OzzFest

August 30, 2007
Sound Advice Amphitheatre

I flew down from Saint Augustine, FL to Fort Lauderdale, FL since it was much cheaper than flying directly to West Palm Beach, FL. G met me at the airport and we drove to West Palm Beach. We stopped at "Don Pan", an international bakery where we had cachitos, empandas, and arepas for breakfast.

Our friends Pat and Cindy Svatek met us at G's Mom's house in West Palm Beach and we piled into one car and drove to the Sound Advice Ampitheatre. We had put on a lot of sunblock because the day was hot and sunny. After checking out the vendors we headed over to the Second stage to watch In This Moment, Daath and 3 Inches Of Blood. Aside from In This Moment, nothing much was too noteworthy for that stage.

We then grabbed a bite to eat. We availed of the free hot dogs and soda after signing up to be designated drivers. G ate mine for me and I got a veggie wrap. It was $10 for the wrap and you could put as many toppings on it as you wanted. I made it huge. I could not eat it all, even G could not finish it for me.

Pat and Cindy then scoped out there place on the lawn and G and I headed into the assigned seating area under the roof. We had 2nd row seats right at the end. Great view of the entire stage.

Black Tide was good... whole bunch of high school kids. They sounded good, got the crowd going. They even brought out a bunch of freaks on their last song. Too funny!



Next came Lordi. It was like Gwar but set to 80's glam rock. G couldn't stop laughing. Too funny! And all the pyrotechnics and costumes were just too much.





Finally came Static-X. One of G's favorite this OzzFest. They played some songs from Wisconsin Death Trip. G was having a lot of fun singing along. At the end of their set, Wayne threw a whole bunch of his picks into the crowed. I dove to the ground and clawed my way to get a pick. It was purple... How perfect was that?!?!



Next up was Lamb Of God. Neither G nor I liked them very much. Glad when their set was over.



Then it was time for Ozzy. He started out a little rusty, but then the show picked up even though he did not move around the stage all that much. He played songs of the new record along with some great oldies, such as "Crazy Train" and "Howl At The Moon". Alongside musicians Zakk Wylde and Mike Bordin, the music couldn't have been any tighter.











The rain machine was working and then Ozzy would blast the crowd with foam. It was so much fun. He ended with G's favorite Black Sabbath song "Paranoid".



It was one great free-of-charge OzzFest.

Virgin Festival - Day 2

August 5, 2007
Pimlico Race Course

After yesterday's uncomfortableness with leaving the car at the Mondawmin station, we headed down to Inner Harbor and left our car at the parking lot next to Ram's Head Live. We then grabbed a quick lunch at Mondo Bondo at the Power Plant Live area and walked over to the Shot Tower stop. We caught the train to Rogers Avenue and then the shuttle bus to Pimlico.

Today we were swapping between the South stage and the North stage for the acts we wanted to see.

We arrived at the North Stage in time to catch Panic! At the Disco. They were good and they played their song "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", but otherwise G and I had not heard any of their songs.



We then headed over to the South Stage and caught the last of Bad Brains before sitting down and waiting for the Wu-Tang Clan. While we waited G went and got us both a slice of pizza.

When the Wu-Tang Clan came on we started to migrate to the left side of the stage before pushing our way forward as they rapped and every white person in the crowd would hold their hands up in a "W". By the time they were done we were right behind the rail. Once someone started to leave the rail, G put his hand on the rail while I push forward to grab it.

We then waited at the rail as they set up for the next show. And then there were a few women who felt compelled to flash their boobs and give the crowed a free show while we waited. Soon Slash walked onto the stage. And Velvet Revolver was playing. Wow. Scott Weiland was great, Slash and Duff played so great. They played a few songs from their first album, and a few from their new, Libertad, but they also played "Vasoline" from STP and "It's So Easy" from Guns 'n Roses. This along with The Police was my favorite show.

















Once they were done we pushed our way out of the crowd, made a quick latrine stop, and we headed over to the North Stage were we caught The Smashing Pumpkins already in action. They were great. They played a lot of songs off their Zeigist album, but they also played some older ones like "1979", "Disarm", "Today", "Tonight, Tonight" and Georg's favorite "Bullet with Butterfly Wings".



It was then time to catch the shuttle bus back to the subway station. This went a little better tonight. Seemed to have more buses a lot less pushing and shoving. There were no incidents on the way home, but we did again stop at Taco Bell for our midnight snack.

Virgin Festival - Day 1

August 4, 2007
Pimlico Race Course

After some pre-concert checking at the Virgin Festival website we determined that the easiest way to get to the site was to take the subway to the Rogers station and then catch the shuttle bus. Neither of us had taken the Baltimore subway before so did not know any of the stops. We went online and picked the first station with free car parking which happened to be Mondawmin. Following the directions we went through many seedy areas of town and ended up at the Mondawmin Mall. We parked the car and walked to the metro stop. G was a little uneasy about leaving his car there, but trying to find a different metro stop would have taken us quite a while.

So we took the subway two stops and got off at Rogers Ave. and took the shuttle bus. Once we arrived at Pimlico we could hear Fountains of Wayne playing in the background. Following the hoards we entered and walked over the horse race track before ended up in the center. There were two huge main stages, a few smaller ones, tents galore, lots of port-a-pottys, food vendors, and other booths. We consulted the lineup and planned our strategy. Luckily all the acts we wanted to catch were at the North Stage. We meandered over that way, checking out the booths along the way, and walked at close as we could to the stage. We then laid out our blanket and sat down with everyone else.

The first band we watched was Cheap Trick. Although they have grown quite old, they were still a lot of fun to watch. They played some newer songs along with some oldies such as "Surrender" and "I Want You To Want Me". I do love the 80s.



G then went a grabbed me a slice of pizza and a sausage sandwich for himself. We enjoyed it during the lull before the next artist.

Amy Winehouse then performed. I must say we were not impressed. She sang with no emotion, kinda like she did not want to be there. She also looked very skinny and was missing a tooth. Would not recommend her at all. Then Incubus came on. I enjoyed them, although G was not very impressed. As the crowd was get more rowdy we had to pick up our blanket.

We then started to move forward in the crowd. Once Incubus was complete and people started leaving we made a solid push and ended up right at the rail. Want to preplan to be front row for the final acts even though the heat was more stifling without any breeze. (Found out the heat index was over 100).

We then watch Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. They were okay. G liked them more than I did. I felt he was just trying too hard and way too political.

The hoards of people there was insane. G picked me up and I could not see the end of the crowd. It was so cool.



Then it was time for the Beastie Boys. Boy did they rock. They were so much fun to watch and they played many for over an hour. They played "Criminal", "Heart Attack Man", "Sure Shot", "Intergalactic" and Georg's favorite "Sabotage" as the encore. The crowd surfers were fun to watch, although many of the spectators were not drinking enough and had to be pulled out with heat stroke.

Finally, the Police came on. Wow talk about amazing and front row. Sting is so skinny. They played so many of their songs including "Roxanne", "King of Pain", and "Message in a Bottle". The hoards of people there was insane. G picked me up again and I could not see the end of the crowd. It was so cool.



We then walked out with the hoards to catch the shuttle buses. Once there we waited and waited to get on a bus. There was a lot of shoving and pushing. And there were not enough buses. Finally we caught one and made it back to the subway station where we waited for our train. We then head back to the car, which was safe and it was great that G had parked underneath a light. Just felt a little safer. We then drove home making one quick stop at Taco Bell for food and WaWa to use the restroom.