Tattoosday #4: Ozzfest Edition

Well I had this all worked out. This week's Tattoosday was going to kick butt. I went to Ozzfest last Thursday and figured it would be a piece of cake to get a cavalcade of awesome tattoo shots. Hmmm.

One problem: I'm a dork. Going up to people twenty years younger than me and asking them if I can take pictures of their tattoos for my blog, Sephora and I agreed, would be the pinnacle of dorkiness. Not quite, we later acknowledged, when we saw a young metalhead going to his seat with his mother, who looked like she was there to chaperone, rather than enjoy the show.

The scale of body art was unfathomable. I imagined I would see an incredible range of tattoos, and I was not disappointed. We arrived around 3:30, and I decided around 5:00 that most of my tattoo shots would be candids, without the hosts knowing they were being photographed.

Here are some of the folks I shot whose tattoos didn't come out so well:







Snap enough random pictures of passers-by, and you'll get a few good candid shots:



A closer view reveals a pretty nice "Don't Tread on Me" tattoo:


But ultimately, I did get some fairly nice pictures, especially of one back piece after the concert when everyone was reeling homeward.

First, there was this cool tattoo from someone sitting a few rows ahead of me:


Then, there was this one on the shoulder of someone sitting a few seats over from me:

The detail and coloring of this Aztec piece is quite impressive:


There were so many amazing back pieces and sleeves that it would have been impossible to catch them all. As mentioned before, this guy was ahead of me as we exited after the show. The eyes are amazing. Not anything I would do myself, but still a bit awe-inspiring. Note his friends Misfits tattoo on the right:


I can only assume that Allgaier is his last name.

Ultimately, though, I really missed the Tattoosday theme, which is to get back story on the pieces I photograph. Wouldn't you like to know who this guy is? And why did he do his back like this? How long did it take? Whose eyes are those? And is Allgaier really his last name?

For those shortcomings, I offer my heartfelt apologies. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this week's edition of Tattoosday.

Ozzfest Recovery

Well, I have seen it, and it was good.

Ozzfest came and went in New Jersey and the impact was significant. First and foremost, unfortunately the concert brought about changes to New Jersey Law as PNC Bank Arts Center will no longer allow people to consume alcoholic beverages in the parking areas (so now people will drink off site and drive while intoxicated to the events). This after two deaths (!) and 83 arrests (New York Times report here, review of the show here). Another report here, without the hassle of NYT-registration or archival time constraints). There's a WNBC news report here (note the YouTube clip from the Hatebreed set).

Yours truly is fine, my recovery was of the sleep-pattern-disruption kind. I saw no more chaos than any other metal show. There are always knuckleheads that will get arrested. As for the two deaths, it is unfortunate that these two twenty-somethings passed. The news reports that cocaine/marijuana/alcohol trifectas caused their bodies to shut down (although the CBS affiliate here reported it was caffeine, not cocaine, I'm guessing errantly). The extreme heat and humidity most likely contributed as well. The crowd was estimated to be over 17,000. I would always point out that rock concerts are statistically safer than driving on the freeway/throughway/turnpike/expressway, etc.

Anyway, after the show ended, it took me 3 hours and 45 minutes to get home.....PNC shuttle to NJ Transit to Penn Station to the D train to the N train to the R shuttle.

Another funny small world story, today I was walking down my block and saw a dude that was on the train down to Holmdel with us, and on the shuttle to PNC. The guy lives across the street from me. Wow.

Here are some clips of Ozzy Osbourne's performance:

First, my capture of the tail end of "War Pigs":



I'd have to say seeing guitarist Zakk Wylde was the highlight of the show, especially his guitar solo:



Here's another part of the same solo, with Zakk doing the Star-Spangled Banner:



"Mr. Crowley":

The Ozzman cometh!

He opened with "Bark at the Moon".

Ozzfest and Lamb of God

Lamb of God just performed "Walk with Me in Hell". They have to be the heaviest band I have ever seen. Holy cr


Update: Here's a self-portrait during Lamb of God. It may look blurry, but that is how my innards felt....


Here's a clip I took from Lamb of God. Thank heavens I used my earplugs after the Static-X set!

Static-X

Has tons of fans here. Now doing their song "Cold" from the Queen of the Damned soundtrack......

Here's another clip, performing "I'm With Stupid":

Ozzfest Update: Static-X

Static-X has taken the stage, much to the delight of all the Lordi-haters. During Lordi's finale of "Hard Rock Hallelujah!", a woman sat down 3 rows in front of me with a New York Yankees tattoo on her back.

"Hmmm. I think I recognize that tattoo. Well, hey, Melanie's cousin Beth is here!" As David Lee Roth once told me, "Small f@cking world, ain't it?"

Wow. Static-X is making my ears bleed.

Here's them performing "Cannibal":




Here's a sample from my camera:

Ozzfest update: more Lordi

Lead singer is holding a smoking skull while they perform "They Only Come Out at Night"!

Ozzfest Update - Lordi!

Lordi has taken the main stage. They opened with their anthem "Bringing Back the Balls to Rock".

These guys are nuts. KISS meets GWAR, with a little dash of ABBA.

They were decent seats, but here's some more detail:






Lordi's definitely big on pyrotechnics.

Here's a short YouTube clip of them performing "Who's Your Daddy?":

Ozzfest Update #2 (Hatebreed)

Currently watching Hatebreed shred the 2nd stage.....

Update, here's a taste:



(This is the clip making all the news shows)

Ozzfest Update #1

My brilliant idea to bring a 3-liter jug of water seems not so bright in hindsight after the cap to the bottle was confiscated at the gate.

Think about that for a second.

There's a guy with a giant albino boa filling a tub with water.

Too many tattoos to shake a camera at.

Today is Ozzfest !

Today is Ozzfest! Why this is cool:

1) I am 40 and going to a free metal concert
2) I'll get to see Lordi
3) I'll get to see Zakk Wylde on guitar with Ozzy
4) Expect some live-blogging from the venue
5) Can you say "Tattoosday: Ozzfest Edition"?

Why this is uncool:

1) Despite weather-watching all week, it looked like we'd have decent weather. This morning I checked the Weather Channel, and we're looking at 40-50% chance of strong to moderate thunderstorms from 4pm to 12 am today. At least the PNC Bank Arts Center is indoors. Oh, wait....

Ozzfest 2007 - Success!

For the mere cost of the new Ozzy CD Black Rain, I snagged a code for the pre-sale of my free tickets to Ozzfest on Thursday, August 16, 2007. Honestly, when I blogged about it back in February here, I didn't necessarily think I'd get tickets. But lo, and behold, I did, and much to my joy, I scored a pair of seats tonight!


I'm up in Loge (Green Section) 303! Free!

Now: the Reality.

I'm going to be 40 in less than a month, and I'm going to be among Spring chickens. I will be able to tell a lot of people in the audience that I saw Metallica open for Ozzy in 1988, before some of the concert-goers were born.

And here are the bands performing, but the four main stage performers are Lordi, Static X, Lamb of God, and Ozzy. I am excited at the prospect that Zakk Wylde may be playing lead guitar with Ozzy (he plays on the new album).

The second stage features bands I have heard of, but am not familiar with.

Needless to say: BillyBlog will be there to report all that transpires. If I survive.

FreeFest 2007

An announcement was made Tuesday that Ozzfest 2007 will be free. Read on:

OZZFEST 2007...FOR FREE

GROUNDBREAKING ANNOUNCEMENT
PULLS PLUG ON TICKET PRICES

"This will change everybody’s impression of the way touring in the summer in America should be."--Sharon Osbourne

Imagine a day of wall-to-wall hard rock.

Imagine the world's greatest headliner sharing a bill with cutting edge new artists.

Imagine if this brass-knuckled beast was hellbent on coming to your town.

Imagine this earth-pounding event...FOR FREE.

2007 will forever mark the year OZZFEST spiked the concert industry's punch and gave every head-banging American kid a reason to strap on an air guitar with the historic announcement that tickets to the summer’s premiere touring concert festival won't cost fans a dime.

Testing one, two, three...

That's right, OZZY and SHARON OSBOURNE and tour producer LIVE NATION broke the news today at the Concert Industry Consortium in Los Angeles that their 12th annual hard rock spectacular--a 25-date extravaganza launching July 7 in Los Angeles--is pulling the plug on ticket prices and giving the power back to the fans calling this summer’s OZZFEST "FreeFest." The other OZZFEST cities as of now are San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, St Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Hartford, Charlotte, Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Nashville. Note: a final confirmed list of cities and dates is forthcoming.

"For the last few years," says SHARON, "ticket prices have steadily climbed as artists demand more and more money for summer tours. We certainly want everybody to make money, however we also want the kids to be able to afford to come out and have an incredible experience. If we continued with the traditional touring festival model, we would have no choice but to raise ticket prices again this year."

Read the whole press release here.

Note that the dates listed are from 2006, not the current line-up and schedule.

More info will be forthcoming.