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01.31.02 06:19:12 PM

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Of the 25 some odd bands on the Ozzfest bill, only 20 of them made an appearance at this years Ozzfest in Worchester, Massachusetts.  Two of the more notable bands that didn’t make it to the local show were Cold and gODHEAD.  There was little information as to why these bands were no-shows, but regardless of the reason, they were sorely missed.  This years second stage bands were really the best, as far as I am concerned, and it’s terrible that most other magazines brush them off and only cover the main stage heavy hitters.  Back in ’99 no one really gave a damn about a 9 piece thrash metal monster playing second stage at Ozzfest, now most magazines can’t get enough of Slipknot.  This type of nonsensical hypocrisy being what we want to avoid, we plan on taking a more in-depth look at some of the less well-known and usually better bands.

 For us, the day started with a wait in a 10-minute line at a Port-A-Jon next to a two guys in a beat up, pale blue, wood paneled Chrysler blasting the Mudvayne CD.  One of the men [who bore an uncanny resemblance to Aaron Lewis] was screaming along with Kud at the top of his lungs.  An unexpected scene that just seemed incredibly typical.  Anyway, after our bathroom hiatus, we headed in to the vile venue known as the Tweeter Center for our dose of the Ozzfest 2001 mayhem.  The first band we ended up seeing was American Head Charge...

American Head Charge is an interesting and excellent band with a mix of different types of music ranging from Rage Against the Machine styled rap-core metal combined with Rob Zombie type raging industrial.  They put on an excellent show.  The band is made up of 7 members, all angry and violent, especially in their live shows.  All the members of the band were jumping around and abusing their equipment throughout the entire show.  The guitarist Wayne Kile and David Rogers spent more time spinning in circles and jumping around than anything else.  Their vocalist, Martin Cock, who’s name is <sarcasm> absolutely hilarious </sarcasm> did his share of violent reacting and ran around the stage and jumping up and down like some type of rabid animal.  But by far the greatest performers were the bands two keyboardists; “standing” at opposite ends of the stage on their pedestals they were swinging, flailing and smashing their keyboards while jumping around like lunatics.  American Head Charge is an excellent band with a great live show.  They are politically charged and intelligent, not just angry.  They are most definitely worth checking out, for more info check out their website at http://headcharge.com/ or pick up their new CD, The War of Art when you get a chance.

Spineshank was OK.  I’m not much of a fan of the band, but I have to admit that they show some talent at performing live.  It was during the Spineshank performance that I entered what was pretty much my first big ass concert mosh ever.  I tell you this because it was the time of my life.  Unfortunately, the process of getting into the music was more enjoyable than the music itself, it wasn’t long before I lost interest and wandered away to find something to drink.

Nonpoint is a new band with an old formula.  After the disappearance of Rage Against the Machine, positively charged bands with messages of social and political have been sprouting.  Most, like P.O.D. or our friends Nonpoint here, all have similar typed of music to Rage.  The same funk/rap/metal sound that they were famous for is being gobbled up and stolen as someone else tries to steal Rage’s thunder.  Still, I find Nonpoint to be a much better band than at least P.O.D. but then again, most bands are better than P.O.D.

Drowning Pool was one hell of a show, as they always are.  Dave Williams, the bands extremely energetic front man is always ready to entertain.  He came onto the stage wearing a Texas flag as a cape and began relating various anecdotes about Dimebag getting everyone drunk.

Taproot wasn’t great.  And that’s that.

Union Underground played after Taproot, but they took a little while to set up the stage, during this time, I headed over to a concession stand and fetched myself two bottles of water.  The concession stand Nazi’s remove the caps of the Aquifina bottles, meaning that you can’t save the $3.50 water you just bought.  So, I finished one very quickly and headed back to the parking lot that had been converted in to the second stage.  It was hard work getting into the lot; dozens of patrons were trying to leave at the same time dozens were trying to enter.  There was a massive brawl, followed by the crowd disbursing, and then I went to see Union Underground.  I have to admit that I was not expecting very much form them, sure I love the band and their music, but I also see them as being a bit second rate.  However, I was not disappointed at all, Union Underground actually had a very good live show; they played favorites from their CD like Drivel, Turn Me On Mr. Deadman, Natural High and The Friend Song.

Mudvayne is one of my favorite bands of all time; this is a gigantic accomplishment for them, considering that my all time favorites include greats like Tool, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Filter.  This fact is made more incredible by the fact that they have become heavy metal gods in little more than a year.  Their live shows are extremely powerful, but I have a hard time saying that they perform as well live as they do on CD.  For one thing, Gurrg [Guitar, Backing Vocals] cannot sing and play at the same time.  As for the bands vocalist, the blue haired, sliver painted, blood stained miscreant known as Kud is concerned… it’s kind of disappointing to see how stupid he acts on stage.  Anyway, Ryknow, who plays like a maniac, saved the show and the band’s drummer and “front man” Spag did his share of not acting dumb.  Ryknow was wearing an orange Mohawk with black face paints, Gurrg was in his usually black suit with his hair spiked, Kud was sans his 4 foot goatee and instead had a bleeding bullet hole in his forehead and the drummer, Spag blue and white face paint, with blue hair.

Black Label Society I actually found this music a little hard to get into, so I went and got water.

Crazy Town What the fuck is this piece of sugar coated rap-metal pop doing at my fucking Ozzfest show!?  What the fuck is wrong with Sharon Osborne!?  Someone is going to die for this!!  AARRRRGG!!!

I feel it necessary to relate to you a little extra story about their performance.  The night before Ozzfest, I took a white T-shirt and in big, black, bold letters, I inscribed the words “FUCK Crazytown”.  It was good.  I wore the shirt beneath my Green Lantern shirt and headed out to Ozzfest.  When Crazytown came on, I whipped off the Green Lantern shirt and paraded around proudly in my vulgar T-shirt.  I got lots of compliments, and I even managed to start a decent chant of “You Suck! You Suck!”  Crazytown is worthless trash, they don’t belong at my Ozzfest.  They didn’t even play well, and their bass amp, or connection or something was broken because the bass amp was emitting this bizarre low-pitched clicking noise, rather than the bass notes.  It was horrid.  Shifty should take his little 4 foot self back to rehab and die there.  Sugar Pop-Rap-Metal is the bollocks.

Disturbed, Linkin Park and Papa Roach Unfortunately, I miss the majority of this performance.  Disturbed played a few songs, including “Down With the Sickness”.  After that I was “down with heat stroke” and had to fetch sustenance [crap pizza] and some water.  It took me a little while to get back on my feet, but that was OK because everyone told me that after I went under Disturb began to suck.  They also told me that Linkin Park was unimpressive, and that Papa Roach wasn’t that great either.

Slipknot was on the Ozzfest main stage this year.  They had a great show, I guess, with lots of flashing lights and interesting logos showing up on the movie screens.  This years Ozzfest was also the debut of their new masks and jumpsuits.  The jumpsuits are much cooler than before, however the masks leave much to be desired.  Corey Taylor, America’s new poster boy for moronic anger and unhealthy aggression put on a halfway decent show.  There was nothing special about it at all, but it could have been worse.

Marilyn Manson did not shove a microphone up his ass hole.  He did, however place the microphone in his thong and show everyone that pretty sight.  For this performance, we made sure to get ourselves as close to the stage as possible so we could see the whole thing.  It was a good show.  Manson’s microphone stand was made to look like a shotgun, Manson had his beautiful people stilts and sang that song 30ft over the crowd and he had his usually pulpit, this time with a crucifix made of guns.  The performance was also very well done, he sang a number of new songs as well as some excellent old ones.

BLACK SABBATH was awesome live.  There’s not much more that I can say other than that.  They played many, many songs including old favorites like Iron Man all the way up to songs of Ozzy’s new CD.  All of the new songs were excellent live, and Sabbath was excellent live.  My only complaint was that when they showed the old, shirtless drummer, the only camera angle showed his wrinkly, old, man boob.  Oh well, I didn’t say “Sabbath Forever”, it wasn’t my idea, but I’m still grateful.

 After the Sabbath performance, we packed up and left.  There is little more to say about this years Ozzfest other than: “Sunburns, heat stroke and loud music make for a good time.”  I’ll see you at next year’s show.

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