Filter at The Joint @ The Hard Rock, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 30, 2011
I have had an appreciation for Filter since I first heard Short Bus back in 1995. When they released their latest album, The Trouble with Angels, I was happy to hear that they still have it and when I heard they booked a show in Las Vegas I wasn’t going to miss it. This night Filter was a special guest on the bill with Bush and Chevelle. The tickets posted the start time for the concert at 8pm so when I learned that Filter was scheduled to go on at 7:45pm I was hoping people would be there to see them as people in Las Vegas generally don’t show up early for shows. I don’t know how the scheduling confusion happened, but it’s not fair for a band to have to take the stage before the show is scheduled to start.
I arrived at the venue early and was happy to see that fans were lining up and were already spilling out into the casino. By the time Filter took the stage, the crowd was thick and I was happy that a great band wasn’t going to have to play early just for me, the security and the bartenders. Filter started off their set with Welcome to the Fold and the fans welcomed them with great enthusiasm. Richard Patrick went into the crowd several times during the show to get up close and personal. They gave us Drug Boy and then my personal favorite from their new album, No Love. Their next song, Gimme All Your Lovin, is their contribution to the ZZ Top tribute album, “A Tribute from Friends”, and in theory seems like it might be hard for an industrial metal band to pull off a ZZ Top blues rock hit but that would be an incorrect assumption. They didn’t cover it, they reworked it into Filter’s sound. They ended their set with Trip Like I Do, Take A Picture, Best Things and Hey Man, Nice Shot.
Filter is: Richard Patrick - vocals; Mika Fineo - Drums; Phil Buckman - Bass; and Jonny Radke - Guitar (Radke, of Ashes Divide and Kill Hannah is filling in for Filter’s guitarist Rob Patterson).
Filter is currently touring in support of their latest album, The Trouble with Angels. Check their website for tour info: http://www.officialfilter.com.
