Putting the "zzzzzzzzz" into Ozzfest
By BARRY THOMPSON | September 1, 2010
"Vampires are bullshit. I'm the Prince of fucking Darkness," Ozzy Osbourne informed Kristen Stewart during a pop-culture-parody-montage video that segued into a kick-ass eruption of time-honored crowd pleasers. But if Ozzy Osbourne truly is the Fallen One made flesh, he should've used his wicked omnipotence to stop the deluge that made Ozzfest at the Comcast Center a week ago Tuesday a very soggy place. Perhaps the absence of blood sacrifices and sex rituals displeased him?
The main draws for Ozzfest 2010's six-date-long US tour — Ozzy, Mötley Crüe, and Rob Halford — ceased to be controversial or dangerous some time ago, and the audience reflected the band's temperance. Expectations raised by bygone Ozzfests went by the boards — this reporter witnessed no felonies, not even an energy-drink overdose. Instead, I saw a pair of pudgy suburban kids reuniting an elderly fellow with a wad of cash that had tumbled out of his pocket. Well played, gentlemen.
My ride couldn't get us to Mansfield till after the second stage's scheduled conclusion, and I was sad to miss somewhat-awesome thrash acts Goatwhore and Skeletonwitch. On the plus side, that meant I'd also missed Drowning Pool . . . or so I thought. Since the rain had put the kabosh on sets by that band and Black Label Society, Nonpoint invited their old pals Drowning Pool up to the main stage to play a couple of numbers. I don't understand why God hates me so much.
Can't knock Mötley Crüe, but isn't it odd how Nikki Sixx could pass for a Gypsy bag lady while 47-year-old Tommy Lee looks pretty much the same as he did in 1989? The drummer lamented the evening's dearth of visible boobies, whereupon 14 women lifted their shirts out of pity for Lee, the galaxy's only virgin rock star. Don't worry, Tommy. Someday, you'll meet the right girl.
Related:
The Big Hurt: Faces refaced, Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008, Various Artists | Panama! 3, More
- The Big Hurt: Faces refaced
Faces refaced, Spears speared, Hook hacked
- Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008
Trans Am are distillers of guilty pleasures, mixing fat AOR riffs with sleazy electronic accents and a propulsive attitude typically reserved for arcade soundtracks. What Day Is It Tonight? covers the DC-area band’s 20-year history with high-quality, high-energy live cuts taken from their many tours.
- Various Artists | Panama! 3
If you purchase a copy of Soundway’s wonderful Panama! 3 — and you should — you get two things for the price of one. First, this is a carefully curated CD of “Calypso Panameño, Guajira Jazz & Cumbia Típica on the Isthmus 1960-75” that will keep you smiling — and perhaps dancing — for a healthy while.
- The Big Hurt: Season's beatings
Taking advantage of your seasonal obligation to buy stuff for people, the music industry unleashes its annual torrent of giftable crap: holiday albums, greatest-hits packages, high-profile releases, deluxe reissues.
- Rihanna | Rated R
Look, it’s not as if there were a song where she says, “Chris Brown, you chicken-shit motherfucker, your ass is gonna pay.”
- The Rolling Stones | Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
This live 1969 Madison Square Garden set was released at the band's peak, following Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed , preceding Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street , and recorded a week before the disaster at Altamont.
- The Big Hurt: Lambert works it, 50 blows it, Moz ends it
ADAM LAMBERT 's spicy AMA performance continues to dominate entertainment headlines, weeks after it first scandalized the nation — but why does America care what a man does with another man in the secluded privacy of the American Music Awards?
- Winter warmers
Sure, some bands take the easy route and have album releases through the summer, enticing you to shows with back-patio barbecues and all-night rooftop after-parties. In January? Not so much.
- Beyond Dilla and Dipset
With a semi-sober face I'll claim that hip-hop in 2010 might deliver more than just posthumous Dilla discs, Dipset mixtapes, and a new ignoramus coke rapper whom critics pretend rhymes in triple-entendres.
- Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010
The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.
- Review: In Search of Beethoven
Phil Grabsky's exhaustive documentary doesn't exactly dispel any stereotypes about Beethoven's being a shaggy genius prone to rages.
- The Big Hurt: The decade ahead
As a new decade dawns, it's time to cast a curious eye toward the future.
- Less
Topics:
Live Reviews
, Entertainment, Music, Ozzy Osbourne, More
, Entertainment, Music, Ozzy Osbourne, Ozzy Osbourne, Nikki Sixx, Motley Crue, Motley Crue, drowning pool, drowning pool, Tommy Lee, Less