Papa Roach News

(6/19/02, 5 p.m. ET) -- Papa Roach performed on the roof of a Best Buy consumer electronics store in West Los Angeles early Tuesday evening (June 18) to mark the release of its second DreamWorks Records release, Lovehatetragedy.

While the event failed to cause the scene that label spokespeople warned of--massive traffic jams on local freeways with views of the gig were predicted--the seven-song set pleased the approximately 750 fans in attendance.

The set featured four songs from Lovehatetragedy--"M-80," "Life Is A Bullet," current single "She Loves Me Not," and "Born With Nothing, Die With Everything"--and three from its 2000 breakout release, Infest--"Dead Cell," "Between Angels And Insects," and set closer "Last Resort."

Of note was the performance's main prop, a 20-foot inflatable baby flashing the devil-horns hand gesture. The image also graces the cover of Lovehatetragedy.

Papa Roach drummer Dave Buckner says, "I think it kinda speaks for itself. I mean, whatever, it's a baby with headphones on giving the universal symbol for rock 'n' roll, so...Like, on the Infest tour, the road killed us, and this is us being reborn."

Before the performance, Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix explained that he couldn't wait for the day to come, but was also pleased that it would soon pass. "For us it's like our birthday, kind of in a weird way, you know? Having a record coming out is like a really special thing for a band, you know? It's like, we take like all this time writing on the road and stuff like that and then like, putting it together in the studio and just kinda seeing how the songs take life over the period over the recording process. Then we wait for, you know, June 18, and we were just like, a week ago, we're like, 'Damn, I can't wait for it to get here.' And then it finally got here and now we're just like, 'I can't wait until today's over,'" he said.

Papa Roach performs Thursday (June 20) at Looney Tunes in Long Island, New York.

-- Neal Weiss and Charles Heath, Los Angeles

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