Ozzfest

Ozzfest was yesterday, and it was a total blast. It is now the next morning, and I am working on about 2.5 hours of sleep. Hopefully I can stay awake through church service this morning.

I went with my daughter and a bunch of her friends. The tickets were a gift to her for her birthday. I have a few observations on metal shows.

• Guttural Screaming - It seems that with a few exceptions, "singing" in modern metal bands have devolved into a bunch of guttural screaming and growling, resulting in a bunch of bands whose singers a.) can't convey any emotion other than anger and b.) all sound the same. Not very original. The bands on the second stage were almost all "screamers and growlers". About the only stand-outs were Ozzy, Black Label Society, and Bad Acid Trip. The main stage was much, much better.


• Drunken Idiots - When I was a kid, I found drunken idiots to be amusing. Then there was a long stretch of time when I was a drunken idiot. Now, I just find them to be annoying. For the main stage show, we were mostly surrounded by pretty cool people, but there were a few... The second stage crowd was more interested in moshing than drinking, so there wasn't really a problem there.


• Hills - Alpine Valley is one big hill, and standing on a step include for 6 hours hurts these old feet and legs


• Ozzy - Man, Ozzy is really getting old. I already new that, but seeing him on the intimate venue that was the second stage, especially right after all of the young, energetic bands, you can really tell just how old he is getting.

Well, that just sounded like a bunch of complaining, but really, it was a great time. We saw a lot of cool bands (I just wish they were a little more original on to vocals), and now I am just going to go to church, mow the lawn, and relax.