Saliva at Speaking Rock Entertainment Center
Now here comes a band that I’ve been a fan of, a band that when the show was announced, I circled the date on my calendar and looked up the contact info. A band that 23 years ago hit me like a ton of bricks with the release of Every Six Seconds back in 01, yeah, I’m talking about Saliva. We wore out that CD, needless to say and saw them four times live, had the pleasure of meeting Chris D’Abaldo backstage at a Nickleback show and have met Josey Scott multiple times for autographs and photographs, he was always very fan friendly. All of this was in the heyday of their release of Every Six Seconds, the band was on fire, constant touring in support of the album, hence seeing them as much as I did during that period, every time you turned on the radio, they dominated Top 40 Rock Radio Stations with hits like Your Disease and Always, to name a few. But the days of Josey Scott, Wayne Swinny, Chris D’Abaldo, Dave Novotny and Paul Crosby are gone, been gone for some time now, Wayne Swinny was the only original member up until last year in March, he died at the age of 59.
To say this band has been though a number of lineup changes is the understatement of the year, more like a revolving door with members coming and going, Josey left in 2011 and Bobby Amaru has taken over since then, Brad Stewart on Bass has been with the band since 15, I photographed him with Fuel back in 14 here in El Paso. Sammi Jo Bishop on percussion, she’s been with them since 22 and Josh Kulack and Sebastian LaBar both on guitar, both started this year. Speaking of Sebastian LaBar, I shot him here maybe two years ago at another venue when he was with Tantric. So, I knew what to expect from this seasoned axe man, he puts on a great show and plays to the camera, not to mention, who doesn’t love that low slung Les Paul, yeah, a true rock star for sure, looking forward to his return. So with all that said, Bobby and Brad have been in the band the longest, but no original members, I’ll leave you to your thoughts on that one.
So, Speaking Rock Entertainment Center, outdoor free show on a cool West Texas Night, the scene was set. Local support of the evening was Tonality, a local cover band that I had definitely heard of but had never seen before. I was pleasantly surprised to see the band had quite the following, few local bands could pull this off, but these guys had a real nice crowd at the foot of the smaller stage, 90 minutes later, they were done, I have to admit, they were pretty good, and I do look forward to seeing them again. 9:30 sharp, again, this one thing Speaking Rock does so well, staying on time, I love it. Bobby and Company started with Ladies and Gentlemen, followed by 13 more songs, hits like Survival of the Sickest and newer releases like Come Back Stronger, it certainly was a mixture of new and classic Saliva Music. Dope Ride is one of my personal favorites and they of course they pulled Jesus out of the crowd, gave him a mic and he accompanied them on the encore which was Click Click Boom. I thought they changed the name of that song to Saliva, I’m pretty sure they did, on the album’s release, but that’s another story. All in all, I enjoyed the show as well as the two thousand plus crowd did, as stated, I’ve been a fan for the longest, but really a fan of that Saliva breakout line up in 2001, but not to take away from what we witnessed last Saturday night, it was a sheer pleasure hearing those kick ass tunes. So check out those dates, these cats are everywhere on tour, you won’t be disappointed and of course, we’ll see you at the next rock show.
Review and Photography by Tim Schumann
Set List-
Ladies and Gentlemen
Superstar II
Come Back Stronger
I Walk Alone
After Me
Survival of the Sickest
High On Me
Dope Ride
Crows
Guitar Solo
They Don’t Care About Us / Lose Yourself / Bulls on Parade
Always
Your Disease
Encore-
Click Click Boom