Gallery/Music: Saliva Rocks the Speedway

On a completely different note, alternative rock band Saliva also hit the Coca-Cola stage at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, playing a powerful one-hour set before an enthusiastic crowd on Fast Friday.

Saliva is typically categorized as an alternative / nu-metal / post-grunge / hard rock band (I have no idea what any of that means). Led by lead vocalist Josey Scott, the band currently consists of original members Wayne Swinny on lead guitar and Dave Novotny on bass guitar, as well as newer members Jon Montoya on rhythm guitar (and stage antics) and Paul Crosby on drums. More background info can be found at Saliva’s official web site or at Wikipedia: Saliva.

Now before I go much further with this post, I feel like I have to mention the fact that despite their multiple gold albums and the use of their songs in numerous video games, movies, and entertainment and professional sports promotion, I really had no idea who Saliva was. Suffice it to say that there are many reasons for this- I’m just your average suburban family man that’s gradually (willingly?) losing touch with “popular culture”. But being a person that can appreciate and enjoy a very wide variety of music, I was interested to check them out.

What an experience.

I’ve always thought that one of the great things about having bands play at the Speedway is that it gives people like me a chance to experience bands I wouldn’t have otherwise. And now I’d like to add “…and without a mosh pit!”

I attempted to record some of the performance but unfortunately, my recorder has been having some issues lately. So what I’ve done here is to compile a short medley of samples from a few of the songs I remember them playing, finished off by a recording I was able to salvage of Josey Scott acknowledging the crowd after the encore.

Want to download the sounds? Buy me a beer!

The songs in the recording above are “Click Click Boom” (which I like to pretend is about the aggravation of using computers), “Ladies and Gentleman”, and “Your Disease”.

If you look around at various racing-related internet message boards you’ll see that it’s easy for some people to dismiss Saliva’s music as mindless screaming and complain that bringing a band like that to the Speedway is downright sacrilegious. They then go on to suggest a band along the lines of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Don’t get me wrong, I understand their argument and I like Glenn Miller too (and maybe there’s room for that kind of music), but I think they’re missing the point. The bottom line is that the Indy 500 is a grand three-week long event, and the reality of today’s entertainment environment demands that there be a wide variety of attractions and activities beyond just the racing action. With my admittedly limited knowledge of Indianapolis Motor Speedway founder Carl Fisher, I’d have to believe that if he found a way to attract more paying customers to the track way back in the early 1900’s he would have jumped on it. And besides, Saliva’s lead singer did say “God bless the Indy 500″ at the end of their set… at the very least, that shows some respect, right?

I’m not a professional music critic (nor do I play one on TV) and my vocabulary is woefully inadequate to describe Saliva’s performance. But I will tell you this:

IT ROCKED!

I don’t think I’ve seen or heard anything quite like Saliva at the Speedway. The crowd (though certainly small by the band’s usual standards) was pumped up and the music was chock full of power and adrenaline… the sound pulsated right through you. Guitarist Jon Montoya was a wild man on stage, pouring beer on his head, frothing at the mouth, and drawing an imaginary knife across his throat. Not exactly the kind of thing I’d take my kids to see, but damn, it was intense. Once I got past the initial question of “what the hell am I doing here?” I have to admit that it was a lot of fun!

By the way, if you’d like to see some outstanding Saliva concert photos taken at a more traditional venue, check out Redmouse’s Saliva photos on Flickr.

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