The following blog is copied from my Myspace, about a show I went to on Dec. 28th: --------------------- And now, typed on my shiny new laptop while trying to think of a way to
not be sore tomorrow morning, comes my latest little concert blog. This
time around, it's Shadows Fall, A Life Once Lost, Skeletonwitch,
Defiler, and Badmagick.
I've been told by Brett that Shadows
Fall are really good live. They didn't disappoint, although the show
was kinda stolen by Skeletonwitch, who I blew all of my money on for a
T-shirt and CD (hey, the CD was cheaper than it would be at the mall or
something, and it's not like they sell Skeletonwitch shirts anywhere
around here anyway). The show confirmed three things I already knew: 1)
metal shows are the best kind of shows, 2) mosh pits are hella fun, and
3) Double Stackers taste great with heavy music.
Badmagick, a
hard rock band that sounded almost exactly like older Godsmack, played
first, followed by Defiler, who were a thrash/death metal act from
Southampton. Despite being pretty clearly metal, there was still a
bunch of idiot hardcore kids pretending to be Power Rangers during
their set.
Fortunately, they mostly disappeared in when
Skeletonwitch played, leaving real metalheads (myself included) in mosh
pit paradise. The crowd tried to start a pit during their first song,
but it ended right as people started bashing into each other. It was
hilarious to watch; a bunch of kids run in and start pushing each
other, and the song stops two seconds later and the kids are like
"WTF?!" Plus, they new how to get the crowd on their side; all you have
to do is yell things like "Smoke weed!" and "Eat pussy!" at the end of
your songs to get the audience to like you.
Tonight was the last
show for the bassist from A Life Once Lost, so they made it special by
playing The Wanderer and by starting a Wall of Death. I wasn't about to
miss out on the Wall, and on the way back from the pit, I was knocked
over. As I was falling, my left shoe flew off of my foot and into
God-knows-where. Ben and I spent the rest of their set looking for it;
Ben found it next to some drunk lady, who didn't know it was a shoe.
I
thought about jumping back into the pit for Shadows Fall's set, but by
that point I was beat, so I settled for staying on the side and
headbanging like crazy. They had everything you would expect from a
metal band-circle pits, windmills with the microphone, a drum solo,
crowd surfers falling onto the stage, etc. Paul got up to the front row
and got to touch one of Brian Fair's legendary dreads.
Grandpa
was nice enough to take us to Burger King on the way home. Burgers with
bacon + metal shows = awesome day. And now, back to trying to fix my
soreness.
Fortunately, the main stage bounced back big. Lamb of God absolutely
crushed every other band there except Daath and maybe Behemoth. Their
setlist covered every release to this date excluding Burn the Priest
(although the only song they played from New American Gospel was Black
Label). I sang/screamed/growled along when I new the lyrics, and by the
time I finished, my voice was near dead (I probably should have dished
out the $4 for water). The only distraction were the three guys in
front of us who were probably the biggest Lamb of God fans in existence
(one was wearing an orange Slipknot jumpsuit, go figure);they were
flailing their arms and legs around during every breakdown (see my
"Hardcore dancing is t3h suck" blog), and I really wanted to drop-kick
one of them.
Ozzy introduced his set with a bunch of videos
spoofing him into various movies/TV shows played on the screens. They
showed him as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Carribean 3, shitting on
the carpet in The Office, getting a fat guy's ass shoved into his face
in the naked fight scene from Borat, as the therapist in The Sopranos,
and a bunch of other random stuff. That cut out to a picture of a bunch
of crosses, and orchestra music started playing over the PA. Ozzy came
out, explained that he was doing the show with a screwed-up voice, and
went into Bark at the Moon.
You could tell right away that
Ozzy's voice was actually messed up, as he was struggling through some
of the songs (although he didn't have a problem screaming at the
audience to go nuts and be louder). I'm not sure if it was screwed up
more because he was sick, or he sounds like that every night. It didn't
matter to the crowd. They sang along just as if he was perfect, and
enjoyed the show just fine. Zakk Wylde had a 15 minute guitar solo that
included playing behind the back and playing with the teeth, ending
with his own interpretation of the Star-Spangled Banner.
People
started leaving a couple of songs after the solo. We left as he was
starting Mama I'm Coming Home, and came home after Taco Bell.
I'll currently trying to find setlists for the bands that played. I'll update this later.
It's 4:45 PM as I start typing this blog. My face and neck are burned
like a hamburger patty thrown onto the surface of the Sun. My entire
body is sore from thrashing around like a madman.
And I've never felt better in my life.
Yesterday
was my first Ozzfest ever, and unless the future ones are free (or a
lot cheaper), it could also possibly be my last. Purely by coincidence,
this year's Ozzfest also had what was (IMO) the BEST lineup ever to
grace the festival. This was the first year that extreme metal was
represented in force at Ozzfest; there was one black metal band in
Chthonic (and not the commercial kind of black metal like Dimmu
Borgir), and three death metal bands in Nile, Daath, and Behemoth.
Needless to say, I was excited for all of those bands, and the other
ones I didn't care about ended up being really good. The only bands
that sucked were In This Moment, Lordi, and Static-X (who were actually
the least sucky of the three).
The show did kinda start off on a
sour note for us, though. We (myself, Ben, Steven, Brett, Carmelo, and
my dad) got there, a littl before 12:30 (which was when Nile were
supposed to start), and we were parked close to the middle-end part of
the line. We tried to get into the line, and one of the venue workers
stopped us and told us to get to the end. As you could expect from a
huge concert like Ozzfest, the line was fuckin' huge; to get to the end
from where we were would have taken way too long, and I wasn't about to
miss Nile. After looking for a way to get passed the "security," we
ended up walking down the line a little bit to try and jump in near the
middle, which was made easier when we some friends of Bonnie's
recognized Brett.
Unfortunetly, by the time we got inside, Nile
had already finished their set; we got in right as Ankla were
finishing. After Ankla finished, we walked over to the Artist
Merchandise near the entrance, and I missed Chthonic as a result (screw
you, Steven and Carmelo).
After sitting through In This Moment,
we headed for the mosh pits for Daath's set. This was the first concert
I've been to that had a real mosh pit that I could get into (I couldn't
get onto the floor for the Slayer concert, and the other concerts
weren't heavy enough for moshing), and I wasn't exactly prepared for
the madness that ensued, but I survived and had a kickass time. Daath
were easily the best band on the second stage that day.
I rushed
over the FYE tent, bought a copy of Daath's The Hinderers, and went
back to watch 3 Inches of Blood. After they ended, I went back to the
FYE tents and waited in line to meet Daath. They were really cool; I
didn't say much beyond "you guys rocked," but they seemed genuinely
happy to be meeting the fans and signing their stuff. As a result, I
now owned a signed copy of The Hinderers (and an autographed ticket).
The
Showdown started while I was in line to meet Daath, but what I heard
impressed me. They kinda sound like a slower, heavier, more
Southern-rockish version of Shinedown's newer stuff. DevilDriver were
on right after, as the first second stage headliner. I was not a fan of
DevilDriver from what I had heard of their previous work (I Dreamed I
Died sucks), but I was suprised by how heavy they were, and I may check
out some of their new stuff as a result.
Behemoth were the
second headliner on the second stage, and they absolutely dominated.
They played a few songs I recognized (Conquer All and one other song
from Demigod that I knew), but the other stuff was either older or
newer. The last song they played (Chant for Eschaton, as I later found
out) was probably the best song I heard all day.
We left to get
a good lawn spot on the main stage before Hatebreed came on. I did
catch a bit of their set when I went down to get a Behemoth shirt (I
tried to get a Daath one, but the biggest they had was a medium). They
played Doomsayer, which I do like, but I didn't pay much attention to
them.
Black Tide opened the main stage. I had previously thought
they weren't going to play; they were supposed to be on the second
stage, but they were kicked off because they weren't of legal drinking
age (the second stage is sponsered by Jagermeister). Apparantly.
because of this, they were brought up to the main stage instead, which
is huge for a band made up of 18-year-olds. Having never heard them
before, I was really impressed; they kinda reminded me of Motorhead.
Lordi came on after, and just couldn't compete; they make a big deal
about how they "bring back the balls to rock," but when you play on a
festival with a bunch of heavy metal bands, you don't have the right to
brag about "bringing back the balls" to anything. Ironically (or maybe
not so), they were the least-ballsy band to play the entire festival.
I
kinda tuned out Static-X. They weren't as bad as I thought they were
going to be, but they just weren't that impressive (not that they're
any good to begin with).
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Scourge441's blogs, last updated : January 3, 2008
