Papa Roach Infest San Diego

Papa Roach infested Gallagher Square at Petco Park in San Diego! Gallagher Square used to be called Park in the Park up until 2019. We’ve seen a few shows in the park, but the recent renovations make this a great venue for concerts. The leveled lawn seating is awesome, if you just want to sit back and chill, you’re still really close and can see everything. You can also go up to the new Tony Gwynn Terrace fan viewing deck for a great view! Absolutely love this space for shows AND baseball season!

As we walked in, Kaiya and I were both tired from long work days and planned on just chilling out on the grass hill. That thought lasted about 2 seconds, as Underoath was already on stage with their insane energy, and we needed to be a part of that. So we were just going to stay in front of the house (by Soundboard). If you know us, that didn’t last long either, Vandemark girls headed toward the pit. Lead vocalist, Spencer Chamberlain gave a shout out to the people in the restaurant outside the stadium that didn’t know they were getting a show tonight. The multi Grammy nominated band just released their latest album, The Place After This One, today!

Rise Against was next and we were up in it by the pit. The crowd was great, helping each other out. We hoisted a few first time crowd surfers. It’s always awesome to watch their faces happy and scared at the same time. When they come back around, pumped up on that adrenaline that only fellow crowd surfers understand. This was our first time seeing Rise Against live. While a lot of bands chose to stay politically neutral, which is understandable in divisive times, Rise Against stays true to their name and music. In between songs, lead vocalist, Tim Mcilrath said that we are together, we don’t fight inside these walls, we fight outside them. He also talked about their support for Ukraine and the fans cheered. It felt really good and a sense of we’re going to be ok, because we’re all together in this fight.

Papa Roach is celebrating the 25th anniversary of their second studio album Infest. Kicking off the set with some heat. We talk all the time about the energy of a show, but there’s something different about lead singer Jacoby Shaddix. You can feel his heart and passion for life in every move. I loved that he talked about playing at SOMA and Brick by Brick back in the day, and even gave a shout out to San Diego boys P.O.D. Before “Leave a Light On”, a video plays of Jacoby talking about suicide prevention, but in a way that was so relatable and helpful. He said the cause is extremely important to the band. During “Forever” they played a little bit of Linkin Park's “In The End”. Jacoby said it was a tribute to Chester Bennington and told us a fun story about Ozzfest years ago. I won’t spoil it, so you’ll have to go to the show to find out. Papa Roach is all about the fans, so Jacoby did a little crowd surfing and got in the mix with the fans. This was an amazing show with two legs of this tour! Make sure you get your tickets!