Ozzfest Aug. 11 TR

[hop]

Rallied down to the White River Ampitheatre w/ a nice crew and pulled into the show just in time to see some random 2nd stage band rocking. We decided it wasn't worth the effort to get near the stage so we walked around the venue and watched the freaks. I can say this: Ozzfest has some of the best peoplewatching I've seen in a long time.
Once Rob Zombie got on the 2nd stage we worked our way over to see him but ended up getting stuck behind a fence about 1/4 mile away. He rocked pretty hard, but I've never been much of a fan. When he was about 3/4 of the way through his set we went to a beer garden and chugged a few 16oz PBR's at $5.00 a pop, then headed to our seats to check out the main stage bands.
In Flames: Ok.
BLS: Ok.
Shadows Fall: missed them due to freakyness
Mudvayne: Ok/poor
Iron Maiden: FUCKING UNREAL how tight those guys are. A very solid, if short, set including pretty much everything I wanted to hear from them. Nothing surprising since I already knew the setlist, but still
Black Sabbath: I expected Ozzy to be a bit worse off than he was but he managed to rock pretty hard, except for when his voice crapped out during "Dirty Women" and he threw the mike down and ran off stage. Tony, Geezer, and Bill jammed out for a while which was amazing. I can't believe I've never seen these guys before. They played a bunch of cool stuff but I was sort of bummed by the supermedley that only had the first few bars of a lot of songs before a full-length one. Aw whatever. They still kicked ass.

[powpig]

So Ozzy was having some health troubles and his doc ordered him not to sing consecutive days. So the show I had tix for in Sac was pushed back a day from Sun to Mon. No big deal, just had to miss a softball game.

Got there just about 5 and heard the opening wail of Zakk's guitar as we strolled towards our seats. Perfect timing!! BLS rocked, not great sound to start but cleared up midway through. Played longer than I thought too, I love these guys!

Hadn't heard too much of Shadows Fall, just a few snippets of songs online. Expected good musicianship with marginal vocals with a bit of new metal influence and that's pretty much what they delivered. Vox better than I thought and some good solos made it pretty enjoyable.

Mudvayne was annoying as all hell. I like guitar solos and at least an attempt at real singing and they delivered neither. Lasted almost a song and a half before we sought out food and beer, not necesarily in that order.

Now we're talkin', Iron Maiden!!! The good shit! Was rockin' hard to Hallowed & Phantom, whatta great setlist of early tunes. Near perfect sound too, not enough Killers material IMO, but that's just nitpicking. Set way too short of course, less 2nd stage bands and a longer Maiden set would've been the way to go.

Ozzy must have had the perfect mix of medication this night! He was on! Didn't slur a single word, had tons of energy and sang as well as Ozzy can sing. The guy has always been a great performer, he may me a blithering idiot on TV but up on stage he is a living legend. He showed why this night!!! Awesome show, they even teased me with almost 20 sec of Symptom Of The Universe, my fav Sab tune. No real surprises in the setlist but War Pigs Fairies & N.I.B. never get old.

I love Ozzy and try to make sure I see the guy every time he comes around. He could keel over dead tomorrow and no one would bat an eye, we'd all just wonder what took so long. If I missed him this year and he kicked next week I'd always regret it. If you've never seen Ozzy live and have even the slightest desire, GO!