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Saturday, July 28th 2007
Ozzfest
Ozzfest 2007 at Seattle’s White River Amphitheater
By Robin Steeley
Ozzfest has become a cultural experience for both our generation and the next. This year the Osbourne’s decided to do things differently and created the first free Ozzfest, where concert goers could print their free tickets online. Most of the bands play for free and the money from ticket sales was replaced by major sponsors like Monster and Jägermeister. While the free tickets were a bonus for this year’s fest, the carnival feeling of the past was gone and replaced by a more polished, commercial atmosphere. After waiting in the press office for an hour we finally arrived to the packed second stage just as 3 Inches of Blood was tearing it up with their brand of Viking metal. From Canada, these guys play in the Northwest a lot and put on a great show. We were able to see Circus Diablo next with their punk-tinged rock as they covered “Pretty Vacant,” an old Sex Pistols tune.
By that time, we were burning up in the blazing 100 degree sun, beating down and reflecting off the hot asphalt as The Showdown took the stage. Full of rock riffs and metal breakdowns, this band stood out from the rest of the Ozzfest line-up and turned out to be a favorite of the day. Ankla and Nile were up next but I had an interview so I only caught a few songs, but I heard enough to know that Nile was one of the heaviest bands there. Behemoth was on stage when I finished, and their sound was huge. Their music is tight and perfectly choreographed. The costume makeup slightly lost its effect in the daytime, and with their spiked boots and heavy costumes they must have been miserable, but it never showed. The crowd in front of the second stage began building until the entire festival was massed in front of the barricades waiting for the mighty Hatebreed. From the first note it was pure crushing metal. The music was solidly and brutally delivered and the crowd erupted into a pit, jumping one minute and forming a circle the next, all the while chanting, “Hatebreed, Hatebreed!” Jasta kept the crowd pumped throughout the entire set.
We finally had a break as the second stage bands finished. The setup ran like a well-oiled machine with changes similar to a race car pit stop; techs and crew ran around to set up and tear down bands every twenty minutes. Backstage was like a big tailgate party, and for some reason they played AC/DC all day long, between every band. After a brief journey to the main stage area it was time for Lordi, who opened with tons of explosions and brilliant red fire. A pyrotechnic’s dream, they set off bombs and tall columns of smoke and flames. Static-X was up next and always puts on an amazing, heart-pounding performance. They were larger than life with Wayne Static’s wild hair and guitarist Koichi Fukuda smiling at the crowd and throwing up his horns. Tony Campos is one of my favorite bass players of all time. The sound is untainted metal, and evil disco at its best. They opened with “Cannibal,” then “Shit in a Bag,” and by then there were waves of bodies surfing the top of the crowd.
The night was cooling down and people started to fill up the lawn area, laying on the cool grass and listening to the music from the main stage. Ozzy nearly created a riot by walking through the crowd. After a longer than usual set change and some initial technical difficulties, it was time for Lamb of God, their sound full of blistering metal with the growling guttural offerings of vocalist Randy Blythe. Their hit single “Redneck” inspired the sickest pit of the night, and if that wasn’t heavy enough, they played “Black Label,” and anyone that’s ever seen Lamb of God live knows exactly what to do. It was time for the “Wall of Death,” one of the most intense things I’ve ever seen at a show.
After a brief introduction of TV and music-themed spoofs, Ozzy declared mischievously, “I’m baaaack!” With night falling and lighters burning everywhere, Ozzy opened his set with classic “Bark at the Moon,” and soon people were howling all across the amphitheater. The instant response proved what I already knew, Ozzy’s music is timeless. He told the crowd to “go fucking wild!!” “Mr. Crowley” was next with its eerie piano tones echoing across the mountain. Ozzy jumped all over the place leading into “I’m Not Going Away” and then back a few decades with “War Pigs.” He sprayed the crowd with a huge hose, covering everyone in foam. Zack Wylde, dressed in a black kilt, engaged the crowd with every riff and solo that he played. The songs “Road to Nowhere” and “Suicide Solution” made me nostalgic and took me back a few years to my youth. We were getting ready to leave but stayed when we heard the first notes of “Here For You,” a tribute to all Ozzy fans. It was a beautiful note to end the night, and we wandered out to the parking lot listening to metal’s prince of darkness rock the crowd for three more songs and an encore.
Overall, this year’s Ozzfest officially left the underground behind with its commercial sponsorship and new structure, and the lineup was a bizarre but palatable mixture of extreme metal with a little hard rock thrown in. By the end of the day I was exhausted and sunburned. But what the hell, it was free!
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