Ozz Fest (Second Stage)
http://www.ozzfest.com/
Saturday July 22, 2006
(Apple Valley, Wi)
Ozz Fest Tour Schedule
Tattoos and body piercing, chronic candy, painted breasts (no free photos people), choppers, free cigarettes and condoms, $6 water. This is Ozz Fest.
Make sure when attending to leave enough time (and money) to play in the Village of the Damned. Lots of fun stuff to do. Tattoos for the true hard core folks and body painting for the kiddies (or the exhibitionists). I totally loved the free condoms. Safe sex is a good thing and Trojan was there supporting the cause. One thing to take a little extra time (and leave a few bucks behind) to check out the Dimebag tribute. For those who haven't figured it out yet, I am still a huge Dime Mark. "
A Guitar Art Tribute to Dimebag Darrell Abbott" was AMAZING. Paul Booth designed the sickest guitar I have ever seen. Truly amazing. Charlie Benante's was totally Dime and James Hetfield's was cheesy, but very cool.
My brain is still waking up. It is 8:30 AM and well it doesn't work well that early. I must say as well at the start that this show ran on a strict schedule and boy did they manage to not only stick to it, but gain speed as it went.
Second Stage, the proving grounds. The place where bands play for free to earn a chance to be the next big thing. The judges are harsher than Simon Cowell on a bad hair day. The judges will actually propel these bands to fame, or force them to be lost in the mix. One peice of advice from this judge, talk to the audience. No matter how cool it is to growl your intros, song titles, names, etc, it is much easier for someone to remember the spoken rather than the growled word.
BTW, while you see some pictures here, check the
photo gallery for the full set.
We missed "seeing"
The Red Chord and
Strapping Young Lad. Both bands sounded pretty spiff from where we were, however due to the early hour and a slight delay with the arrival of our tix we didn't make it in at the start. The smaller acts played for approximately 20 minutes. While I didn't catch all the song titles, I have a few, most of which you can hear samples on their websites. Many of these bands were new to me, so this was a great place to sample and choose.
Finally got in to see what was happening in the middle of
Between The Buried And Me. Heard two of their songs. There was some nice switching between the melodic and the guttural growls in the vocals. No song titles folks. That's what happens when you come late to the party.
Before I get into the next band, I just want to say that girls just fucking RULE! This next band proves it. Most of the bands were new to me and this was one of them. However I fully intend on catching up with this band. The band's name is
Walls of Jericho and the girl's name is Candace Kucsulain and she rocks! In line for the first of my many $6 waters, I heard the band intro and then I heard the voice. I turned around and there was a little pixie of a girl RIPPING out of the gutter hard core demon voices. For years we heard us girls couldn't be hard core. We couldn't really LIKE the music. We just liked the guys (I always said it was an added benefit). She proves we are the music.
"Through the Eyes of a Dreamer" rocked. They closed with "A Little Piece of Me". Both songs are off their 2004 release
All Hail the Dead. They have a new album out August 22 called
With Devils Among Us, so expect a review.
The band that almost wasn't there,
Full Blown Chaos, had a recent accident with their RV. It was totaled along with their trailer but with folks on the tour offering space to the band they have the chance to continue. Live Ray Mazzola, the singer, seemed to do the cookie monster growling, however he sounds much cleaner on recordings. Could be the road, the stress and all that shit. The double bass with this band is heavier than all hell. The song "Solemn Promise" is a touching tribute to Ray's mother and her struggles with cancer for the past ten years. Very heartfelt and dedicated to all those who have had struggles that try to bring them down. They closed with "Wake the Demons." Their new album titled
Within The Grasp of Titans was just released on July 11. Check out some of their teasers on their
My Space page. "Solemn Promise" is one of the teasers.
Bad Acid Trip describes themselves as "Energetic Bursts of Psychopathic Energy." They look like an old school straight edge band. Listening to them, I got the feel of definite Primus influences. A little bit funky, and whole lotta hardcore. Kinda like a carnival ride straight to hell. If you are getting the feeling that this was my new big find of the day you are very right. This is the kind of band I paid big money to find at Metal Fests back in the day.
A high energy band on stage, the props have got to go to vocalist Dirk Rogers for the most laughs earned. A true smart ass and someone who laughs his way through life (or so it seems) he holds the honor for the BEST quote of the day.
You can be straight edge, but you can still smile.
I'm still not sure this is the song title, but hell, its how he introduced the song. He dedicated it to all the posers out there and it was called "Please Don't Hurt Me." They also played a new song called "Black Metal."
to be continued...