Sunday, August 2, 2009

I'm Still Trying to Dry My Shoes


I know this is arriving a few days late, but it is definitely worth talking about. I am referring to the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival 2009 at the Toyota Pavilion this past week. And what a show it was.

For most of the first half of the day, the rain held off. A drizzle here and there was all we heard from mother nature while the Jägermeister and Hot Topic bands opened things up and gave us a good preemptive thrashing before the main acts took the stage.

It should be mentioned that those responsible for running Mayhem Festival this year had the show perfectly structured, with various acts alternating play between the Jägermeister and Hot Topic stages, ensuring that each band could be seen individually.

WhiteChapel opened things up on the hot Topic Stage, waking everyone up by blasting out a set to the masses in a light drizzle. Then, newcomers XFactor1 did a good job of keeping the head-banging going with a great set. The Black Dahlia Murder kept things going and kept the crowd involved, and then the bigger acts took the stage. GodForbid took to the stage and thrashed us apart with a great set featuring both new and old songs that really had the mosh pits going nuts! After that, Job for a Cowboy kicked us in the teeth with the heaviest metalcore they could throw at us.

After JFAC got of stage, the rain really started to come down. As the torrents whipped the crowds, All That Remains got to the stage, where lead singer Philip Labonte addressed the crowd by saying: "Do you care that it's f***ing raining?!" Needless to say, the crowds responded by creating a massive mosh pit while ATR tore it up.

Behemoth was more than a little frightening and overly entertaining as the monsoon continued to drench the concert patrons. Trivium then came out and put on one hell of a set, and Cannibal Corpse finished up the opening acts with an awesome performance, but by this time most of the concert-goers had made their way up the hill to the cover of the Pavilion, since it was like a Hurricane out in the open.

Bullet for My Valentine opened things up on the main stage within the Pavilion which had everyone going crazy. Then, on came Killswitch Engage who, in my opinion, stole the show. Mosh pits where everywhere (including a wall of death) and there were more people crowd-surfing than there were standing on the ground.

At last, Slayer come on-stage, and put on one of the best performances I have ever seen. They gave a sneak peak of their upcoming album, and finished things off with "Raining Blood". It was the loudest thing I had ever heard in all my life, and Slayer thrashed the crowds so hard that my back hurt afterward. They actually caused physical injury simply by playing. Awesome!

At the end of the night, Marilyn Manson finished things off with a performance that vaguely resembled Cirque de Soleil...on acid.

Overall, the show was unbelievable in its scope. And although it poured on us, the rain definitely added something to the intensity of the day. Rain or shine, it will be well worth it to be there next year!

1 comment:

  1. cirque de soile on acid....crisco you just made my fucking night! LMGDAO...(btw thanks for trying to get me up by you and coming to chill in the pit for a bit i miss your crazy ass=D)

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