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Sullivan Arena

Are you Awake? Live and Inspired by Godsmack has arrived

May 20, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Put down the iPhones. Quit updating Facebook and taking pictures and sit back and enjoy the music. Because there is nothing better in the world than a kick ass live rock-n-roll show!

I am paraphrasing just a bit here but you get the jest. This was what Sully Erna said from the hard rock band Godsmack to a near sold out show at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, Alaska last September.

He is right. There is nothing like it. Godsmack rocks! 

When my wife and I attended this no frills show at the Sully we were blown away. They played for almost two hours and it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. No pyro. No light show. Just a balls-to-the-wall rock-n-roll band playing an intimate show to a few thousand people in the Great White North. It was a great time because rock concerts are hard to come by in the Last Frontier.

I bought the tickets before my wife even had a plane ticket to move up here. I said you need to get up here by September 5th because we have a concert to get to.

I will never forget the more than 15 minute rendition of the instrumental The Oracle, Sully on the drums with Batalla de los Tambores, and the guitar and bass riffs of Awake that shook you to the core. If you have been to a Godsmack show you know it is the real deal. This isn’t some video on YouTube or you sitting at home watching it on the big screen in your underwear with a remote control.

Just the past week, Godsmack released their first ever live set–Live and Inspired. Including covers of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way, Pink Floyd’s Time, The Beatles Come Together and Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters.

I bought the CD while up in Tok, Alaska watching over my friends pack of Iditarod sled dogs. There is not much to do up here. No Mickey D’s. No WiFi and five-dollar double shot espressos with whip. What a better place to enjoy some good ole’ American-made rock-n-roll. None of this groomed boy band crap singing about Boyfriends.

I sat back in an old rickety lawn chair in the bight sunshine, closed my eyes and let the music take over. It did just that.

Track listings:

  1. Straight Outta Line
  2. Realign
  3. Awake
  4. Moon Baby
  5. Changes
  6. The Enemy
  7. Keep Away
  8. Speak
  9. Voodoo
  10. Batalla de los Tambores
  11. Whatever
  12. Serenity
  13. I Stand Alone
  14. Rocky Mountain Way
  15. Come Together
  16. Time
  17. Nothing Else Matters

If you want a rare treat to add to your ever increasing music library that is so large that you have to keep it in some place called the “cloud”, Godsmack’s Live and Inspired is worth the 12 bucks and the next time a live show rolls through your town, cash in that change at the local Coinstar and go enjoy yourself. You will be glad you did.

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Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post, What Rocks Tagged With: Awake, Godsmack, iphone, Live and Inspired cd, live music, Metallica, Michele Forto, Oracle, robert forto, Sullivan Arena, Sully Erna, YouTube

Godsmack coming to the Last Frontier

July 22, 2011 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Logo of the Godsmack hard rock/heavy metal band.
Image via Wikipedia

One could argue that I live in the greatest state in the country–Alaska! We have the surreal beauty that people flock to from all over the world. Tourist arrive in search of adventure and to get a glimpse of brown bears, moose, puffins and magnificent glaciers.

People come here primarily by boat (cruise ships), RV’s, trucks, vans, and even explore the vast expanse by train.

But living in the Great White North we have our limitations.  One is concerts. The thought of a big name band coming to Alaska is rare. To many rock acts this still is the Last Frontier.

I can understand. The logistics must be atrocious. We are off the beaten path in terms of tour dates. Most bands will have a show on one day and travel the next day or two to the next and so on. With that a convoy of trucks are always at least one city ahead of the band so they can set up the stage show in the next town.

In the year that I have lived here a few bands/artists have made their way North, most of them during the Alaska State Fair held around Labor Day. Last year the rock group Shinedown was at the fair along with .38 Special, Collective Soul, Darryl Worley, Boyz II Men and even ‘The Gambler’ Kenny Rogers.

While all of these bands have their hits and their stamp on their collective fan base none of them are the mega groups that the fans of this state are yearning to see.

That is until this September.

One September 6th, GODSMACK rolls into town for a show at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

Thats right folks that hard hitting, guitar crunching, voodoo worshiping boys from Boston make their way North to rock this place to the ground.

I have been a Godsmack fan since their first release All Wound Up debuted in 1997 with Sully Erna at the helm. In 1998 the band signed with Universal and re-released the LP as a self-titled CD with a handful of new tracks and re-worked some of the others from Wound Up.

In 2000 I took my wife, Michele, to see Godsmack that Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. It was her first rock concert. If you are a fan of live music you know about Red Rocks. It is probably the best place on the planet to see a live show!

Godsmack’s fan base built slowly but surely until they were invited to join the Ozzfest tour with hit singles like “Whatever”, and “Keep Away”.

Also in 2000 the band released Awake and they earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental performance for the song “Vampires.”

In 2003 Faceless was released and in 2006 IV was released with Erna behind the board. The band stayed true to their roots with their unique guitar and drum driven sound and were a mainstay on rock radio.

In 2010 the bands fifth full-length offering, The Oracle was released for which the band is touring behind.

If you are a fan of Alice in Chains, Mudvayne, Puddle of Mudd, Trapt and even Everlast and Korn you will like Godsmack.

Hurry tickets are still available (as of July 21st). You can pick them up at TicketMaster, The Sullivan Arena and even participating Fred Meyers stores.

If you are going to be up to Alaska on vacation during the Labor Day Weekend what’s an extra hundred bucks to see a show like this? It sure beats sitting on a packed tour bus with grandma listening to the driver point out the local tourist haunts.

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

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Filed Under: Alaska, Daily Post, What Rocks Tagged With: alaska, Alaska State Fair, concert, Godsmack, Michele Forto, postaday2011, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, robert forto, Sullivan Arena, Sully Erna, TicketMaster

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