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 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.

Find the Blasphemy within the Blasphemy

The Best Week Ever blog pointed me this way, an item that interested me:

OSBOURNE DROPS A LOAD

May 30, 2007 -- LEAVE it to Ozzy Osbourne to label a ridiculous pop sensation like Sanjaya Malakar "a hairstyle-challenged idiot." An insider told Page Six Osbourne was confirmed to perform on last week's finale of "American Idol," but canceled at the last minute "when he learned he would have to do a duet with Sanjaya. Ozzie said he didn't want to be onstage with that idiot." Fox ended up pulling Steve Perry from Aerosmith to do the somewhat embarrassing duet with the artist with the gimmicky hair.....

Ok, so you didn't have to watch the finale of Idol to see the blasphemy here. Did anyone catch the significant typo here?

Look again - last I checked, Steven Tyler was the lead singer of Aerosmith and Joe Perry was on lead quitar. Steve Perry was the lead singer from Journey. Nice fact-checking, Post editors. But seriously, how much more vastly entertaining would a Sanjaya-Ozzy duet have been? But even the Prince of Darkness has standards.

Last Links for April

Well my injury (more on that later) hasn't impaired my ability to type. So, taking advantage of BillyBlog's most prolific month ever (this will be post #83, double that of last April), here are some links to send you out.

Good news for Warren Zevon fans (of which I am one). There's a new book, and a new double-disc commemorating his life. The New York Times review of the book here.


And the disc? Early, uncollected, unissued, rare tracks on Preludes. Click link to read the review on Amazon describing how this record was made.

Picked up 4 items at the library recently:

The Essential Ozzy Osbourne

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A.R. Ammons: Selected Poems

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On Earth: Last Poems and an Essay by Robert Creeley

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and most interesting, perhaps:

Part Asian, 100% Hapa Portraits by Kip Fulbeck

Check out Kip Fulbeck's website (click link above) and see these samples, and more:

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.