Concert Guy

With Incubus & Paris Jackson

So a few months ago, I was wondering “is Badflower on tour?” I was so happy to see that they’d be in CT at the Mohegan Sun arena. And apparently they would be the opener for Incubus. Odd pairing to me, but whatever. My friend Frank loves Badflower so I asked if he wanted to go. He was in!

Skip ahead to 8/13/23 and it’s time to rock! Paris Jackson opened the show. If the name sounds familiar, yes – she is in fact Michael Jackson’s daughter. He was the King of Pop, so is she the Princess of Pop? Maybe by bloodline, but not by music style. Surprisingly, she kinda rocked! When she first started I thought it was going to be girly bubblegum pop. But as she warmed up and got into it, she has a solid voice. And when she screams, it’s pretty bad ass. More of that please!

She did a cover of Blind Melon’s No Rain which was actually really good. She did it with more energy than the original and added some angst. Her band was pretty solid, and I was surprised to see that she also played guitar for a couple songs. She’s got the name, the talent is there, and she certainly isn’t hard to look at. Perhaps with some catchy hooks, she’ll move into headlining the arenas instead of opening the shows. Time will tell.

The previous night I got to see Eddie Van Halen’s kid and tonight I got to see Michael Jackson’s kid. Kinda cool, but also I’m bummed I’ll never see Eddie or Michael live. Anyway…

Badflower was next. And they’re the reason we both wanted to go to this show. They kicked ass! They walked on stage to Barbie Girl being blasted on the PA system and then broke into their own song Don’t Hate Me. It’s a nice uplifting song about how he already hates himself so you don’t need to. Depressing yet awesome. Johnny Wants to Fight was next, followed by Fuckboi. After that was Heroin which has a totally wussy feel to it. It was probably my least favorite song they played. But still decent.

Then they played two great ones in a row: The Jester and Ghost. They’re both great tunes with lots of emotion. They seem like they were written when he was in a really dark place and they kinda make you want to slit your own wrist…while rocking out…in a good way. Lol. I love those songs. The highlight of their performance was next when they played Stalker. They started with a drum solo and some bass playing. Then the singer, Josh Katz, ran into the crowd once the full band kicked in. He was running all around and having people hold the mic for him so he could play guitar and sing. It was high energy and quite amusing. And just like that, the depression was lifted! They closed the show with 30 and left. No goodbyes. 🙁

Incubus was next. While I was never a big Incubus fan, they had a enough radio play back in the day that I figure I probably know a good dozen of their songs. I never owned their albums (radio was enough for me) but was excited to check them out. They had a guitar player, bass, drummer, DJ, and singer. The first 4 songs they played left me clueless. No idea what they were. One of them was totally lame though and the singer just did a bunch of wussy whining. For the 5th song, I finally knew one – Nice to Know You. This was a pretty big hit on alternative and rock radio back in the day. But I wasn’t digging it and neither was Frank. We stuck around for another song or two, and then bailed.

Now, it’s simply my opinion (and Frank’s) that Incubus kinda sucked. Clearly, the crowd was into it. Many around us were dancing and singing along. I can’t deny that several thousand others seemed to be enjoying it. But we just couldn’t get into it. For me, the music was sloppy. Too much prerecorded stuff via the DJ, and with the vocal style, each song just sounded too similar. The dude has a very specific vocal sound and he stays right there without any deviation. In other words, if you heard one song, then you heard them all.

So if I had to rank the show….Badflower kicked ass. Paris was next, and Incubus was a distant 3rd. I’ll skip Incubus next time they come around, but I’d definitely see Badflower again and hope they come back soon. I’d probably see Paris again too if I can familiarize myself with her songs first.