OZZfest '08, In So Many Words...

After a dozen years reigning as the summer metal tour, OZZfest 2008 simmered down to only one date at the Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX on Aug. 9.

The annual event, featuring the most popular names in metal, has brought bands such as Danzig, Selputura, Coal Chamber, Pantera, Slayer, The Union Underground, Walls of Jericho, Taproot, Tool, Soulfly, Lamb of God, Marilyn Manson and Fear Factory to the stage over the years, with the Ozzman himself headlining each stop.

But this year meant something different. While in 2007 the event was cleverly played off as “The Bloody Holly Festival,” free to ticket-holders everywhere, this year the tour was eliminated and Ozz stepped back in favor of an earlier main support slot, Metallica headlining the bill.

A serious all-day rock fest, the gates opened at 10:30 am and ticket holders and prospective buyers alike flowed in lazily, going through security and depositing various items in a pile of studded belts, chains and spiked jewelry. Safety, my friends, is key.

From there, I and countless others waited for field wristbands, then weaved our way throughout the park admiring the various stages and determining our schedules for the day of music.

We started out on the Texas stage where at 12:30, Fort Worth's own Within Chaos was set to rock. The band had come in from Houston the night before, playing the "Road To OZZfest" mini-tour that would culminate in the day's performance. Let's just say it was a good one.

Alternating sets between the second and third stages, a good number of people had gathered to see the band before Witchcraft (playing on stage number 2 and directly adjacent to the Texas stage) had even finished, clearly demonstrating that Within Chaos had a strong hometown following.

I'd not seen them perform before but I had an inkling of what to expect: an excellent stage presence, tons of energy and good crowd interaction. The band did not let me down.

Once Within Chaos had finished their set, we made our way to the front of the lawn at the main stage for what would be the most unusual set of the day: a quartet in the most literal sense from Finland by the name of Apocalyptica.

Emerging from the backstage area in traditional metal fashion—black jeans, shirts, tattoos, long hair ect.—the band carried anything but traditional metal instruments. Wielding cellos as their ax of choice, the band proved that with a little distortion, headbanging and a hard-hitting drummer, the traditionally classic instruments could in fact rock like god intended.

Following Apocalyptica, it was time to head back to the Texas stage for some Drowning Pool action. By now I had spotted someone I knew working on the stage and had negotiated a meeting place following DP’s set to acquire the backstage access I so fervently pursued.
Drowning Pool was not the headliner of the Texas stage but you wouldn’t know that from the size of the crowd that had gathered in front of the stage to hear them play.

Hailing from Dallas they seemed to know everybody, and a good number of them had likely seen the band play before they ever made it big. When the announcer came out to introduce the band and mistakenly named off Devildriver, he was verbally assaulted for a good five minutes and had earned having Mike Luce throw his drumsticks at him. The crowd was all the more enthusiastic to welcome their boys home on the Texas stage.

After the set, I worked my way backstage and mingled with various artists and crews. I wasn’t surprised to find that I knew a good deal of the people milling about back there and squeezed in with several of them to stand onstage while Devildriver played. Following a stellar performance by The Sword on the Texas stage, Sevendust closed out the day for this side of the venue with their headlining set.

Once again, I was onstage among members of various other bands and crews and the like. The energy on and off this stage during the set had definitely peaked; the promoters had done a good job determining the lineup. I had met Sevendust in Odessa, TX about two months prior and had sat onstage in monitor world during that performance as well, so I was particularly interested to watch them work.

At one point, drummer Morgen Rose turned and made a face like he was having a rough time, then mouthed “hangover” and went back to playing. Hung over or not though, he still played a stellar set and at one point pulled a trick so impressive it was as if it had been scripted.

Rose had just thrown out a drum stick and was reaching down to grab another when one came flying back from some unforeseen hand at the foot of the stage. Reaching up as if instinctively, Rose snatched the stick out of the air and kept on playing without missing a beat.

It was hard to tell where the stick had come from—there were others standing in front of me—but it appeared to have come either from the pit between the stage and the barricade or from the crowd. Regardless of where it came from, it was a cool trick indeed.

Following the set from Sevendust, everyone made their way over to the main stage where Serj Tankian was due to play next. Not sure what to expect, Serj played what was the second most bizarre set of the day and by far my favorite. He came out wearing what looked like a hat stolen from the Mad Hatter and broke up songs leading into and out of each one with inane, odd or politically poignant anecdotes. The music maintained its same melodic strangeness with a thick and colorful texture of sounds and harmonies. His set would be a hard one to top.

Having said that, Hellyeah came on next and didn’t entirely blow the crowd away. Agreeing with the previous post on OZZfest, I must say that the never ending Dimebag tributes are sweet and all, but do seem a little played out. We can pay homage without making it the dominating theme of ever big rock show. Hellyeah performed well on their better known songs, and rarely did you spot a person not singing along to the Pantera covers, however the culmination was definitely the “Wish You Were Here” cover of Pink Floyd done acoustically.

Following the lackluster set played by Hellyeah, the Ozz man appeared looking far more lively than I would have imagined. His singing and speaking voices were both strangely impressive as well, so good in fact, I found myself wondering if parts of it had been tracked from previous live performances. It seems unlikely, but for some reason I had an image of a frail, old, unintelligible man whose presence as a legend would have to make up for his inability to perform. I was wrong. Ozz went through all the old favorites including “No More Tears” which was unexpected and played a set longer than was on the bill. Staying true to form, he had his buckets of water ready, and after dumping one on himself, grabbed two others (again, this seemed a feat) and waddled across the stage with them to throw them out on the crowd.

On a screen at the back of the stage, digital light projectors showed animation suitable for his set list, and lighting effects gave the best show of the evening, which was kind of disappointing given the number of lights they had flown overhead.

When Ozzy stepped off Metallica came on and looking around the venue, tens of thousands of people could be seen covering the lawn and the stands all the way around the venue. We had heard that Metallica was going to play only songs from their forthcoming album, and if that was the case, riots were expected to break out. Much to our surprise, the band lead in with old favorites off of Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightening, Master of Puppets, And Justice For All, and Garage, Inc. They played all of two to three new songs (which weren’t met with an incredible amount of enthusiasm) before heading back into another strand of Metallica staples.

The set was a good one, however the lighting was such that it made for a really disappointing visual show. Rather than utilize the intelligent lights flown on the truss and the par’s and everything else, the production relied mostly on the digital projection, which had the effect of feeling as if one were watching tv. The crowd blinders stayed on virtually all of the time, any time the lights were dimmed to lead in a slow intro the mood was killed to early by the theatre-esque display, and really it was like one long MTV music video. Not a cool music video either.

While Ozzy had had suitable animation in the background (such as a skeleton piloting a train down a sinister and winding path during “Crazy Train,”) Metallica had no such effect. Rather the same monotonous camera angles blew up the band so large they appeared miniscule even from the front row.

Understandably, there were people a football field away who had paid to see this too, but they could have used lighting effects to make the band appear to be the largest thing on the stage and then put THAT on the projection. It was wholly disappointing, and as I might expect from a group of people watching a giant and very loud TV, the crowd was relatively inactive.
The set itself was amazing, however and Kirk Hammond appeared to be playing from his soul. Metallica, too ran over their projected time, treating fans to a stellar performance including a song with guest vocalist King Diamond.

All said and done, OZZfest 2008 was mediocre, and it will likely be the last one. There was far more energy coming off the two side stages than the main stage and they could have done more with the equipment available than they actually did. There was pyrotechnics, providing perhaps the most “rock show” feel effect-wise, but the rest I found to be lacking.
The artists, however put on spectacular performances for the most part; it is unfortunate that in the 100 degree sun, dehydration and all day ear-blasting the crowd didn’t have much to give back.