagram, which was accented by the garbage bonfires choking out the lawn-dwellers. It was a blast of revitalization for a band that’s seen its share of tragedy in recent years, and reignited the spark that many Deftones fans feared had faded.
Slipknot then turned the heat way past ten to close out the festival, arriving in their signature masks and laying complete waste to the main stage with their transcendent, vicious metal. Vocalist Corey Taylor led the crowd through roaring singalongs on Duality and Before I Forget, while guitarist Jim Root stalked the stage like a man possessed and percussionists Chris Fehn and Shawn “Clown” Crahan, as well as core drummer Joey Jordison, provided the pummeling undercurrent for the rest of the band’s nine members to build their apocalyptically dark melodies.
It was my first time seeing Slipknot, and after more than a decade of avoiding the band based on the cartoonishly ridiculous fan fashion, not to mention the mask gimmick, I’ve removed the stick from my ass and will certainly give their next album an open-minded run.
Having only caught the headlining acts at this year’s SmokeOut I don’t feel qualified to critique the overall production, but with a strong bill, several stands promoting the medical marijuana movement and its many tentacles in politics / recreational garnish and an overall air of general hazy positivity, the experience was a pleasant one for the 30,000 fans and fellow smokers in attendance.
It’s good to see Chino back in action again. I’m pullin out all my Deftones cds today to give em a good listen. I just realized how much I miss White Pony.
Fuck Bud and Eric. I wonder what Brad would have to say about this shit. They need to let him rest in peace and if they want to perform, do so under a different name. They know, though, that no one will listen to their “message of love and peace”(read money and greed)unless they use the Sublime name to get attention. I wonder what the legality is of performing songs that Brad wrote……..
I too was on the skeptical side of Slipknot before seeing them live. Both times they blew me away. Worth looking past the masks. These guys are good.
great pix, btw. that one of B-Real that’s got the washed out lighting is fucking great.
You have no idea how annoying and insulting to your readers it is when the owners of this site post under contrived user names
what?
Zoopster is Johnny’s mom, actually! She’s very very proud.
Nice try matt, if that is your real name.. You are talking out of your ass. Any proof for this allegation, dumbshit? You have no idea how annoying and insulting dickheads like you are to us readers. Totally random….what a douche.
FART
It’s good to see that hair metal still makes people a ton of money. Or should it be called ‘mask metal’ now? How about ‘metal lite’ as an umbrella term…. ‘almost metal’ is a little insulting.
I think I’ll start a mainstream ‘almost metal’ band and call it Knotly Crue.
Ya…that has to be the best title I’ve ever seen for a review…great work on that alone haha.
Almost metal. lol
It’s refreshing to hear honest reporting of Deftones’ live show. I genuinely miss them being on the creative circuit, and although I’m not a huge fan of Slipknot, I’m stoked they get to play shows these days. Especially considering my recent time travel back to Adrenaline… that album is so hardcore and intense.
Slipknot is really something I’d rather do without (they just came through these parts with 3 inches opening for them) although NO ONE can deny the Joey Jordison beats. That guy kills it, for real. The dudes beating kegs with bats, though? Come on. We all want to give our boys a piece of the pie but compromise, much? Shit’s whack.
Thanks for the coverage. Oh, Bud and Eric – put a cap on it. It’s enough that Hot Topic is the only thing giving you guys a paycheck, you don’t need to piss all over your dead friend’s legacy, especially considering his EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS for you guys to not fuck it up. Fail!
What’s interesting is that after “Sublime”’s set, Bud was right behind me in the photo pit waiting for the Deftones to come on. A couple handlers came up and told him that he had interviews with Spin and Rollingstone lined up, and he suddenly got all loud and righteous, saying fuck those pussy rags, those guys are little bitches, etc. Complete chest-puffed defiance…. but why? Wouldn’t those two publications be a great way to set the record straight, rather than a simple press release backhanding Nowell’s family?
Joey is the only member of Slipknot worth mentioning… but that doesn’t mean he “kills it”. He is indeed a solid drummer… but that’s what you’re supposed to be. Take it from a drumming nerd, Joey is nothing special. But I do dig the guy… He plays guitar and bass too from what I understand. Competent musician no doubt.
As a band, they were impressive. For analytical technicality nerds there may be beefs, but they put on a hell of a show and know more about creating an onstage atmosphere than any of the other bands on the bill. That includes Cypress Hill, whose use of smoke machines and a giant spliff were as unimaginative as they could get.
i was there. you sound like an idiot as most faggot ass bloggers do. the guy’s name is rome idiot. not roman. cypress was not blown out the water. i’ve seen them many times and they did a great performance but obviously deftones and slipknot were given higher billing, so of course their sets are intended to be “better”. the festival as a whole was great. maybe next time you can get there on time and do a real review,scumbag.
Check this out:
Sublime Members Not Allowed To Call Themselves Sublime
11/04/09 3:10pm
by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)
This Sublime reunion just got a little less Sublime. No, literally.
A preliminary injunction passed Tuesday (Nov. 3) in Los Angeles ruled that Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson, the surviving members of Sublime, along with new singer Rome Ramirez, can no longer call themselves Sublime, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“The point we tried to make is that we encourage these gentlemen to go out and play,” Jeremiah Reynolds, the lawyer representing the estate of late Sublime singer Brad Nowell, told the newspaper.
“We think they’re great musicians. We just don’t think it’s appropriate to call a group that doesn’t have Bradley and has a new lead singer Sublime. It’s consistent with Brad’s intentions that we seek to protect the name. The court agreed that Bud and Eric and the new lead singer didn’t have the right to go out and call themselves Sublime.”
We suggest Sublemon instead.
The Los Angeles Times reports the ruling, which was passed by judge A. Howard Matz at the U.S. District Court Of The Central District Of California, will be held until the breach-of-contract and trademark infringement case goes to trial or the band formerly known as Sublime reach a settlement with Nowell’s estate.
The members of Nowell’s estate have been trying to stop Gaugh, Wilson and Ramirez from performing under the Sublime moniker and were threatening legal action against the trio as of last month. They argued Nowell wanted the Sublime name protected in the event of his death and anyone using it needed the permission of Nowell’s heirs, who consist of Nowell’s widow Troy, son Jakob and father Jim.
Gaugh and Wilson later issued a statement that they would comply with the court’s ruling.
“Our goal continues to be sharing the music and message of Sublime with all of our fans around the world,” they said. “We intend to take the court’s advice and work on a business solution to this issue. We hope the estate follows suit so the music of Sublime can live on and be accessible to everyone.”
The trio performed as Sublime at the Smokeout Festival in California last month.
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