UPROAR TOUR 2012!!!

On September 19^th my brother, Zach, and I had the experience of going to another year of Uproar Tour at the USANA amphitheater in West Valley. It was another awesome experience that had some negatives, but also a lot of positives. I’ve always said that everyone should experience a rock concert before they die, because they definitely are something out of this world. Especially for Mormons it’s an eye-opening experience to the world outside of the gospel bubble. It’s intimidating, because everyone is dressed to the extremes and you have the scent of beer wherever you go, but in all honesty I would say that the people at these concerts are a more courteous than a lot of Mormons I’m associated with. This was both Zach and mine’s 4^th concert so we were used to it by now, but here is the story of Uproar 2012.

The lineup consisted of only four bands: Adelitas Way, Staind, Godsmack, and Shinedown. I felt all of them had a good sound to their music, and all of them were enjoyable to listen to. You could tell Adelitas Way was new to the touring atmosphere. They are a new band that just hopped on the radar with their latest album titled Home School Valedictorian. They are an interesting band, because some of their songs are hard and in your face, but then they have other songs that you could play to a girl and they would love them. Their vocals were a little off, but you could not take away from their love of the crowd; the lead singer even crowd surfed! Click here to watch their most heart-warming song!

After Adelitas Way was Staind. Staind is an older band that has been around for a while. The singer almost looked like Larry the Cable Guy from a distance and even smoked a cigarette in between songs. Everyone knows their songs “It’s Been Awhile” and “So Far Away.” I didn’t know any of the other songs that they sang, but they still sounded great.

Godsmack was the band I was most afraid of not liking, but they put on an excellent performance. They’ve been around since the mid 90’s so this definitely wasn’t their first rodeo. I honestly didn’t know any of their songs, but just the way they sounded and the way they acted was awesome. The lead singer was amazing. He sang, played guitar, and even came out with another drum set and had a mini-duel with the band’s drummer.

While the bands selected for Uproar Tour were unique and well-rounded it definitely wasn’t as good as last year’s selection. I think the biggest reason why it lacked in that area was because of the absence of Papa Roach. Papa Roach pulled out of Uproar earlier in the tour due to a nodule found on lead singer, Jacoby Shaddix’s, left vocal cord. I’m not sure what that means except for the fact that he had to have surgery and wouldn’t be able to sing or talk for 2 months. Papa Roach was one of the bands that Zach and I were both really looking forward to, but we weren’t able to. With them being absent it really limited us being able to jam out and sing along, because we didn’t know the lyrics to any of Staind’s or Godsmack’s songs as compared to last year when I knew the lyrics to at least half the songs of all five bands.

What all made it worth it for me though was Shinedown. If you don’t have Shinedown’s newest album, Amaryllis, I would recommend you buy it. It has easily become one of my favorite albums to listen to. Not just because it’s my type of music, but because the message of each song is so unique and likeable. Zach and I had seen Shinedown at our first concert back in 2010, and even then we considered them one of the best performers out of all the bands we saw that night. The the lead singer, Brent Smith, is to compare him to Jack Black in the movie, School of Rock. Just the passion and desire to present rock the way it is to be presented sets this band apart. They don’t have to swear to get the crowd going, and you can really sense the appreciation they have for their fans.

Shinedown first started out with their hard rock songs that will get you pumped and ready for the show. “The Sound of Madness” was their first song followed by “Diamond Eyes.” They finally introduced themselves, and introduced their latest single called, “Enemies.” They told us to get pumped and excited for this song. “I want everyone of you to look to your left," Smith said. "Now, look to your right. We do this because the person standing next to you may be someone you've never met before, but we're going to change that. So I want you to shake the hand or high five the person next to you and tell them your happy to see them. Now I want to see everyone lose their mind. If you don’t like the seats in your way just pick them up and get them out of here." (Note: the chairs in the amphitheater are bolted to the cement) "And when I count to three I want you to jump as high as you can from side to side" This song really set the tone for the rest of their performance. Here you can see a similar example of what we experienced at our concert, and here is where you can go to here this kick-butt song better.

After a couple more of their other well-known songs they introduced a song on their newest album that is not a single. Before he started singing he asked everyone to raise their hand if they had come to this concert with their best friend. “Whether it be a friend, girlfriend, husband, wife, sister, or brother you know that you would do anything for them, and there is no possible way that we could not be up here without all of your support,” he said. He then went into a ballad titled “I’ll Follow You”

If I could find assurance
To leave you behind
I know my better half would fade
And all my doubts is a staircase to you
Opened out of this space
The first step is the one you believe in
And the second one might be profound

I'll follow you down
Through the eye of the storm
Don't worry I'll keep you warm
I'll follow you down
While we're passing through space
I don't care if we fall from grace
I'll follow you down  

After that song they sang another one of their newer singles titled “Unity.” Before the song they played an old speech by somebody I don’t remember. I tried to find it, but with no luck. It was a motivation speech that basically talked about how to make the world a better place. Then they went into their song. If you need more proof that you have to see Shinedown live, here it is.

The last song of note that they played was “Simple Man” one of their very first singles. Before they played the lights on the stage went off and everyone left the stage. With as many concerts I’ve been to I could tell this wasn’t the end, but I had no idea what they were doing. All of the sudden I saw body guards running about 15 feet in front of me and behind them was one of the guitarists along with the lead singer. There was a podium in the middle of the audience that they were escorted onto where they started singing the song. They ended up being about 50 feet from me which seems like a lot, but it was awesome to see them come out into the crowd. This short clip was what they said before they sang the song. I should have gotten all of it, but my battery was almost dead.

They closed with a few of their older songs, and I left with a great satisfaction and happy that I was able to see them again. Every time I hear this band I like them more and more. Some of their songs do swear, but the majority of them are clean, well-written songs that I think the majority of the population can enjoy. Rock concerts in general are just awesome and I urge all of you to go to one someday.

 

 

Thoughts from Week 1

Week 1 of college football is in the books, and we definitely had a little bit of the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was kind of a down week for me. My interest in college football is starting to take a decline which is a sad thing since I used to be so passionate about it. There are a lot of things that have contributed to it. One being the rise of the 49ers has finally made me more interested in the NFL again, but there are other reasons that have contributed to it. My disinterest in college football is the theme of week 1.

Preseason Rankings are a joke:

I have not been more against preseason rankings than I have in the past two years. I have come to realize how bogus and inaccurate they are. The most frustrating part is that these rankings (which are based off of last year’s performance and the amount of returning starters) shape the college football landscape for the remaining year.  They are so inaccurate sometimes that it overhypes certain games as well. There were several teams this week that did not play up to their ranking: South Carolina, Oklahoma, Stanford, Georgia, and Michigan are just a few schools that relate. The Michigan vs. Alabama game was so overhyped that it made me grateful I didn’t waste my time watching it when I heard that Alabama completely dismantled the Wolverines. Every year, whether it’s Michigan or Notre Dame, there are a handful of teams that are overrated based on their status as a once-powerhouse, and it’s just hilarious to see them get destroyed at the beginning of the season.

Another problem with preseason rankings is that it either makes or breaks a non-BCS school’s chance of busting the BCS. Take Boise State for example. First off, Boise State at times did not play like they were the 24^th best team in the nation. But what if Michigan State ends up going undefeated and goes to the national championship, and Boise State also runs the table the rest of the way? Boise State could still get left out of the BCS (even though their one loss was to an undefeated national championship contender.) The reason why is because Boise State will have started and fell too far down the polls after the first week that they couldn’t get back into the top 12.

I guess I just don’t see why we can’t just wait to rank teams until the BCS formulas come out. When we rank them beforehand it causes a lot of pollsters to stick with those rankings and only adjust teams if one team loses or wins a close one against a crappy opponent. This way it would give everyone six solid weeks to analyze each team and then rank them on how they’ve performed thus far.

I’m so sick of cupcake games:

The biggest reason why I didn’t care to watch too much football this weekend was because the majority of the games were blowouts. At least some of the powerful conferences are scheduling other FBS opponents, but how can you really determine how good a team is when they beat up on the bottom dwellers of the FBS or an FCS school. Even the games that were relatively close were boring to watch, because I just became disgusted with how overrated a certain team was. Even though Bowling Green came close to beating Florida you knew that Florida was eventually going to wake up and decide to play football. I am glad that we are going to a playoff soon, because that “should” help reward those teams who take the initiative and play outside of their comfort zone. Until then the games won’t be interesting until the middle of the regular season.

The miracle season for Boise State was ended soon this year:

It’s been kind of a weird feeling for me the past week or so. The past couple of years have stressed me out, because of the high expectations I had for this team. Every game got me nervous, and every play I was on the edge of my seat. It was almost unhealthy. Then when they would lose it was as if all happiness had evaporated from me for a couple days, because they were not able to live up to their potential.

That changed this year. This season I feel like I had reasonable expectations for this team. I was wishing and hoping that they would be able to upset Michigan State, but for some reason I had already accepted the fact that there was a good chance they were going to lose that game. It kind of sucks, because they had numerous times to win the game, but couldn’t close it out. There are still many positives that can be taken from the game. The defense played a lot better than I expected them to, and forced numerous turnovers. With as many returning starters (or lack thereof) they had I would have to say I think it’s pretty awesome that this team can lose so much talent and still only lose by 4 points to the “13^th” best team in the nation at their place. (I put 13 in quotations because of my argument about preseason rankings) The spread projected Boise to lose by 7 so the fact that they beat the spread also says something.

Boise State will lose some bandwagon fans after this loss, but it’s almost kind of relieving, because now I can just sit back and watch this team grow. If they lose another game along the way that’s completely fine. We’ve been quite spoiled as fans to have as much success as this team has had the past four years so I think we can all just be patient and let this team grow and improve.

 

The reason I’m starting to like the NFL more than college is its solid structure in standings and the playoff system that is put in. While we all love the drama of college football, I feel there is a lot of unnecessary controversy that encircles it that causes me to lose interest in it. Hopefully one day these issues will no longer bug me, but it probably won’t matter anyway. Football is in my blood, and although there are several things that frustrate me, I won’t be able to stay away for too long.