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| Brandon Boyd of Incubus @ Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Incubus, the Southern California alt-rockers who found massive success in the late '90's and early 2000's, stopped by Northern California last night to play the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. The band was joined by Sublime with Rome and The Aquadolls as show openers, and I'll start with those two before getting to the Incubus set.
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| The Aquadolls @ Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Let's hit The Aquadolls first. As their website highlights, they describe themselves as 'Mermaid Rock & Roll' -- That's a first for me, so I'm not exactly sure what mermaid rock sounds like, but if you're picturing an all-female 4-piece band, then you've guessed right. I wasn't familiar with the band before I saw them listed as the opener, so I checked out a few of their videos on YouTube and went into the show with low expectations, but I'm happy to say that their 30-minute set was exactly all that you could ask for in a show opener. They were poppy rock, but what came through and pushed their live set ahead of their videos was their infectious fun attitudes onstage while they were playing. You could see the foursome were just relishing in the spotlight in front of the 10,000 of us in the crowd. If you're catching any one of the remaining Incubus shows on the last bit of their west coast tour, definitely try and get there in time to catch The Aquadolls. Just for reference, they went on at 7:20pm, so plan accordingly.
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| Eric Wilson of Sublime with Rome @ Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Next up was Sublime with Rome... Now I was never a huge Sublime fan. I'd even go so far in saying that I was never a Sublime fan at all, so I was somewhat confused by who this 'Rome' was and how much he was going to play into the Sublime set overall. Well, I now know that 'Rome' is actually Rome Ramirez and originally from Fremont, just across the Dumbarton Bridge here in the Bay Area. The short story is that Sublime's original signer/guitarist died of a heroin overdose in 1996 and Rome stepped in to replace him. Unfortunately, a legal battle ensued and the resulting decision forced the remaining members of Sublime to write, record and tour under a new name -- Sublime with Rome!
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| Rome Ramirez of Sublime with Rome @ the Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Now that I've cleared up that confusion, what I can say is that there were a TON of Sublime fans in attendance last night! And it's no wonder as this was Rome's hometown show. Rome commented how at least 40 friends were somewhere out in the stands and that he had seen at least 14 shows at Shoreline as a kid -- with one of them being an Incubus concert -- so the whole night was a bit surreal for Rome. And from my point of view, Rome was just taking the whole moment in and truly cherishing it. Rome commented "I used to work at a fucking Starbucks in Fremont man, and now I’m up here in Sublime and opening for Incubus. I never take this for granted, thank you so much for supporting me." And to put the icing on the cake, Rome's parents were able to come to the show and were basking in their son's glory from a riser on the left hand of the stage. Rome's genuine love for what he was doing came through in spades and made 'Sublime with Rome's' set really enjoyable. That said, the front of house (FOH) sound mix wasn't great. Eric Wilson's Dave Smith keyboard was up way too loud and the bass was just overpowering. But besides that, the band played the hits you'd expect and Rome soaked up every minute of being on Shoreline's stage. If you're interested, Sublime with Rome hit the stage 8pm on the dot.
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| Rome's parents enjoying the show from stage left @ the Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Finally, we're getting to Incubus! The band, fronted by Brandon Boyd, hit the stage at 9:10pm with Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" that played as they took the stage. Right as the track crescendoes, the band kicked-off with 'Nice to Know You', one of my favorite Incubus tracks -- so it was already a great way to open the show! I was super curious to see how Brandon was doing considering the band had to cancel 4 shows a few weeks ago after Brandon threw out his back. The band returned on tour on August 17th, and video from shows around that time showed Brandon singing from a stool at center stage... It turns out that his back is still giving him problems and he was still singing (mostly) from the stool throughout the night.
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| Brandon Boyd of Incubus @ the Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
But Brandon's back problems didn't hold the band back. His passion was evident and he was determined to power through any issues that his back may have been throwing at him. That's what I've always loved about his vocals -- you can feel the emotion coming through not only in the lyrics, but in the delivery of each word that he throws out.
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| Brandon Boyd of Incubus @ the Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Besides the radio hits that the band played, one of my personal highlights of the night came when Brandon and Mike Einziger (founding guitarist) performed "Mexico" just over halfway through their set. Up until that point, Mike had remained relatively stoic and in a single position over on the right side of the stage, but just before "Mexico", Mike made his way over to center-stage and was joking with Brandon off-mic. I have no idea what they were talking about, but the mood certainly changed when the two kicked off what is essentially a duet for the first half of the song. The tempo slowed, and the two of them just emitted raw emotion from their respective instruments. The moment was powerful for me personally, but right after "Mexico" the band launched into "Pardon Me" -- another massive hit -- and the crowd's energy went right back up to 11.
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| Brandon Boyd & Chris Kilmore of Incubus @ the Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
The last thing I'll mention before wrapping this up is that if you know Incubus, there are a ton of songs with really catchy/groovie bass lines. And like Mike, Ben Kenny (bassist) remained fairly stoic throughout the night as well -- staying on the left hand of the stage. It wasn't until "The Warmth", nearly at the end of their set, when he really showed some energy and started to jam on stage. That's not to say he wasn't solid up until that point, but it was great to see him really get into the groove during "The Warmth" with his excellent bass lines in that song.
Ultimately, Incubus put on a great show even with Brandon's ailing back. If you missed the show, be sure to catch them the next time they swing through the Bay Area! Thanks for reading and while you're at it, you can follow us as well here: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter.
