Backstage Crew Reporter Ash Ozzfest Review [Sunday, July 02, 2006]
OzzFest 2006
Shoreline Amphitheatre
So me and my buddy are already running late to ozzfest, seeing as how we both forgot the day and to turn on our alarm clocks. Busting out the door in the car driving down the freeway, we finally get there at around 10:30 maybe pushing close to 11:00 am. Already and as expected their are huge lines. hile waiting we talk to the people closest in line, already making new freinds and talking about what else? Ozzfest 2006! the line went by incredibly fast, faster than any line I could remmeber. as we finally get inside and watch the surroundings we are dead center in Metal headquaters, YESSSS!
Thier are so many people and attitudes, but I shall get to that later.?
We both head straight to the Second stage, Strapping Young Lad is playing, I am not all that familar with thier sound or them as a band but we kicked it thier for a good couple of songs. Decent band I must say so, I will be looking more into them of course. We head off to go look at the surroundings and booths This is where the other half of the Ozzfest Madness happens in these little concourse places, being as how it was not even hot, just upper 80's perhaps in temperature, Walking around aimlessly was tolerable. WE pass booths and booths and came across a very interesting and oh so tempting scene, The goal? to hit this man with a soccer ball. The point? to embarrass the heck out of him and to say that you actually knocked him over, A true Ozzfest tradition I sensed.?
As we inched our way through carny town we see a tattoo and piercing booth, Now let me tell you, THIS is my kinda show. We watch for a minute of this lady getting an oh so typical butterfly on her ankle, Hmm Butterfly Ozzfest? if I was getting a tattoo at Ozzfest, why would I go the typical and safe route. Next sideshow?We stay there for a bit watching this poor sould get his septum pierced, oh the pain!?
We head on back to second stage at this point 'The Walls of Jericho' is rocking the secondstage , now I am pretty familiar with this band and they are a very decent and watcable band live, the singer, umm can you say
Gorgeous?! so we stick around for thier whole set, very good band to watch and this performance confirmed this fact . As the rest of the second stage bands were playing we decided to get a bite to eat, walking around seeing so many people and styles, my personal favorite? the painted on tops for the girls, oh so great!?
We search for some shade and find this amazing little bench with the perfect amount of shade, ahh the luck! we decide to chill there for a minute, ya know, relax our feet? what turned into about an hour of relaxing we get up to go see Black Label and Society and Ozzy!!
Now this is Ozzy's FIRST time ever! performing on second stage! ever. So I just had to be witness to this, Historical Sold Out Concert set. His set started around 4:15 and we pushed our ways to some viewable and decent positions in the crowd. Trying to stay away from some nasty fights going on becouse I personally do not want to come home with a busted lip.?
Now Ozzy was amazing the crowd loved him both sides were interacting with each other, very cool. Overall his perfomance was very good, besides some minor technical sound difficulties his set was indeed one of my favorites.?Now we drudge along watching all the types of things we could possibly do till the main stage goes on.?
The next band would have been 'Dragonforce' now my freinds had told me they were so jealous in finding out the fact that I had the chance to see them at Ozzfest this year, Me personally I am not so familar with them or thir sound, except for the fact that they incorporate some electronical elements in their music, I think that is very interesing and neat, so I decided that I had to see this band live to judge for myself.?
We had till 5:00 untill 'DragonForce' hit the stage, so what else do we do? walk the booths thats what!?We hit merchant row checking out all the Pipes Cannabis stuff and Carny style Attractions.The sun was intence we went in search of shade.?
We finally found a decent and shady spot on the lawn, this took us a good 20 mins to find a such heavenly and shady spot, as Dragonforce hit the stage at around 5:15 we noticed thier was a decent amount of thier fans really getting into their set, Being a band I never heard that much by I was pleasantly surprised. Lacuna Coil! oh now they had a good set, The thing with this band that I just love is the chick, her voice very cool, in some songs her voice is identical to that of Otep's. But Lacuna Coil's style is very interesting and they are ohhh so good live, I caught myself singing along to thier songs that I knew and I didn't even realize I was doing so.?
Next band up Hatebreed. Now this is a band I have been just DYING to see live. Was I dissappointed, hell no! they feeded so much energy into the crowd and vice versa. Hatebreed really got me into this fight mode! it was awesome, while listening to them I just wanted to go jump in that mosh pit and go!?but reality snuck in and I realized if my 5 foot one frame went into one I'm sure as hell I would not be comming back out. Hatebreed, now thats my kind of band! I love them live and I will most definitley be keeping up with them.?
From this point on after Hatebreed performed me and my buddy both decided we were going to stay up on the lawn for the rest of the show, could we do it?? ?Avenged Sevenfold comes on the stage!
Now this is my second time seeing this band and I must honestly say, they really hold it down live. At first I was not such a big fan of thiers but after awhile they grew on me and I really enjoy thier energy. The best part of thier set though! A tribute and a Cover song to Dimebag Darrel. Very cool!?
As thier set ended and I was pumped yet somehow tired we manage to sneak in about 15 mins of sleep on the lawn, one awake and the other sleep sort of deal. ?Next band up! Disturbed, This band I have no opinion on I love this band but just something about them. The guy has a voice I adore though, i'll give them that.
Overall they played amazing, 'Prayer' my favorite distubed song got played and I loved them for that. When the singer started talking about keeping Metal alive and not pansying it up I thought that speech was brilliant, He went on saying how metal needs to stay metal and not be like all the band around right now that start with THE. ?haha first time I had laughed so hard! very true though I suppose! ?as they finished, I was so pumped for System of A down. that was my second time seeing them and let me tell you they never fail to let me down with thier live shows!
They have so much energy with the crowd and they just soak it up. As they hit the stage at around 9 ish the big screen comes on and I am ready to go! they play all thier classics and thier new hits, B.Y.O.B was one of my favorites. As thier set went on we met up with some buddies, we edged our way to some really intense mosh pit, we stand along the side and I'm joking around pretending im gonna jump in. hahaha some dude PUSHES me in!!
I am horrified and I went around once, came back out and was shocked and pleasantly surprised at myself, one hit to my jaw but I was fine, all my guy freinds were like ohhh you went in?! wtf?!??
Made my day I must say. As system finished thier set the crowd was drained! ?What a night! what a show! what a day!?
Ozzfest 2006 was good to me! lot's of different people and scenes something for everybody and thier mother,Im gonna take a stretch and say that's gonna be true.
Backstage people! ?Ozzfest, A Metal infused no holding back tour,My kind of thing.
-Reporter ASH
at your service.
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