OZZFEST ...BLOODY OZZFEST

Was at Ozzfest on Sunday. We drove to Selma, TX, which is about an hour from here. Though the show starts at 8:00 AM, we left (due to a variety of reasons) only at 10:00 AM. The better bands don't go on stage till later, so we were hoping we hadn't missed anything special.

We got there around 11:00 AM and found to our utter disgust, that ARCH ENEMY was the first fuckin band on stage. Now, that's really crappy scheduling. These guys have atleast six records to their name and have been around for close to a decade. What' s more..they kick fuckin ass and their frontwoman growls and screeches like she dosen't give a shit about being alive for the next song. What probably worked against them is fact that they aren't an American band and don't play mainstream death/thrash metal. Consequently, they have to play before bands like Wicked Wisdom that have a following as big as the population of Corsicana, TX. And we thought atleast metal was free from politics....

Befoe this starts sounding like a mundane review, that millions can write.........

I love going to these concerts for two reasons. The first, of course, is the music. The second is the sheer intensity of it all. It's the closest that I have come to feeling like I was going to crash headlong into a wall. And, I don't fuckin care.... Living in a cocoon of security where life is reasonably orderly and people don't jump at us from out of the darkness with scythes in their hands, where we get to satisfy most of of our primal urges with a fair degree of convenience, it's the closest we can get to mayhem..albeit controlled.

When Rob Zombie belts out 'Living dead girl', when Soilwork performs 'As we speak we turn to stone', and I am up near the stage, close to the moshpit, headbanging away, the 100F sun is burning into my eyes, the guards are hosing me down with water , my neck hurts becase of the sprain from yesterday, I break my 100 buck Oakley glasses, ...Who gives a FUCK!!!!!!!....I swear to god, it is one of the most exhilirating experiences. To let yourself go.....

And the best part is that , rather anticlimactically , you can always snap back to reality, to the dull drab world where people seem to speak in hushed whispers, to a world where the word motherfucker draws not roars but gasps of dismay.

When the adrenalin stops pumping, it leaves you drained. But happy.....and relieved...because you have seen the hidden demon, not just in yourself but in the thousands around you.....and he's alive and kicking.

HAIL OZZY.......the ass-flasher from HELL!!!!